Some EVs are so heavy, due to their batteries, that parking garages might be able to hold many of the heavy EVs. (Whether this is an issue depends entirely on the mix of vehicles in the garage – some ICE SUVs are very heavy too.)
Similarly, there are questions as to whether all bridges will be able to accommodate a full load of EV cars and trucks. (Again, this depends on the mix of vehicles – some of the biggest EVs are very heavy and if they became common, this could be an issue. An ICE Hummer weighs between 5,000 and 8,000 pounds while the Hummer EV weighs over 9,000 pounds. The EV Ford F-150 weighs 6,200 to 6,500 pounds depending on battery capacity, and the ICE version weighs 4,000 to 4,200 pounds).
Weight changes the dynamics of impacts with pedestrians and bicyclists – even slow speed crashes may be worse.
EVs, their lifetime emissions, and infrastructure issues are problems to be solved.
Source: The electric vehicle dream has turned into a nightmare
Today we drove from a small town on the west side of the state, after visiting our daughter and her husband at their home. We towed our Scamp 16 trailer (small, light) and stayed in that while visiting. Even though the trip back is just 125 miles, we go up from near sea level to cross a 5,000 foot mountain pass (in snow today) before reaching our house. In our Ford Escape, we used 3/4 tank of gas on this uphill climb with a trailer. Normally we get about 30 mpg, but on this mountain climb with a trailer, we fall to perhaps 16-17 mpg.
EVs have the same issue – their rated distance between charges may cut in half when towing even a small trailer, not including the effect of towing one uphill. (The Scamp 16 is small – 16 feet from the tow hitch connection to the back of the trailer – the trailer part is about 13 feet long – this is a small trailer – not one of the giant trailers you see everywhere.)
A nice feature of the Scamp is that it can be towed with small vehicles. At this time, only a few announced $80,000 – $100,000 pickup trucks have the range and capability to tow this small trailer over the mountain. (We originally paid about $26k for the Ford Escape, by comparison.)
Why not just stop and charge? Because there is only one charge station, level 2, along the route and due to the very rural area it we may not see much charging infrastructure here. If we had an EV, we might have to unhitch the trailer (some EVs have the charge port in back, not the front), and park for a long time. This will not be seen as practical, and we do not yet have solutions. Spending 2x to 4x for a compatible EV and then having to stop and charge is not a good sales pitch!
Much work still needs to be done to deliver the right features at the right price points. Hopefully we will get there!
