Ten reasons EV/PHEV + renewables = revolution

leaf-solar-rev-smalleditors-blog-entry3There’s a lot of pessimistic talk out there about how EVs and PHEVs won’t make it. Rooted in the age-old tired logic of the skepticism of the new and the often unconscious desire to maintain things “as they are” – no matter how polluting and filthy they are, the EVs/PHEVs won’t make it (anytime soon) mantra goes something like this:

“EVs are too expensive, there aren’t enough places to plug them in, they’re too slow, batteries will never come down in price, battery technology is too uncertain right now, Li-ion batteries are dangerous, and finally, the million-and-one reiterations of range anxiety, range anxiety, range anxiety.”

There is certainly some truth to these naysaying predictions. But they’re also often simplistic. For instance, they rarely pay much attention to Peak Oil, exponential oil consumption, and, of course, The End of Oil – a cold, hard fact modern society appears to be willfully denying.

Worse than being simplistic, the ‘EVs/PHEVs won’t make it predictions’ are oh so boring.

Worse than being simplistic, the “EVs/PHEVs won’t make it predictions” are oh so boring. In an effort to offer something fresh in a sea predictable predictions, SolarChargedDriving offers “Ten reasons the EV/PHEV + renewable energy mix will start a revolution.”

10. Few know about EVs/PHEVs & EV/PHEV + renewable mix — yet. Most greenies actually don’t know about EVs/PHEVs – when they ‘discover’ them, they’ll buy them in force. Because most greenies don’t yet know about EVs/PHEVs, they also don’t know about the incredible EV/PHEV + renewable energy synergy. Finding out about this will charge them up on solar-charging and wind-charging, big time.

9. Complete fueling independence. When greenies (and maybe even a few libertarians) ‘discover’ EVs/PHEVs & the fact that many of us can power them completely independently with solar and/or wind on one’s property, they’ll want to do an EV/PHEV yesterday – and please don’t talk to me about apartment dwellers. Two-thirds of Americans own their own home.

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8. Stick it to Big Oil. Far more people than most “experts” think are fed up with Big Oil and are just waiting for a way to stick it to Big Oil. There’s no better way to do this than plugging into the EV/PHEV + renewable energy mix.

7. Plugging in is convenient. Conventional wisdom holds that most people don’t want the inconvenience of plugging a car in. Conventional wisdom has it completely backwards: Plugging your car in at night and filling it up while you sleep is far more convenient than pumping gas in zero degree temperatures and a blinding snowstorm.

6. People are sick of it all being about money. Millions and millions of people are soooo tired of the way that the economic bottom line has taken over EVERYTHING — name one thing in modern capitalist society that, in the end, doesn’t get reduced to a question of economic cost. These millions of folks are more than willing to do the right thing on many fronts – and fixing what they drive is one of the biggest things they can do. That’s because a renewable-energy powered EV kills two of the world’s most potent pollution birds with one stone. It eradicates the burning of gas in a car and eliminates the burning of coal to power a home’s electricity.

5. The loads of green early adopters will drive down prices. The early adopters of EVs/PHEVs — many of whom will hail from the green class, which again, forms a substantial and affluent portion of the population in modern industrialized countries such as the U.S., the UK, etc. will quickly help to drive down the costs of EVs/PHEVs for others — much more quickly than the naysayers predict.tesla-roadster-colorful

4. Auto makers will plug EVs/PHEVs into green marketing campaigns. Greenies will buy EVs/PHEVs especially when the renewable energy + EV/PHEV synergy becomes better known. This mix will become well known, partly because automakers will advertise it. Auto makers aren’t dumb. They recognize that putting their EV/PHEV in front of a windmill and in front of solar panels will help sell that car. Better yet, it won’t only help sell that car, it will help sell home solar and wind to millions of people around the world.

3. Residential renewable energy companies will sell EV/PHEV + renewable mix. Solar companies and companies that produce residential wind turbines aren’t dumb either. In two years, you will be hard pressed to find a single solar company or residential wind turbine producer that doesn’t plaster pictures of EVs/PHEVs parked in front of homes with a solar system and/or wind turbines all over their marketing brochures, their advertisements and their web site.

2. Solar goes zero money down. The biggest hurdle to home solar ownership – the big upfront cost – is coming down with the rapid growth of solar leasing, which allows homeowners to go solar with zero money down and to save immediately on their electric bill. Of course, not many green homeowners know about solar leasing yet. But when they find out, many of them will do a solar lease – what’s not to like?

1. The (so far totally underestimated) snowball effect. The EV/PHEV + renewable energy mix will not only sell EVs + PHEVs to a public that’s been waiting for years for truly green driving to become a reality it will sell renewable energy as well. (Sorry, hybrid owners, you’re doing the right thing, but it doesn’t compare to the positive impact of driving an EV powered completely by sun or wind). Once the environmentally inclined become aware of this mix and how accessible it is – and, again, they will — hard-core greenies will start the EV/PHEV + renewable snowball. It will grow and grow. First, because far more people than the “experts” say are green to the core. For example, I bet some of the hybrid owners I gently called out above are going to want to out-green their neighbors and will jump to the EV + solar mix as soon as they can. Second, the EV/PHEV + renewable energy synergy will snowball because it has to. Oil is a finite resource, and, although virtually no one is talking about it – as far as I can tell oil analyses in the mainstream media never look beyond a 20- or 30-year horizon — it’s almost certain to run dry within this century.

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