Thanks, Ktown. How to motivate people to buy EVs is a really complex issue without easy answers. I don't have much to say that hasn't already been said in these forums and elsewhere, but it might help to pull some of these ideas together. I would break it down this way:
- It has to make economic sense in the mind of the buyer. On the cost side, some buyers focus on the sticker price, some focus on the monthly payment, and a few do a lifetime cost of ownership calculation. It's really the latter that actually matters, but it's hard for some people to get past a higher initial cost or monthly payment, even if they are saving money in the long run. As for the economic benefit side, it's not hard to calculate gas and maintenance savings, but people may not make the effort and often aren't inclined to trust that those future benefits will come.
- It's hard for someone who hasn't driven an EV for an extended period to really understand that the problems are small and the benefits are big. We all know what perceived problems I'm talking about here - "range anxiety", finding charging stations, waiting to charge, declining battery capacity, higher electrical bills. I think it's fair to say that these are all smaller problems than most non-EV-drivers think. And lots of benefits are not obvious at first, like not having to worry about fuel on normal days around town, more cargo space, better driving experience (acceleration, handling, regen).
- There's still a lot of misunderstanding and misinformation about the environmental benefits of EVs. People tend to like counterintuitive explanations for things, so the idea that EVs are dirtier than gas cars, while totally wrong, has caught on with lots of people.
- Car companies are not stepping up to build compelling EVs. So far, there are a handful of "city EVs" plus Tesla. Others are coming, like the Chevy Bolt, but the pace is way too slow.
- Car dealers are not motivated to sell EVs, partly because of lack of knowledge, but mostly because most of their profit comes from parts and service.
This $20M charging station program tackles just a part of #2 - making people feel that they will be able to find places to charge. If the charging stations are free to use, it also helps a bit with #1.
Education (lots of it) can address #1, #2 and #3 pretty well at a low cost, but the real big problems are #4 and #5. They will require major changes to the business models of carmakers and dealers, and of course those new business models need to have at least a path to profit in the medium term. There are a few ways this could play out: Tesla and other new companies like it could claim the EV market, while the other carmakers gradually die off because they couldn't adapt. Or some of the incumbents may see the need to change and adapt quickly enough to survive. I'm not really sure how existing dealers could have a place in this, unless the manufacturers help them rebalance their profit away from service, towards new car sales. Maybe fixed-price selling (like Tesla) with predictable margins for a dealer would work, along with reasonable margins for the reduced service, but in the end, dealers will make less money, since they will be doing less.
As for how governments can help, probably the best bang for the buck is on the education front - teach people how EVs are better, can save them money and can save the environment. But the biggest amount of money should go to addressing the biggies - helping/pushing carmakers and dealers to sell EVs. This could come in the form of incentives to build factories, like in Nevada, removing restrictive dealer legislation, setting fleet-wide emission limits, etc. And they can also do many things to tip the economic balance - removing taxes and registration fees on EVs, making night-time electricity cheaper, installing free charging stations, providing free parking, requiring that condo/apartment owners allow charging station installations at cost...
Put simply, consumer demand will be there once people are educated, but the supply side needs to be pushed.
