Woohoo, my first post. Let's talk about cars. When thinking of something to open with, I thought I could do the whole community forum, newspaper article talk on sports cars vs SUV or fan belt tightening on the weekend, but no. I'm going to have a bit of a chat about something a little more apt to our times which may or may not disgruntle the purist rev heads among us - Electric cars.
Yes, that's right - those silent, often unattractive and "doctor no fun time" carriages of the peace keeping tree huggers who prefer a poster of a lentil burger on their wall as opposed to anything which will stir the loins of a living human being.
Let's face it, until recent times these things have had the personality of a box (an entire box) of panadol... We've smirked and joked and speculated at their practical and desirable place in the world. But to what end? Well, thanks to the likes of innovation from Tesla, and some attempts from Chevy, BMW and Fisker, we can see a future for the electric car in our garage.
Game Changing
We know some manufactures are simply box ticking in their renewable efforts to appear as supporting future sustainable power, but lets face it, the only one taking it seriously on a mainstream basis is Elon Musk from Tesla.
Attractive, practical, performing and groovily up-gradable. That's what they bring to the table.
Affordability aside (Rome wasn't built in a day) these guys are making a serious dent in the practical future of cars, but more importantly, our attitudes.
Moreover, they are heading in the direction making it available everywhere, to everyone with future plans of the projected Model 3 targeting the general public's more realistic hip pocket space, and out of the luxury car only arena.
Is this the end?
I doubt it. Maybe it's the end of the status-quo. Lets look at the arguments used in the past.
1. Oh no! We're running out of oil. True or not, it's kind of dead argument. If our daily commuters were all planet saving vegan powered blitz machines, wouldn't this actually mean we'd use less of our precious fuel reserves... wouldn't this save muscle cars, supercars and the fun stuff. Economy wouldn't necessarily be a required end game anymore. See what I mean? Your electric car could save your '69 mustang from being an outlaw... even though outlaws are cool.
2. We're killing the planet. Lets face it, we're running out of excuses. Simply put, if we embrace the right thing, then maybe the amount of crap we put into the air from our more niche group of purist satan transport won't be enough to cause the harm it's doing now. The planet is pretty clever, we just need to understand that the glory days need harnessing. But it doesn't mean they have to be over.
The Future
I love the potential for electric transport and a better greener future in not only our cars but our homes and infrastructure. If we don't change our attitudes, then we're surely sealing the fate of our environment, but more importantly (just kidding, greenies), the imminent demise of any fun future in our fuel powered mistresses.
The 80/20 rule applies. If we commute the friendly way 80% of the time, then we could possibly sustain a 20% fuel culture. If we continue to do worse than the opposite, then it'll be 100% memories of a bygone age which could have been avoided.
There's still room for fuel in our future, but it needs to utilised in a fashion which continues to serve us without irrepairable harm. It's a perfect case of overindulging in too much of a good thing. Now it's time to go on a diet and think about better health if we want to extend a viable future.
...The defense rests :)