I recently read a post by social media blogger Dino Dogan that reminded me that if in 2005 someone had pitched me with the idea of a Short Message Service for phones that would revolutionise the way people meet and interact that limited the number of words you could use to 140 characters, I would not have been interested. I would have seen only the limitations and not the opportunity.
For many years now I have been asking people (including the media) to embrace the two primary limitations of the electric vehicle:
1. EVs don't go very far. Most EVs have a range of 100 miles. Well guess what, most people drive less than 20 miles per day most of the time. Here in the UK it is estimated that 97% of all journeys are doable in an EV. Just like most messages can be communicated in 140 characters once you give Twitter a go.
2. EVs don't go very fast. The new EVs typically have a top speed of 70 mph to 90 mph, instead of the 90 mph to 120 mph of the average modern conventionally powered vehicle. So what! Most road deaths occur as a result of driving too fast and in any case, the national speed limit is achievable in all of these new EVs. Instead of pushing for faster speeds, responsible journalists and pundits and those tasked with reducing auto-related deaths should perhaps be nudging us towards a different mindset and expectation of what our vehicles should do. Not only that, the environmental impact of slower speeds is enormous as well.
I have no doubt that by 2015 the average range will have increased to 250 or 300 miles and that available top speeds will also increase towards conventional car levels. My point is that with a little ingenuity they don't need to increase beyond this and we can focus on cost reduction and roll-out. Not only that, with just a little thought and practice you would no longer drive like a lunatic at dangerously high speeds to make that appointment; and you could enjoy the scenery and lack of stress as you take the train twice per year for that long journey to your great aunt who lives the other side of the country.
It is exactly the limitation of Twitter that gives it its uniqueness and the same (if not more) is true of electric vehicles, the mobility-communication-energy hubs of the future.
Postnote: an hour after writing this piece I read an article about a BBC journalist driving a prototype MINI EV from London to Edinburgh (a journey of more than four hundred miles) and complaining that it took four days to do it. Apart from being a pointless article (highlighting a problem that the vehicle is not designed to address) it does show how even the BBC are caught up in some pretty daft reporting on EVs currently.
