Nissan LEAF – Mainstream Coverage
I try to stay at least partially connected to the mainstream coverage of renewable energy and electric transportation – not so much because I believe there is truth there, but because I need to know what the mainstream consumers believe. This morning’s article in the Wall Street Journal on the Nissan LEAF was telling, for two reasons:
The author asserts, “Such a car would have been science fiction five years ago.” This, of course, is utter tripe. Until they famously killed the electric car over a decade ago, GM was making EVs that its customers absolutely adored. Some insiders report that the project was killed not because it was a failure, but for the precise opposite reason: it proved that the world had a huge appetite for electric transportation, and GM had no sincere interest in heading in that direction. At the same time, Toyota was having a similar experience with its electric RAV-4. When the decision came to recall and crush all the EVs, a maelstrom of protest arose, the remnants of which are still present in our conversations today. In any case, it most certainly completely untrue that the LEAF would have been science fiction five years ago. Anyone trying to follow this subject with any level of precision and honesty has to wonder about the agenda that could drive revisionist history like this.
The other obvious point the author repeats dozens of times through the article is that the driving experience is a nonevent. “I can think of hundreds of ways to describe the Maserati’s ear-strafing exhaust, but I’m at a loss to describe the nearly mute and rheostatic squeeze-and-go response of the LEAF,” he writes. He goes on with similar language to describe the braking system, the turning, etc. – ensuring that any reader will feel like less of a person to purchase a LEAF.
Again, one wonders about the agenda here.
I just got off the phone with 
In his recent article on Renewable Energy World titled 
While the Florida utility company Progress Energy has led the conservation charge for its consumers in Florida, in Virginia, a conservation program has been launched by the Virginia State Corporation Commission at the bidding of the State Assembly. The Virginia Energy Sense program was launched in late July 2010, and is geared to help residents and businesses become smarter energy users and reduce electricity use. The tag line used for the program is “Value your power.”
We certainly see a great deal of the old “David and Goliath” metaphor in our conversations in this industry – especially in electric transportation. Though a number of EV start-ups have gone belly-up over the past few years, there are still many such Davids, feverishly ramping up to take on the Goliaths of Nissan, GM, and the other traditional automakers.
I like to post articles on 
Thirty-six industry and environmental groups signed and sent an urgent letter to the Senate, urging opposition to any amendment in the upcoming Energy Bill that would increase ethanol in gasoline. Some are apparently seeking approval in Congress to increase ethanol in gasoline from the current 10% up to 15%. The press release pointed out that NPRA (National Petrochemical & Refiners Association) was among the signatories against such a move.
