Regarding EVs... don't things somehow feel strangely 'different' right now? Like the ground's starting to shift under our feet? But in a good way?
The Model 3 is launching to great fanfare and simply enormous order backlogs. The big German automakers, to hear them and the press tell it, are running a bit scared and have suddenly started to prioritize EVs in a big way.
At extended-family gatherings, I hear regular people, i.e. not liberal or 'tree-hugger-y' at all, talk about how they're interested in EVs and may get one as their next car. There is an aura of 'cool' that has really started to build around EVs, as opposed to the 'bad old days' where they were denigrated as 'glorified golf carts' and generally guffawed at.
EV's image has been changing slowly for years now, sure... but it feels like we've hit a sort of 'critical mass' of late. A turning point. Or a 'point of no return', if you like.
It feels like more and more ppl are starting to acknowledge what we've known all along... EVs are the future. And the future's almost here. Some are acknowledging grudgingly, others happily, but... they are acknowledging, by and large.
Sure, ICEs aren't 'dead', despite some of the more breathless, click-bait articles written to that effect. The transition will be a relatively long one, maybe another generation. But, I think if we were travel forward in time say 20 or 30 years, and look back... 2017 might be the time we'd note as where 'the tide really began to turn'.
It's an odd feeling. Good, but odd. Makes you think, 'Why now?'. Why not 5 years ago? Why not 5 years from now? 10? What exactly causes a collective mental 'critical mass' in thought and attitude to start to happen? And, can anything reverse it (I'm sure Exxon's desperately hard at work on that one).
.
The Model 3 is launching to great fanfare and simply enormous order backlogs. The big German automakers, to hear them and the press tell it, are running a bit scared and have suddenly started to prioritize EVs in a big way.
At extended-family gatherings, I hear regular people, i.e. not liberal or 'tree-hugger-y' at all, talk about how they're interested in EVs and may get one as their next car. There is an aura of 'cool' that has really started to build around EVs, as opposed to the 'bad old days' where they were denigrated as 'glorified golf carts' and generally guffawed at.
EV's image has been changing slowly for years now, sure... but it feels like we've hit a sort of 'critical mass' of late. A turning point. Or a 'point of no return', if you like.
It feels like more and more ppl are starting to acknowledge what we've known all along... EVs are the future. And the future's almost here. Some are acknowledging grudgingly, others happily, but... they are acknowledging, by and large.
Sure, ICEs aren't 'dead', despite some of the more breathless, click-bait articles written to that effect. The transition will be a relatively long one, maybe another generation. But, I think if we were travel forward in time say 20 or 30 years, and look back... 2017 might be the time we'd note as where 'the tide really began to turn'.
It's an odd feeling. Good, but odd. Makes you think, 'Why now?'. Why not 5 years ago? Why not 5 years from now? 10? What exactly causes a collective mental 'critical mass' in thought and attitude to start to happen? And, can anything reverse it (I'm sure Exxon's desperately hard at work on that one).
.
Last edited: