Electric Vehicle Revolution?

When we were out in the California Bay area I never saw so many electric vehicles. They are rare in the frozen mountains of northern NH. It wasn’t until I was in California did I see my first Tesla dealership. Those electric cars were everywhere.

Tesla just shook things up with their electric truck. It doesn’t look like what we’ve come to think of as a truck -more like a six grader’s doodles on what at future truck should look like. Then there was the whole fiasco about the broken windows. That controversy aside, the numbers on the vehicle look pretty good. Acceleration, speed, handling, and towing look excellent. The fact that it’s giant rolling battery with a built in air compressor could actually make it handy as a contractor’s vehicle.

Of course, it will be years, until the thing makes it to market. Tesla’s previous launch dates and pricing have proved to be wildly optimistic. It really doesn’t affect me personally as my budget allowed for a used 2004 Chevy Blazer.

Tesla’s making a big splash, but that won’t affect most people. The company that’s going to really change things, best I can tell, is Ford. They are coming out with their Mustang Crossover Vehicle. The only thing it borrows from the Mustang is the name and a few stylistic details.

The big thing about Ford is that it’s committed to electric vehicles. They are putting their vast resources into the project. Ford has a massive dealership network and are committed to building a huge charging network. That’s the sort of effort that will jump start the whole EV market. You can be sure that other car companies are jumping in on the electric bandwagon. China is heavily committed to electric so that will bring prices down even lower.

Maybe some years down the road I’ll get one. One of the big advantages of electric, which often gets overlooked, is their reliability and lack of needed maintenance. Electric vehicles are robust and at their heart, mechanically simple. Now that companies are making EV trucks with decent towing capacity, they are even more attractive.

There are some hurdles to wider adoption, but with major companies putting vast resources into it, expect to see a lot more electrics on the road. It could happen so fast that it will appear to happen overnight. That will an overnight sensation about a hundred years in the making.

-Sixbears