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Dr Gerben Bakker

November 16th, 2021

Infrastructure killed the electric car

0 comments | 1 shares

Estimated reading time: 15 minutes

Dr Gerben Bakker

November 16th, 2021

Infrastructure killed the electric car

0 comments | 1 shares

Estimated reading time: 15 minutes

When prices are adjusted for quality, electric vehicles stood their ground to petrol cars in the early twentieth century United States. If the electricity grid had developed twenty years earlier, they might have reached a 68–79% market share and CO2 emissions per car could have declined by 60%, a new study published in Nature Energy finds. Read Gerben Bakker’s evaluation of how likely it is that the electric car could have won here: Infrastructure killed the electric car

 

Carrie Rodgers standing next to an electric car, 1918
Carrie Rodgers standing next to an electric car (1918)

About the author

Gerben Bakker LSE Portrait Photo

Dr Gerben Bakker

Gerben Bakker is an economic historian specialised in the long-run analysis of innovation within firms and industries. He has completed four award-winning research programmes on the history of the live entertainment, motion picture and music industries and on the trade in news. He is currently working on the long-run evolution of firms’ research and development outlays and on the role of particular industries in aggregate economic growth.

Posted In: Innovation