Editorial: Just plug it in

The folks at MIT have concluded that most Americans could routinely accomplish the majority of their day-to-day tasks with today’s electric vehicle technology.

The study, published this week in Nature Energy, finds that the “energy of 87 percent of vehicle days could easily be met by an existing, affordable electric vehicle.” Extrapolating to when electric cars constitute 87 percent of the vehicles on America’s roads, the authors foresee “a 60 percent reduction in total U.S. gasoline consumption and a 30 percent decrease in … greenhouse gas emissions” from U.S. transportation, Bloomberg reports.

Of course, predicting the future is risky business. What the auto landscape looks like 50 years — or even 10 years — down the road depends on dozens of factors, including the arc of technological progress and consumer choice.

On that last note, the short-term prospects for plug-in vehicle sales appear spotty, at best. Despite efforts by policymakers to push drivers into electric vehicles — see: sales mandates for manufacturers and tax advantages for purchasers — car buyers continue to resist the option. Electric cars today account for just 0.7 percent of U.S. vehicles, and sales dropped 17 percent in 2015.

Still, Jessica Trancik, the MIT professor who led the study, remains optimistic that once consumers become used to the notion of going electric, the market will flourish despite the perceived lack of convenience and other drawbacks.

“The researchers found that more affordable electric vehicles … could meet our energy and affordability needs if people recharged their cars just once daily,” Bloomberg noted. “And although electric vehicles’ sticker prices are higher, the researchers concluded that their operating costs would be lower than conventional cars.”

That’s all a plus for the electric vehicle revolution. For now, however, the great majority of drivers prefer a car that will meet their transportation needs 100 percent of the time, not just most of the time.