I’ve always been a little skeptical about what’s known as the Jevons paradox—the phenomenon by which gains in efficiency lead to increases in consumption. Yes, it’s true that when it costs less to do something, you might do it a little more. But in the case of electric versus gas cars, in particular, I have a hard time believing that the immense gains in efficiency would be anywhere close to cancelled out by us driving more.
After all, if cost was the primary influence on automotive decision making, SUVs wouldn’t be taking over the world.
