The automotive industry, once primarily composed of gas-guzzling belchers and major polluters, has in recent years begun a major trend toward cars that come with a sense of responsibility. Electric vehicles that were once touted as idealized vehicles for the wealthy and well-to-do have come into vogue at a number of price ranges. Manufactured not only under specialized brands like Tesla and BYD, but they are also coming into their own under major manufacturers like Toyota, Hyundai, or Volkswagen, who were already touting EVs as vehicles of the future on the silver screen. Global adoption of the electric vehicle increases rapidly per year, with over 54 million electric vehicles on the global market as of 2024 (IEA 2025), giving it a 4% penetration in the global automotive market that will only increase in the years to come. But what is the significance of the electric vehicle, which was once a symbol of cities of the future, and has now become closer to science fact?

The major difference between an electric vehicle and a nonelectric vehicle is the power source, and how this connects to the rest of the vehicle. Your standard vehicle has a diesel or gas engine, which connects to the motor, while an EV runs on a fully electric battery, either rechargeable or swappable with other charged batteries. The simpler power source has less moving parts, making vehicular maintenance easier and more cost-effective. The same cannot be said for capital expenditure, with more expensive batteries and production costs. A single battery pack of 46 kWh can cost $2,099 from CATL, one of the leading manufacturers in the world, when an average diesel motor comes in at anywhere from $200 to $500. In depictions of the cyberpunk future, electric vehicles have been seen as a display of a more advanced, if not necessarily more utopian, society. Take the Audi RSQ and GM Ultralite—two models of vehicles that eschewed boxy lines and edges in favor of a smooth, sleek white aesthetic. Visual markers that helped define what the future looked like, one that has come full circle in the design sense of companies like Apple or Tesla.

Of course, EVs are not uniform in their composition, power, or battery type. The battery packs that power EVs have only grown and improved over time. The physically larger a battery is, the more power it can store, hitting highs of up to 229 kWh in the Ram 1500 REV. Lead acid batteries are the cheapest and oldest of the rechargeable battery technologies in use—first invented in the 1800s and still in use today, they are cheap to manufacture and stock while also being less efficient than their peers at holding energy. Had they been more prevalent or widely adopted when first invented, it is possible that the world may have developed an affinity for battery-powered and electric vehicles far sooner. More sustainable technologies could have developed at a faster pace, circumventing a steam-powered or steampunk era altogether.

The lithium-ion battery that is most popular on the market, lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide, is the most commonplace for its high-energy density, being able to retain high amounts of energy while being relatively easy to maintain. While the lithium-ion batteries have become more readily in vogue due to their aforementioned energy density, they are less stable than their counterparts. The flammability of the battery, from version to version, has also been a key factor in the fear of the use of lithium-ion batteries in certain contexts and temperatures, necessitating more stable composites like lithium iron phosphates.

In recent years, nickel-metal hydride batteries have begun to come into vogue for their relative stability when compared to their lithium-based counterparts, as well as the ease of obtaining the materials for their manufacture. In a future where lithium grows scarcer or more difficult to recycle and retain purity, you would likely see further iterations on these battery compositions. Or, conversely, the deliberate weaponization of existing lithium-ion batteries. Slow-burn wars that could turn batteries into ticking time bombs.

When Tesla was dominant in the EV market, it was easy for the EV to be associated with the wealthy, especially with an upper price point of $200,000 for the Cybertruck. But the majority of the world’s EVs are now produced and sold in China, from cars to motorcycles to buses and minibuses. In China alone, over 17 million vehicles are produced per year, with Shenzhen playing host to upward of 200,000 private, minibus, and bus-style EVs. In many ways, the propagation of electric vehicles in China is well-aligned with the image of China as projected in its own science fiction as a bastion for forward-thinking futures. Science fiction authors such as Zheng Wenguang, the father of Chinese science fiction, all the way to Liu Cixin in the modern day, have portrayed China as a bastion of tomorrow. Their science fiction aligns closely with what could be perceived as science fact, the nation projecting an accessible utopia to the outside world, supported by government subsidies, tax benefits, and purchasing schemes.

Conceptually, in fiction and in reality, the electric vehicle is a catchall for sustainability. But what of the source of its energy? If generated in an unclean way, such as fossil fuel or coal, like in developing countries, wouldn’t it be more or equally harmful when compared to the use of a diesel engine? To create an environment where energy is truly sustainable requires a cultural and personal shift. Countries such as China, with 32% renewable energy, and Brazil, with the largest sustainable grid in Latin America, have been making strong moves toward a wholly renewable energy grid, deriving power from water, wind, solar, and nuclear sources. But in both fact and fiction, there are always personal interests intertwined with the possibility of progress. Megacorporations, millionaires, fuel companies, and governments can all conspire as they already do in Shadowrun or Neuromancer to choke the world for the sake of profits.

