So, why aren't "we" buying more electric cars?

[Terry in Austin]

90. An electric vehicle is not a "car"

It's a common misconception, but you can't just put another kind of motor into a car body and expect it to be a "car."

"Car" is an institution, not just a machine, and as such there are established social expectations of it -- range, speed, capacity, looks, owning habits, status, etc.

Electric power has a place in our transportation future, true enough, but our present is thoroughly locked into the car system. It co-evolved with the internal combustion engine and is finely optimized for it. We can't expect to be able to just drop in an alt-energy plug-and-play substitute and have the system carry on as usual.

One small example: people talk about having a "highway safe" EV. If we had our priorities straight, we'd be talking instead about having "EV safe" highways.