Transition Road

The electric car is a better machine than the one it replaces. It is quieter, quicker, and cheaper to run, and global sales of gasoline cars peaked years ago. So why does the transition still feel stuck?

In Transition Road, Z. Justin Ren and David O. Jermain argue that the car was never the hard part. The hard part is the plug. Public charging sits at the meeting point of three industries (automaking, electric utilities, and real estate), and no one in that trench owns the outcome. A driver who cannot count on a working charger will keep buying gasoline, however good the car.

A sequel to Melting the ICE, this book follows the money, the policy, and the people through the awkward middle years of the shift. It explains why the pragmatic majority of drivers is holding back, who should pay for charging built ahead of demand, why delivery fleets and heavy trucks are getting there first, what China's battery swapping experiment teaches, and which new institutions could finish the job.

Written for general readers, Transition Road is a clear guide to where the electric vehicle transition stands, why it stalled, and how to fix the road ahead.