Electric Transportation Is Racing Your Way

From Green Auto Market:

California may ban fossil-fuel vehicles:  California may join up with China, the UK, France, and Norway in banning fossil-fuel powered vehicles. Mary Nichols, chairman of the California Air Resources Board, told Bloomberg Friday that Gov. Jerry Brown is interested in exploring barring the sale of vehicles in California with internal combustion engines.

The earliest ban would be a decade away and ties into the state’s campaign to battle climate change. The move would send shockwaves to automakers, which have already been working on meeting the state’s zero emission vehicle mandates in the world’s largest auto market. A more pressing issue for California has been how the Trump administration will be ruling on the fuel economy and emissions standards, and if California’s ZEV guidelines will be included.

This raises an interesting question: In the migration to electric transportation, what role will regulation play, vs. consumer demand?  My client Electric Drivetrains Inc. in Northern California told me that he thinks regulation is really the only important ingredient in the mix here.  Since I try to be respectful at all times, especially to clients, I didn’t argue the point, but personally I doubt that.  Consumer demand has many different aspects, the cumulative effect of which is extremely powerful, and growing more so by the day.  Consider:

• Technology early adopters: Some people like to be out in front of the curve with respect to any technology that makes sense.

• Environmentalists: While its true that some people absolutely refuse to spend a nickel more for something based on its environmental merits, there is a large and growing population of people who care, and back that devotion up with their wallets.

• Performance: Anyone’s whose ever been the behind the wheel of an EV knows the exhilaration of hitting the accelerator and being propelled forward as if on the mini-rocket.  It’s actually frightening until you get used to it; that level of acceleration gives the driver the impression that his vehicle is about to flip over backwards.

• Trend followers: Phenomena in our society attract a following, which has a tendency to snowball, even if those elements have no real merit at all.  Rap music comes immediately to mind.

Consider as well that the auto industry is in the process of racing from a position of active opposition to EVs to pushing them hard.  Wait till you see what happens when Mercedes Benz puts the pedal to the metal and starts to promote their B250e, starting at $39,900 MSRP.