The writer of this story highlights one driver of a BMW ActiveE that has stayed mobile, but only because his house is equipped with a natural gas-fueled emergency generator. For the vast majority of people that don't have a whole house generator handy, an EV would be no more useful than a car with an empty gas tank when the power is out. The same lack of electricity that prevents stations from pumping liquid fuel, would strand an EV.
Also while an EV could provide some emergency power for a few home appliances they wouldn't be able to do it for very long.
Reshared post from +Green Car Reports
Are electric cars a more reliable means of transportation when disaster hits?
Assessing Sandy: Are Electric Cars A Better Bet In Emergencies?
For many of us, lines at gas stations and homes without power are no more than news, but millions on the U.S. East Coast are still coping with the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. Many areas are still wi…
This post has been reshared 1 times on Google+
View this post on Google+
Post imported by Google+Blog for WordPress.
That was a bizarre article. Imagine there were lots of electric cars along with widespread power failures, well it wouldn't suddenly be so easy to find somewhere else with power to charge. It would also take a whole heck of a lot longer to charge the cars in an emergency once they've run out than it would be to fill up a car when gas is found.
I can tell you that for me, at least, an electric vehicle would be spectacularly useless. My house still doesn't have power, and we don't have a generator.
I love electric vehicles, but unless we establish a fast and reliable recharging system or battery swapping system that won't go down in a natural disaster, they probably aren't the best way to cope.