| Regardless of any environmental reasons, lower maintenance costs, better performance, and ride improvements; for most Californians who buy passenger cars, electric cars mitigate personal risks of potential petroleum shortages and price spikes caused by geopolitical conflict. I have no control over oil crises' in Saudia Arabia; and what it does to our gas prices. Neither does California. The president can and will release more oil from our national reserve to alleviate any potential supply instability; but it won't make the price of gas tomorrow be any less unpredictable. I can, however, raise my concerns with the California Public Utilities Commission about how unhappy I am with any electric rate hikes. People are appointed to the commission by the governor. The governor is still elected by the people. We may not be able to easily import U.S. crude into California; but any power plant in the Western interconnection can sell electricity to California over high voltage transmission lines. Buying an electric car means more money upfront, though it removes the risk out of car ownership and makes costs predictable. If a disruption of production or distribution causes a major spike in oil prices, or a long term shortage - consumers will certainly change habits. Most drivers will just pay a higher gas price; some will have to cut in other areas. Few drivers won't have to make any changes at all. If anything, we can realize incidents like this are a good wake-up call that our reliance on gasoline is dependent upon a fragile system. It just doesn't seem wise to commit to a petroleum lock-in for years. They can charge whatever the market dictates; and lack any oversight by the CPUC. Long range EVs are now the norm. A new Tesla can be bought for under $40k. Many other EV manufacturers still have plenty of time before their Federal consumer tax credits expire - such as Volkswagen, Hyundai, Jaguar, and many others. A used 2017 Chevrolet Bolt with years left on the powertrain warranty costs less than $20K. Even if the federal rebate has ended for a manufacturer, California still offers an additional $2500 state rebate, HOV Carpool Access decals; and PG&E has a $900 rebate for new battery plug in cars. The cost to operate is low even conpared to lower gas prices. My car (a Bolt EV) costs about $0.12 a kW to charge overnight at home and I don't foresee that rate changing soon. It equates to about $0.035 - $0.04 cents a mile. Prior to installing an outlet at home, fast charging while at whole foods once a week did just fine for my needs. This will not change the mind of people who have the "I don't wanna stop on my way to LA" mindset. Sure, nobody wants to stop for a $6 recharge at any one of several dozen DC Fast chargers between SF and LA for 30-45 minutes of time. The point is that's at least predictable, readily available, and repeatable at a similar lower cost; for years to come. How often do they make that journey anyways? To me, these are minor reasonable tradeoffs when considering how many times a driver stops for gas in a month while commuting in their area, combined with how much control that driver has over avoiding a conflict between two geopolitical foes in the Mideast - electric is a good way to mitigate the risk of buying a car. What does the petroleum energy sector look like in the future? Hard to say. |