A call for charging points at home

For Switzerland to become climate neutral, there's no way around electric mobility. But to get e-cars going, the public must push for charging stations where people live, argues Anthony Patt. One of the many changes needed for Switzerland to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions is to make its road mobility electric, with sales on new internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles to cease by 2030 or soon after. As numerous research studies have shown, battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are the only practical alternative to ICEs within this timeframe, and the alternative with the lowest environmental impact. So what would it take to make 100 percent of new car buyers opt for a BEV? BEVs are becoming more attractive in terms of price, performance, range, and the growing number of public charging stations, which now outnumber petrol filling stations. Still, range anxiety and the time needed to load an empty battery at a public charging station could make a BEV appear inconvenient to new car buyers. I've concluded that the single most important determinant of whether a BEV is more or less convenient than an ICE is whether one can charge the BEV at home, ideally overnight.