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From The Mobilist Inbox This Week
EV charging, the Return of LFP, and the Lancia Fulvia
Each Wednesday, The Mobilist highlights reader articles on Medium, comments, and updates.
The future of charging prices: Last week, I wrote that charging your electric vehicle is cheap now, but that in a few years’ time, it won’t be. Once EVs achieve cost parity with gasoline-propelled vehicles, likely about mid-decade, I argued, the clock will start ticking for cheap electricity. Eventually, you’ll be paying the equivalent of a gasoline fill-up. I invoked the rule of hamburgers to explain why. If you want to know what that is, read the piece.
I got massive pushback. Among those disputing the thesis was Chris Nelder, a friend and manager of carbon-free mobility at the Rocky Mountain Institute. “I have not heard this theory that [charging costs] could rise to be competitive with gasoline until I read your article, and I don’t buy it,” Nelder emailed to say and recommended this episode from his podcast (which I also highly recommend). “Pricing for public charging is driven by the costs incurred by charging network operators and by what the market will bear, with a deliberate effort to undercut the price of gasoline.”
Is LFP back? The lithium-iron-phosphate cathode was invented in 1996 — where else? — in the lab of John…
