Mining and mineral refining operations — such as semiconductor fabrication plants — can take years to set up. Disconnects in the investment horizons are bound to create market imbalances.
Work is needed on clean generation of electricity, secure transmission throughout the country and reliable distribution in all the places consumers expect to find it.
While EVs are mechanically simpler than those powered by internal combustion engines, they don’t yet seem to be simpler to execute. In J.D. Power’s recent Initial Quality Study, owners of new ICE vehicles reported 175 problems per 100 vehicles, or as I like to think of it: 1.75 problems per vehicle. Plug-in hybrids and non-Tesla EVs had more like 2.4 problems per vehicle. (Teslas, by the way, scored marginally better than other EVs.)
If EVs were a brand unto themselves, they would be in the bottom five for new-car quality.
Not surprisingly, EVs have also been prone to recalls and stop-sale warnings, including every one of Toyota’s only current electric nameplate, the bZ4X, and almost 50,000 Ford Mustang Mach-Es.
But these are small detours in the long road to 2030 and beyond.