We Face Challenges in Migrating to Electric Transportation

Here’s a piece I just wrote for a client: “EV Profiler.” Hope you enjoy. If you’re interested, please let me know.

It would certainly be foolish to underestimate the challenge the world faces in migrating to electric transportation. Just like any paradigm shift, pulling people away from their gasoline and diesel-fuelled vehicles requires that we dislodge habits that have become part of the fabric of the way our modern civilization lives.

Of course, the died-in-the-wool environmentalists (“tree-huggers,” as it were) will buy electric vehicles, regardless of the fact that they cost a bit more, and limit the driver’s freedom. Now, we know that certain people will make sacrifices for the common good, and some actually pride themselves on this point. Rightly, they see that weaning our nation off oil is indeed a common good – for a great number of different reasons. But what percentage of the population does this represent? No one knows; let’s be generous and say it’s 10%.

Conversely, there is another sector of the population that wouldn’t take an EV if it were given to them. I’m not sure I understand the mentality of these people quite as well, but rest assured, they’re out there. Let’s say that is another 10%.

But what about everybody else? After all, that’s a whopping 80% — an enormous number of pragmatists, with real-world concerns about things like fuel savings, total cost of ownership, and range anxiety. A huge segment of Americans will find themselves sitting on the fence. Isn’t there something that can be done to assuage their concerns?

I’m not sure how I would have answered that question last week, but this is now. I just ran across a device called the EV Profiler, a tool that addresses a core question that most consumers have about the emerging electric vehicle market: “Will it work for me?”

Imagine a conversation at the Nissan LEAF dealership that goes something like this:

Customer: You say I’ll get 100 miles in range. But I drive in hilly terrain, and I’m not exactly a little old lady behind the wheel. I do 75 miles per hour on the freeways – and more when I think I can get away with it. Somebody told me that, mile per mile, I’ll use twice as much charge at 75 as I would at 40. This sounds like a non-starter to me.

Salesman: I hear ya – and there’s an easy way to find out. Put this in your car for a week, and drive normally. It transmits your exact real-time energy use to a computer; tracks your speed, acceleration, climbing and descending hills, and so forth – all with amazing accuracy. At the end of the week, we’ll look at the report, and see exactly how far you could have gone in the LEAF.

Kind of takes the guesswork out of the equation, doesn’t it?

So what is the EV Profiler? Here’s a device that evaluates your driving conditions and style as they currently exist in the driver’s gasoline-powered car, and shows the battery requirements for the same travel in different models of electric vehicles: the Nissan Leaf, Chevy Volt, Ford Focus and Transit Connect van and the Tesla Model S.

In summary, the EV Profiler:

Turns a person’s existing vehicle into a virtual EV

Records and analyzes customers’ real world driving conditions, and simulates those same conditions in different EVs

Is quick and easy to use: mount it onto the windshield, plug it into the cigarette lighter, and drive as usual

Records your vehicle’s exact motion, speed, acceleration, and altitude — every second

Sends your vehicle’s motion data via cellular to EV Profiler’s computers which emails a daily report simulating different EVs

Responsibly and accurately alleviates range anxiety for thousands of fleet managers and potential EV consumers

Works totally automatically in any existing vehicle

Is rented for a week or two for a few dollars a day

Allows consumers to test drive an EV without ever being in one

If you’re interested in an EV and you’d like to know: “Will it work for me?” here’s a way to answer the question without any doubt.