projectevie
Jon Azrielant
Jeff Bladt
Matt Vance
andreafjeldFiled under: Grassroots EV, starting up | Tags: EV community, public discourse, the electric spirit
Sometime during this last week or so I read an article describing how McDonald’s venture into the upscale coffee market has actually helped chief competitor Starbucks by further popularizing chi-chi morning beverages. Initially, Starbucks feared that McDonald’s would be able to undercut their prices, and steal their customers. So far though, the trend seems to be that swaths of people that previously had never tried a fancy coffee or stepped foot in a Starbucks, have now developed a taste for lattes.
I imagine the popularization of electric vehicles will follow a similar course, with gains made by any one manufacturer helping everyone in the field, the competition not between EVs, but rather between EVs and non-EVs; the bottle-necks remaining being public opinion and infrastructure growth. Moreover, shows of support from corporations, such as McDonald’s installing a lone charging station, will likely go a long way in spreading EVs away from their traditional bastions of support, even if the actual on the ground impact is minimal.
Personally, as I have continued to meeting and talking with people in the EV community, I have found that beyond loyalty to any one product/company is an overarching collegial desire to support the technology. Going forward, I hope that this sense of broader community and spirit continues!
Filed under: starting up | Tags: electric vehicles, misconceptions, public discourse
I was talking Project-EVIE at a midtown bar earlier today with a tourist from the Midwest who was rather floored at the supposition that an electric vehicle could make it across the US, let alone around the world. It was another eye opening experience to the major obstacles that still lay ahead for EVs. The man I was talking with was a self-professed environmentalist that had already groused about gas prices during the course of the conversation. If the EV message is still having difficulty reaching this man, then I worry who, outside big-city coastal types, is going to buoy the technology as it is reintroduced to the US market; the gulf between actual capabilities of EVs, and the public misconceptions still seemingly entrenched.
