Are we motoring towards electric avenue?

From the gloom of the multinational car industry comes this fascinating and encouraging article about the rapid developments in the electric car industry…

This excellent special feature in the Independent would make a super stimulus piece for A2/IB students looking to practice PESTEL analysis. It describes the macro-environment influencing car producers and the accelerated development of usable electric cars.

A combination of factors are combining to improve the commercial viability of electric cars:
- climate change
- oil-price volatility
- improving battery technology
- substantial spare capacity in car manufacturing

Students could identify others from the article and their background reading.

The article makes some pretty ambitious claims. I was struck by the prediction from a senior manager at Renault that within five years electric cars could take 10 per cent of global car sales.