Want something cheerful to think about as you’re pouring $40 or $50 worth of gasoline in your tank? Imagine a scene that might not be all that far in the future.
You’re driving down the road and pass a gas station. They are still there and still selling the gasoline that’s been used to fuel vehicles for more than a century. But they seem increasingly outmoded, like video stores were once Netflix arrived, and then when streaming brought movie libraries straight into our homes. You can glance over at those gas stations and ponder how often you had to stop at them and how much you had to pay because you don’t have to do that anymore — you’re driving an electric vehicle.
As gasoline prices have soared past $4 per gallon in recent weeks due to increased demand and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, news reports have indicated many Americans have decided that now is the time to invest in an electric vehicle. Even with an increase in the number of purchasers, the slice of the market taken up by electric vehicles will likely remain relatively small, at least over the next couple of years. But the day when electric vehicles are the kings of the road is going to be here, and relatively soon.
Last year, Chrysler, General Motors and Ford all said they were aiming to have electric vehicles make up half their sales by 2030. Whether that happens in just eight years remains to be seen, but electric vehicles replacing the gas-burning variety seems inevitable. And as the marketplace for electric vehicles gathers steam, it will generate jobs. Plans to build a battery factory in West Virginia were announced last month, and on Tuesday, a manufacturer of electric vehicles and batteries revealed it would be investing $4 billion in a facility in North Carolina and would be creating more than 7,000 jobs as a result.
Also, electric vehicles will be better for the environment and our health. On Wednesday, the American Lung Association released a report stating that zero-emission vehicles would save the lives of close to 8,000 Pennsylvania residents each year, and would generate $86.8 billion in public health benefits. There would be close to 150,000 asthma attacks avoided and 735,000 fewer lost days from work. The association ranked the Pittsburgh metro region as the 15th in the country that would benefit most from the transition to electric vehicles.
Of course, fewer gas-burning vehicles on the road will also help heal the climate of the only planet we’ve got.
Not surprisingly, there is some resistance to electric vehicles, but there were probably many people who were unwilling to part with their buggies and hang up their manure shovels in the early part of the 20th century. But electric vehicles are coming, and we’d be wiser to adapt to — and welcome — this change, rather than fight it.