Another major issue that plagues not only electric vehicles but the development of new technologies is the sustainability of the battery. Lithium-ion or any lithium-composed battery relies on the abundance of lithium, a resource that doesn’t yet have large-scale measures in place to protect existing supply and expand future supply points. The global EV industry accounts for approximately 72–80% of all lithium usage in the world. Once the remaining supply of the world’s natural lithium is exhausted, it will affect production of not only electric vehicles but most, if not all, commercial rechargeable electronic devices, as lithium batteries power over 70% of the world’s rechargeables. The very act of mining lithium is also environmentally fraught, utilizing 500,000 liters of water per ton during each mining attempt.

While most components of a lithium-ion battery can be recycled, the current recycling technology is still early in development due to the complexity of the actual batteries, making it difficult to separate materials from each other. The rapid development of technology in the field of battery recycling means that there is constant refinement in the extraction of lithium, manganese, and cobalt, but as battery compositions are being changed, so, too, must recycling adapt.

In fiction, these are issues that can be entirely ignored in favor of assuming an abundance of lithium, or else an alternative resource can be materialized from thin air. But the interplay and struggle of the dwindling of the necessary elements to power the world is a familiar one, one for which mankind is already finding solutions. The best way to utilize a battery that is no longer at 100% usability is to implement it in a form of ESS (Energy Storage System), where the batteries can hold stores of energy that can be tapped into. However, the maintenance and efficacy of these storage systems are variable, as any EV battery that is used will have lower usable charging capacity—70% to 80% retention of power after ten operational years at best. There is also the matter of creating the infrastructure required to support an electrifying nation, and whether they should be built before vehicle introductions or afterward, which introduces a chicken-and-egg problem.

Optimistically, the average electric vehicle can travel a range of up to 200 kilometers (roughly 124 miles) on a single charge for a 96 kWh battery—perhaps double or triple that with the capacity of batteries like the Ram 1500 REV. A slow charger takes anywhere from eight to twelve hours to charge a passenger vehicle’s battery to full—a faster charger could charge the battery in full in an hour, maybe less. This gives electric vehicles less clearance time to make their way between locations without support. Some areas in developing nations or rural areas have less stable electricity grids or access to power, which means that implementation of a solution that supports an electrified transport is less likely.

The utopian futures of novels like Brave New World or Anthem, and indeed even dystopian futures like in Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, must have a running assumption that electricity is freely available and the world has a baseline level of development. However, in reality, for electric vehicles to be able to maintain wider use, both the prevalence of chargers and the reliability of the grid must be without question. For example, in Shenzhen, China, there are over 5,000 chargers in the city as of 2024, ensuring that one is always within easy reach. But this is a proactive government choice, one that might face active lobbying in nations where oil and car companies have increased prevalence in the political space.

The resilience of the EV in times of crisis, whether these be the real crises of the world or those in worlds of imagined reality, is a precarious thing. Where fossil fuels might skyrocket in price due to regional instabilities (like what the entire world is experiencing at the publishing of the article due to war in Iran and hostilities in the Middle East), there is a stability that might come from the EV’s ability to function using alternative sources of energy. The sun, the water, and the wind cannot be impacted in the same way that purely diesel vehicles can, making them indispensable during emergency lows in fuel availability and subsequent skyrocketing prices. However, during cases of direct crisis, there is a question over whether the EV is built to endure. Consider the postapocalypse, in scenarios where fuel is at a premium. Crossing desert wastelands like in Mad Max requires access to an ever-dwindling resource, whereas the heat of the beating sun is in more than abundant supply. A society of depletion may ironically be better suited to the world after if it takes the more sustainable route, even if it has to deal with issues of infrastructural maintenance and lower travel ranges.

Though the electric passenger vehicle might be able to help eliminate pollution, an electric vehicle replacing a gas vehicle doesn’t solve the additional problem of congestion that gridlocks city streets. Dystopian and utopian futures and fiction tend to, with the exception of works like The Fifth Element, assume an ease of transit in a world of sustainable power sources. Flying or hovering vehicles driven by individual protagonists intersect peacefully alongside maglev trains, weaving their way through static streets. In reality, the prevalence of individual vehicles on the road would likely make congestion far worse than in the current day.

In today’s world, this is being circumvented through the increasing prevalence of electric buses and minibuses rather than private electric vehicles. In London, the electrification of their public transportation has seen the existing fleets of buses cresting on the wave that is already making its way through the rest of Europe. Countries that had previously experienced extensive traffic might find the pressure being relieved with a more comprehensive public transport system. Even so, for a society predicated on electric transport to exist, there would need to be a major shift in the cultural mindset regarding personal vehicles. Possible in a utopian society, maybe, but thematically unaligned with a dystopia of personal satisfactions and the capitalist whole.

The electric vehicle is not the end-all and be-all of the vehicles of the future. Other developments, such as the increased efficiency of hydrogen cells for power, the transition to solid-state batteries, and the advent of autonomous driving, are already beginning to take prevalence in the discussion over what tomorrow brings for transportation. But they are less arresting to the mind of popular and fantastical science than electricity and, too, the miracle of lightning contained in a bulb. But as technology grows more advanced, electric vehicles have become further from the realm of science fiction and are well cemented now into science fact. A fundamental part of the future transport landscape.

For better or for worse.