....trying to figure out my chances of still being alive in 2030 to witness how close we get to Sierra Club's recommended goal of 50% reduction in USA oil use. El D, I might have to pass this assignment on to you.
They say old dogs are slow to learn new tricks. It will take a generation of Americans to transition away from our oil consuming habits and lifestyles. As a group, our kids are making great strides in reducing their oil consumption but we will need to support them by reducing our own habits of investing in the oil economy. It's one thing to transition yourself, but helping your kids and grandkids adopt an oil free lifestyle will have a much bigger impact. Instead of leaving some legacy money for them to inherit, maybe kick in some funds to buy them a solar farm condo, upgrade them to a plug-in, finance a net-zero home, help them afford a home closer to their work place, buy them a share in a wind farm, etc .... In other words, subsidize your family tree.
What was interesting was the "Who will buy them" comments which, for the pure EV's, was basically, no one in any real volume. Only the Tesla, which addresses the major obstacle to current EV, range, seems to have a chance. One because it provides a real car range and two because it has niche market on the high end where there are buyers (as noted by Tesla's 10,000 deposits for cars) and profits. Also dovetails with Toyota's recent announcement not to get into the all EV market and instead concentrate on hydrogen fuel cell for the next step of an EV vehicle with range and refueling capability.
Interesting conclusion Prox. I disagree with the 'almost no one' comment of yours. As for speed of cutting our oil reliance in half, that will depend largely on the cost of gasoline. I think 50% by 2030 is conservative. I am hopeful we will reach that by 2025. As more people get a chance to actually ride in and drive under electric power, EVs or serial PHEVs will become more common. Not just because of their lack of dependance on oil, but more so due to the vastly superior drive experience. It is truly remarkable. This superior drive experience will help bring in people that don't have the environment on their radar at all, but simply want the superior performance and convenience of an EV.
"Almost no one" was the comment from the article under the heading "Who will buy this car". It applied to all the pure EV vehicles. Only the Volt hybrid, the Prius hybrid and the Tesla had any real market potential. The common denominator for those vehicles was that they had an acceptable range of operation before refueling.
As one commenter to the article said- what is Tesla doing that gives them so much more range? Just curious. Thanks.
