The Expert Podcast

Are gasoline and diesel vehicles basically a thing of the past? Even though you see them on the road—you probably have one—it may be that it's a foregone conclusion that these vehicles will exist in the future. The manufacturer and sale of these vehicles might be past the point of no return if you believe some of the news that's come out recently for the development of electric vehicles.

The article from Adventure Rider, Goodbye ICE (which stands for internal combustion engine), states that Europeans have killed off internal combustion vehicles. Mark it on your calendar—according to the article, the 29th of June marks the beginning of the end. They banned sales of new cars and vans powered by gasoline and diesel engines, and soon, they’re going to add motorcycles.

Here’s the thing—this might only be in Europe, but manufacturers have to have a global market for their products. If major markets ban vehicles, that's going to reduce the volume of their sales to the point where they can't build them at all. So if the EU bans them, California bans them, and some other states like Washington State ban them, that might be enough of a tipping point in erosion of the market to where the vehicles aren't profitable to be built by manufacturers.

And this is an important thing because people rely on vehicles for transportation. We'll talk quickly about the advertised range and whether or not you can count on that. But before we do, think about this story—you may have seen it if you watched the movie The Hunt for Red October. The character Ramius, who was the captain of the ship, talked about a story of an explorer, Cortez, who sailed from Europe to South America.

Cortez had an exploration party that was going to explore and develop an expedition for the New World. When they landed somewhere in South America, these were people from Europe—used to creature comforts, homes, and security. Now, they were in a jungle with wild animals and native people who didn’t want them there. It was going to be a hard battle. I'm sure a lot of them thought about going back to Europe because it was too difficult—living under trees with snakes, lions, and tigers.

So what did Cortez do? In the middle of the night, he burned all the ships that took them from Europe to the New World. That sent a clear message to the explorers: We’re not going back. It made it impossible to return to the old way of living. This may be what’s happening with electric vehicles.

The banning of vehicles in large markets could be like Cortez burning the ships. We’re not going back to internal combustion vehicles—whether you like it or not, whether it turns out better or not. We’re stuck with this. We’re committed to electric vehicles, whether it’s through regulation, government action, or policy. This could be the Cortez “burning of the ships” moment for combustion vehicles. And as a consumer, it's important to know that this is happening and what you’re getting into.

Because as a consumer, you need to get to certain places with your vehicle. Those places are a certain distance from your house, your job, maybe a vacation spot. You rely on the range of that vehicle to get there. The reason why the range of an electric vehicle is so important—whereas it’s not as much of an issue for gasoline vehicles—is because with a gasoline vehicle, you can stop and top off your tank almost anywhere in five minutes or less.

Wherever you're driving in most places, you’re not more than five or ten minutes from a gas station. And it doesn’t take more than five minutes to fill up. So range isn’t really an issue—it’s just an inconvenience because you have to stop for gas. But with electric vehicles, you're always in a “rural area” when it comes to charging stations. Charging stations aren’t on every corner like gas stations.

In fact, gasoline stations are on almost every major intersection—some have them on all four corners. Not so with electric charging stations. And the range is much less. If you fill up an 18-gallon tank with gas and get 25 miles per gallon, you have almost 500 miles of range before hitting empty. And you can refill another 500 miles just as fast.

What about electric? Most electric vehicles have maybe 200 miles of range—less than half. In fact, according to some articles, the electric vehicle range might not be accurate. Buyers should take advertised electric ranges with a grain of salt. Research found that distances averaged almost a fifth lower. They tested 60 vehicles, and while the advertised range was 238 miles, the real average was only 192—less than 200 miles.

And these are vehicles that, in the UK, will soon be the only option due to gas vehicle bans. So you need to prepare for that. If your lifestyle depends on having a 500-mile range vehicle that you can fill up in minutes, now you’ll have a 192-mile range vehicle that takes an hour, two, or even four hours to charge.

Tell us what your thoughts are on this. Do you think internal combustion engines have a chance of survival? Will they still be available? What happens if there isn’t enough electricity to charge all these vehicles? Is electric vehicle sales and marketing the future of this country, or just a passing trend? And most importantly—do you want one?