In a recent Capital Letter, I wrote this on the topic of the current “forced” (the degree of coercion varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction) switch to electric vehicles (EVs):
A willful determination to enforce a transformation on this scale, regardless of what markets signal, consumers want, and manufacturers can produce, is an invitation to disaster.
The creation of a mass market for EVs in the West was never going to be straightforward, which is why it would have been better to let one develop naturally (or even with a little government help here and there: it’s not unknown for government to play some role in the development of innovative technologies). Instead, Western governments have embarked on a rushed transformation away from the internal-combustion engine without taking much heed of the consequences other than so far as the climate is concerned. (And switching to EVs won’t make too much difference to the climate in the short term, or perhaps even longer, either, but shhhh . . .)
