That statement was told to me decades ago. When I started work on environmental technologies in 1988, I was reminded that while Europeans were ahead of the curve by necessity when it came to the implementation of environmental technologies, Americans operated almost singularly from their pocketbooks, apart from treehuggers and scientists who wanted to move the environmental technologies ahead for their own personal intrinsic reasons.
Today an article in CNN reminded me of that statement. At $5 per gallon, I suspect that sufficient pain is being felt by American car owners to begin a significant shift in thinking towards electric vehicles. The Vice President of Marketing of General Motors took a very close friend of mine for a ride recently in his Volt and told him he had spent only $30 since January on gasoline. Compare that to the THOUSANDS I have spent so far in this year, and I am beginning to believe that we have hit a tipping point where with some sustained price levels at the current places, a significant shift in thinking will take hold, supported by the government initiatives worldwide.
If the internet was the technological arena which helped us turn the century, energy is the one that will dominate (together with water) in this one. We are going to see significant shifts in consumer habits as the cost of power increases and as it becomes fully viable to own electric vehicles.
I noticed recently that the count of electric vehicle charging stations had surpassed the actual cars on the road in America. That’s simply because the infrastructure is being prepared for the eventual invasion. I believe that the million car count being pushed out by various people is a bit aggressive, and would be happy if 500,000 electric vehicles were on the roads by 2015. To me that will be the sign that not only have EVs arrived, they will be here to stay…and grow.
Stay tuned…its going to be an electrifying ride! And don’t be surprised if this solar blog writer is driving an EV this side of 2012…. :).
Sass
2 Comments
Financials, and funding?? where is it at?
Which entity are you referring to?