The raft of exciting electric vehicle (EV) previews and new launches at the Geneva motor show has led to industry pundits calling it the ‘year that electric cars took over’.
What an effective riposte for several recent, high-profile reports focusing on perceived barriers or challenges for EVs.
One such high profile report was the Electromobility Platform’s analysis on charging infrastructure, along with comments reported in The Guardian by co-author Greg Archer, who suggested the car industry was ‘deliberately suppressing’ the market for EVs by limiting supply of new models, leading to long waiting lists.
While there’s certainly some truth in the claim that EV demand is outstripping supply – waiting lists are not uncommon – a quick run-through of new models seen at Geneva shows that many automotive manufacturers are investing hundreds of billions in the development of their EVs.
There was, of course, the show-stopping Jaguar I-Pace, but also the Honda Urban EV and the Hyundai Kona Electric, which, with battery ranges of up to 500kms (300 miles), all commanded attention and heralded huge progress.
Read more: Fleet News