Gasoline Engines Vs Coal-Powered EVs -- The Wall Street Journal

From the print edition of the WSJ: engineers cast wary eye on role of electrics (no link; from the print edition, but googling will probably get you to it).

Data points:

• from a recent technology meeting in Detroit
• senior auto executives offered a sharply skeptical view of EVs -- suggesting they will play a marginal role in the US market
• will most likely remain confined to less than 10% of the market through 2025
• "By 2025, we wee battery electric vehicles still with too long a payback, and inadequate range," attributed to vice president for powertrain engineering at Ford Motor.
• GM chartist: comparing the amount of energy delivered by a given volume or mas of fuel -- lithium-ion batteries -- used by the Chevy Volt -- were ranked close to zero compared with gasoline and diesel fuels, which delivered the most energy for the least amount of weight and cost to the consumer

Chrysler data points:

• conventional, gasoline-fueled internal combustion engine and transmission: 10% of cost of a $30,000 car, or about $3,000
• Ford said the battery for the electric Ford Focus  cost $12,000 to $15,000 for a car that is priced at about $40,000, about $15,000 more than a petroleum-fueled Focus

Honda data point:

• by 2025, a customer buying a plug-in hybrid could wait 10 years to recover the added upfront costs compared to a 2025 conventional engine

Other data points:

• automobile executive focused on meeting new CAFE standards (54.4 mpg by 2025)

Two comments:

• they are still talking about lithium batteries; newer technology could change batteries
• the niche for EVs will likely grow, albeit a small niche