The US electric vehicle project will fail without a massive domestic reconfiguration. The current industrial infrastructure of the United States is not optimized for manufacturing electric vehicles. Most of the necessary technologies and knowledge fields are not being developed at the scale needed in the US. For example, skills in electric chemistry and power sources are lacking. While basic science is important, knowledge that is crucial for industrial production often arises on the factory floor. Currently, there are few US enterprises that apply this knowledge. Although some Asian enterprises are relocating to the US, it is uncertain whether the post-secondary education system in the US is producing the necessary knowledge for the factories. Attempting to create firewalls between Asian countries is challenging due to their heavy integration. Relying on offshore expertise is a result of the historical dynamics of US capitalism and it will not be easy to reconfigure this system and bring everything back to the US. Therefore, a significant domestic reconfiguration is essential for the success of the US electric vehicle project.
In 2022, there were more than 2 million electric vehicles, or EVs, on the road in the United States. In 2005, there were only about 1,000. The conventional wisdom credits better batteries with this remarkable growth. In the 2010s, engineers delivered batteries that cost less and could go many miles further. Consequently, driving range increased, costs decreased, and sales soared. EVs now compete with vehicles powered by traditional internal combustion engines.
But Matthew Eisler (University of Strathclyde) challenges this narrative. He argues that the US resurgence in EVs had little to do with technology and much more to do with public policies, business models, and social conditions. On this episode, Eisler talks with host Jason Lloyd about the complex history of EV adoption, how a powerful metaphor invited new players into car manufacturing, and what the EV revival might mean for infrastructure such as electric grids.
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