By James David Dickson
The first time I drove a car, I didn’t own a cellphone, and I paid cash for the gas. Neither is possible with an electric vehicle.
The EV revolution will create a world more hostile to cash and make us all more reliant on the smartphone. Someday drivers won’t have a choice to opt out from technology they might rather avoid.
Sometimes you need to leave town fast. With a gas vehicle you can fill up in minutes and be elsewhere in hours. With a flip phone — or no phone — and a handful of cash you can travel on a whim.
Using an electric vehicle, that same journey requires the use of smartphones and credit cards. Access to both can be controlled — or cut off.
In an electric vehicle, range anxiety would become real as you watch the mileage tick down and search out charging options. For that, you’ll need a phone connected to the internet.
Once you do find a charger, powering up is not a zip-in, zip-out experience. Now you must download an app, and load in a credit card for payment. Two more hurdles.
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Read the rest at Michigan Capitol Confidential, here.
James David Dickson is a Detroit News columnist and managing editor of Michigan Capitol Confidential. Email him at dickson@mackinac.org.
This column ran first in the Detroit News on Feb. 14, 2024.
To read more about electric vehicle range anxiety, click here.
To read more about the danger of going cashless, click here.
