Electric cars are back in popularity after a long gap and most of the car drivers would prefer this type of vehicles to gasoline-powered cars because of soaring prices of fuel and oil, provided all other aspects, such as price, running and maintenance expenses and operating efficiencies between the two types of vehicles are the same.
The following are 3 ways that can stimulate the demand for electric cars and promote consumer car industry. Another option to boost the growth is to persuade consumers to compare the rates for car insurance from the different websites in order to get reasonable rates of premium.
1) Improvements in Technology
There is not much scope in this area as improvements cannot be brought about overnight. Although electric car manufacturers are working on the technological aspects to improve performance of electric car, reducing the cost of production and make charging of batteries more convenient, there is not much success in this area as the present day technology, electric car batteries are still lagging behind.
Rapid developments in electric car technology will, naturally, result in substantial reduction in costs. Nevertheless, the pace of technological developments is picking up to enhance the running efficiencies of electric cars and make them more convenient to use.
The latest advances include the facility to recharge the car with the help of normal household electrical energy sources. The ability to recharge an electric car fast without any hassles at home at the end of each journey, in effect, leads to a two-fold increase in driving distance.
Though these are favorable developments, they do not mean much in motivating more people to switch over from gasoline-powered cars to electric cars these days. In order to support the growth of electric car industry and encourage more people to use electric cars, government is initiating several strategies.
2) Government Incentives
Firstly, by permitting lone passenger use of carpool lanes, the people may be enthused to change to electric cars. Motorists, by using the carpool lane can save considerable time, while commuting on the highways.
Though this would encourage new electric car drivers, its benefit is restricted to only those who travel short distances because at present, all electric vehicles can be driven only for short distances per charge.
Secondly, toll discounts are another area of incentives that could motivate more people to own electric cars. Similar to carpool lanes, toll roads are generally more convenient than standard lanes as it decreases travel time to a great extent. The toll discounts would result in immediate, measurable monetary benefits over a non-electric car.
In certain regions use or avoiding of toll roads is inherent in planning the well-organized travel route. Much of the possible savings in petroleum by extensive switchover to electric cars will be felt by large number of motorists who drive in big cities.
For such places, the single largest incentive, which is nearly as good as a direct subsidy, would be a discount on parking fees. For those working in big cities, parking a vehicle can be as expensive as owning the vehicle itself.
3) Discount On Parking
A heavy parking discount for electric cars would translate into large-scale change to electric cars for those who commute and park vehicles within the city. Progressive governments in cities are considering seriously implementing the concept of introducing parking discounts.
Though it means a slight dip in revenues for the city, this incentive would benefit large number of electric car population and encourage more people to convert their gasoline cars to electric cars. The performance and the costs between internal combustion vehicles and electric vehicles would continue to narrow down with rapid technological advances.
Ultimately, these developments together with soaring fuel costs will solidly tilt the scales towards electric cars. In order to see that this happens, incentives, like free parking will go a long way in encouraging more people to switch over without being compelled to pay more for polluting the environment by using gasoline-powered car.