(REPOST: Green Car Reports)
Seven years after the first Nissan Leaf and Chevrolet Volt were delivered to their buyers in December 2010, misconceptions and misinformation abound.
Technology is often not a strong suit for business reporters, of course, and plug-in vehicles represent only 1 percent of the U.S. market after seven years.
But, slowly, we think media coverage of electric cars is getting better—as we’d suggest a handful of recent articles show.
A recent piece in The New York Times titled “What Needs to Happen Before Electric Cars Take Over the World,” for example, offered a relatively balanced look at what needs to happen for electric cars to take a major portion of the global market.
One paragraph alone indicates the measured but up-to-date approach taken in mid-December by author Jack Ewing:
Faster than anyone expected, electric cars are becoming as economical and practical as cars with conventional engines. Prices for lithium-ion batteries are plummeting, while technical advances are increasing driving ranges and cutting recharging times.
He cites, among other factors, the need for cheaper battery cells, steady raw-material supplies, and more and higher-speed public charging infrastructure.