Electric Vehicles and the Traditional Automakers

I want to call readers’ attention to the discussion on what I think is one of the hottest and most important topics in clean energy: the EV adoption curve and the sincerity of the OEMs in building and selling EVs.

If you Google this topic, you’ll find that most of this conversation concerns the consumer. As my friend Brian Wynne (president of Washington DC advocacy group the Electric Drive Transportation Association) likes to say, “The consumer has a vote in this.”

While Brian’s right on this of course, in the absence of adequate supply, it’s going to be a heck of a long time until that vote means anything. People can want EVs all the want (as people in hell want ice water), but it’s rather moot if those EVs are coming off the assembly line at the rate of a few tens of thousands per year, vs. tens of millions of internal combustion engines per year.

Of course, start-ups will get us there eventually.  But, as I wrote to frequent commenter Richard Marks, president of low-speed EV start-up EcoVElectric (great company, btw), I believe the OEMs have the backs against the wall here, and are finally forced to build EVs whether they want to or not. Sure, they’re at liberty to drag their heels in EV product releases and production quantities, but if they do, they’ll quickly wither and die as their competitors leap ahead.