Electric Cars

I recently watched the documentary, "Who Killed The Electric Car". If you haven't seen it, you should. For those of you who have seen it, bear with me as I lay some context for those who haven't. The premise of the movie revolves around investigating some questionable business decisions that auto giant GM made back in the mid 1990's related to their own electric car. Essentially, GM introduced an electric car that consumers loved then completely removed it from the market, and despite consumer demands to build more, destroyed every last one of the cars. The movie ends in sad fashion with potential consumers wondering what happened to the cars they loved so much.

10 years later...
Google is partnering with GE to develop an intelligent power grid that includes plug in hybrid electric vehicles. My, my, my - I bet GM execs are wondering what the hell is happening right before their very eyes. When they decided to kill the electric car they gave environmentally conscious consumers every reason imaginable as to why they couldn't mass produce them. They claimed that the cost/profit ratio was too high making them economically unreasonable. They said that the feedback from consumers was "lukewarm" and generally unfavorable. They provided a healthy list of other reasons outlining why it couldn't be done despite clear evidence that people were hungry for new and refreshing options.
It's a new world now!

I never thought that Al Gore would kickstart one of the most important issues, if not the most important issue, humanity has ever faced. But his movie, "An Inconvenient Truth", has created arguably one of the most important movements of our time. I am surprised by the players stepping up to tackle the clean energy conundrum and I am confident in our ability to find the solutions we need by working together, supporting these efforts, and by innovating new business models that consider our environment first.

It's a shame that it won't likely be one of the American car companies that leads the way to change what needs to be changed, even when they are in the driver's seat for finding viable solutions. Perhaps GM, Ford, and Chrysler are victims of the ever-popular boiling frog analogy.

Check out this video from Google's RechargeIT program.





Thoughts?