TO THE EDITOR:
Dealers are correct to worry about EV hype (editorial, Feb. 8), mainly because those doing the hyping don't understand how to promote a U.S. transition to an EV age. From range anxiety to an insufficiency of charging outlets to the cost of tripling the size of the U.S. power grid, dealers are also about to be flooded with new EV makes and models whose makers expect the dealers to overcome all the flaws.
With this proliferation of models and model names, consumers find each brand peddling models that to succeed must beggar the demand for a sister model or make. Remember Alero, Aurora, Citation, Lumina and Aztek? All were GM model names cast aside, often before buyers fully paid.
In 2017, I outlined in Automotive News what is needed to ensure an EV age meets expectations — my estimate then was 25 percent of U.S. sales by 2030. Charging outlets at an 80-to-gas-pumps ratio not including the grid upgrade expense — all paid upfront, by 2025. Revised cost in 2021 dollars: $1 trillion for the outlets.
Each dealership needs four charging units — $10,000 each — plus at least one off-site, likely at a gas station. If makers don't pay to do this now, with the usual bureaucratic sludge of the government, the EV age is dead.
Dealers might consider forming a national utility to achieve what governments talk about doing but never do.
NORMAN HIGBY, President, WMP Forecasts, Menlo Park, Calif.
