If there is one single, most important motivation for the development of Electric Vehicles (EV) and Plug-In Hybrids (PHEV) with their battery technology, it’s the soaring price of oil.
Seeking Alpha even writes about it! People are changing their driving behaviors, less cars on the street, slower speed on the highways.
Who is benefiting from this? Obviously the consumer, and mostly in the long run but in the meantime, the obvious winners are utilities and those involved in building the infrastructure to accommodate EVs. Take for instant Great Britain, who is very active building recharging stations for EV and a company such as Electromotive working on giving drivers of electric cars and motorcycles an on-street recharging network.
How will it work? By accessing the network, a user uses an electronic tag to communicate wirelessly with the recharging unit opening a waterproof access allowing to plug in and recharge. We also feel we will need to face up with the limitations of 110v and see more upgrades to allow for 220v and even 380v stations, as well as in home delivery.
What us here? Even though Europe is racing through the EV obstacles, some cities are already planning. As we have seen before, San Jose, CA is already working on it.
Europe might give the US the impetus in charging ahead with a network of re-charging stations throughout… all puns intended!