“EVs are the future of cars” — It’s the sentence that’s feared the most by car lovers. It’s the sentence that’s been shoved in our faces and down our throats for a decade now.

In the future, every car will abandon the internal combustion engine and switch to electric power, whether that would be batteries, hydrogen, or some other system.

Cars of the future will not burn gasoline or diesel, but rather electrons. Many automakers, fearing the dominance of Tesla and the impending ban of ICE cars by the 2030s, decided to phase out internal combustion engines across the lineup gradually.

For a while, this seemed like the right thing to do, but things have started to change. That got us wondering: are EVs really the future?

The Car Market Has Spoken

At the start of the 2020s, the electric car revolution was seemingly well underway. Automakers were coming out of the woodworks left, right, and center, proudly proclaiming that they would abandon internal combustion in the not-too-distant future, opting instead for a lineup exclusively consisting of electric cars.

However, we have now reached the middle of the decade, and according to InsideEVs, we are witnessing an industry-wide backtrack. Throughout 2024, automakers publicly announced backtracking on their decision to go full EV by the 2030s, opting instead to keep at least a few ICE cars in their lineup for as long as possible.

Some have also expressed interest in extending the life of the ICE through alternative fuels, including hydrogen combustion engines and the backing of eFuels by the likes of Porsche and Mazda.

So why did this happen? Why did seemingly every automaker in the world decide that a full EV future is not the way to go, and they are now, according to some experts on the subject matter, doing the wrong thing by keeping gas-powered cars for a little while more? There are a few good reasons for this.

Decreased Demand for EVs

One of the major contributing factors is customer demand. Ultimately, the product lineup of every brand is dictated by what consumers want, and most consumers have made it clear that they don’t want an electric car, at least right now.

For one, most electric cars are obscenely expensive. Automakers chose to introduce luxury sedans and massive, lumbering crossovers first, which require enormous battery packs and are also packed with all kinds of tech that will inevitably go wrong.

This makes them very expensive, and certainly out of reach for many buyers. To make matters worse, charging infrastructure still isn’t the greatest. North America’s charging network has its issues, and only recently were other EVs allowed to use Tesla’s Supercharger network, widely believed to be the best in the business.

A lot of other countries have either very little charging infrastructure or none at all. Some developing countries don’t have any chargers at all, and even struggle to deliver electricity to people’s homes for the bare essentials.

Electric cars are also very heavy, and most things that you would do with a regular car, and especially a family car, significantly lower the range — towing a trailer, carrying a lot of people and cargo, that kind of thing.

That, combined with the long charging times and a less-than-stellar charging network, means EVs aren’t the perfect option for every consumer.

As a result, the auto industry has now slowly started to introduce small and cutesy electric cars. Frankly, if you ask me, that’s how it should have been right from the beginning.

The ICE Has a Future After All

Several automakers have also expressed interest in extending the shelf life of the ICE with completely new designs, like Porsche’s conceptual six-stroke engine, and also alternative fuel sources that aren’t harmful to the environment.

Environment NGOs and some automakers have, incorrectly, criticized this approach and stood firm in their EV future beliefs. Only to for the automaker to backtrack on their EV plans later on.

Toyota has made it clear that they aren’t giving up on internal combustion and hybrids, no matter what the legislators say. Mazda is a notable supporter of eFuels and ICE, and Porsche has made huge investments in industrial-scale eFuel manufacturing.

The ICE has evolved so much that the only thing left to do for it is to make it cleaner.

Are Electric Cars Actually The Future?

Yes and no. Electric cars won’t go away entirely; automakers have invested too much money in them, and they are definitely here to stay. Despite decreased demand, a good number of consumers still can’t get enough of them.

Electric cars do have a place in the future of the automobile, but perhaps not in the way automakers were aiming for.

There will be electric cars, mostly smaller ones like the Renault 5, and regulation-defying appliances on wheels like the Citroen Ami and the Renault Twizy’s spiritual successor, the Mobilize Duo.

However, there will also be hybrids and other varieties of propulsion. Consumers will be given a choice, and the internal combustion engine will get a new lease of life with better thermal efficiency and a fuel that doesn’t sully the atmosphere.

Automakers seem to agree with this, and I genuinely think this is the future we’re headed towards.