The Disappearance of Low- and Medium-Speed Electric Vehicles

In response to my piece on the lack-luster adoption curve for electric vehicles, a commenter who’s been with us for over five years writes:  Not all of us, perhaps, but if someone could build something that was electric instead of gas, with a top speed of 50mph and a range of 50 miles (for example), I could drive it to work, charge it with solar panels during the day, and drive home.  A tiny basic vehicle – enough lights and brakes to make it safe, big enough to hold two uncomfortably – just “transportation.”

There are (at least “were”) dozens of attempts at LSEVs (low-speed electric vehicles) and MSEVs.  They failed, as they really had nothing to offer that people wanted.  Yes, they were inexpensive, but in the $8K – $12K price range, they bumped into the cheap garbage offered by GM, etc.  Meanwhile, they were slow, tiny, dangerous, inconvenient, uncomfortable, cheap in every conceivable meaning of the word, cold in winter, hot in summer, and a total embarrassment to their (very few) owners.

Putting it kindly, that’s not what makes an automotive breakthrough.

There is a path to electric transportation, but it doesn’t reside in self-denial; Tesla has shown that.  Even the idiot self-adoring Ferrari owners who paid five or ten times the price of a Tesla don’t mess with a Model S in terms of raw acceleration.  The prices of this and all EVs are coming down, but the inescapable glory of electric transportation, i.e., maximum torque at zero RPMs, will never go away.

And speaking of Ferarris:  Though I’ve had the good fortune to have met a preponderance of fine, decent people, I’ve also known a considerable number of crass, shallow d*****-bags in my day.  But I’ve never met anyone who wanted so badly to say “nouveau riche” and “lack of class” that they wish to be seen in anything like the auto-obscenities pictured here.

The cars and their revolting owners are on their way out.  Stick with this trend for a few years, and you’ll see that I’m right here.