America Really Likes Electric Vehicles

It looks like this transition to electric transportation is taking root in the U.S.  August was the first month that sales topped 10,000 units.

I’ve always said that this transition has the potential to happen very quickly, once word-of-mouth sets in.  Your neighbor has a Nissan LEAF, he loves it, and you see it every day.  From that moment on, every time you pull into a gas station a gnawing feeling of envy (and perhaps anger/disgust) sets in.

All the while, prices are falling and the charging infrastructure is expanding until … BANG.  All your objections are overcome.

Btw, do you know how much additional electricity generation the U.S. would need if every single one of its 230 million cars and trucks on our roads were electric?  Since transportation is about 40% of our total energy consumption, it would be understandable if the first answer that popped into your head was 40%.  But since EVs are so much more efficient than internal combustion engines, the answer is actually about 14%.

14 lousy percent  — and we can tell all the oil terrorists to take a hike, while we tell the war-mongers here in the U.S. they’ll need to find another excuse if they’re going to send our young people off to fight and die.

Meanwhile, energy continues to make progress: coal plants are being retired, and renewables are coming along — and EVs play a role there too, absorbing large amount of off-peak wind.  It really is happening.