I saw something cool during a walk between clients today. The newly installed charging station in the new market square by city hall was actually being used! Whether this is just a small town with too many Silverados or the green movement is a little slow to be adopted here in automotive form, I have never seen anything plugged in here before.
It appears to be a Kia no less which is probably the most affordable brand in North America. The blue light on the dash was actually flashing and alternating to draw attention in case you didn’t notice the thick wire running to the grill.
It got me thinking again about green products and efforts. I have not looked too far in to the numbers but it initially seemed like a marketing cash grab little effect on saving money or the environment. I say this because the first “green” cars had such a premium price tag on them that it would take years to make back the fuel savings to compensate for spending thousands extra on your car. Additionally, a large amount of the electricity in our area (despite sitting right on top of one of the largest hydro generating waterfalls on the planet) was generated by coal burning plants. Pay way more for the same thing and charge it with dirty power......great.
So the interweeb holds many answers to your questions and smart phones make it so that humans don’t ever have to wonder anything because the answer is in their pockets. Lemmw look this up.
https://cns-snc.ca/media/ontarioelectricity/ontarioelectricity.html shows that gas and biofuel burning plants make up less than 10% of our current power generation.
https://carcostcanada.com/Canada/Prices/2018-Kia-Soul_EV/30969 shows us that you will still pay 35k (CDN) for a 15k car but is is encouraging that the bargain brand has entered the market, and people are buying it. Still a steep premium in my mind that will be charged as a tax for the real stewards of the planet.
Either way, like crypto, little steps and small progress is notable. As more bargain brands enter the market, competition heats up to make these cars more affordable, more people buy them and more charging stations pop up, it seems we are slowly headed in the right direction. Again, like crypto, the powers that be are rooted in the old commodity (oil and fiat) and there will be resistance.
The people have to vote with their dollars in purchase of both crypto and green automotive products. We want to slow the damage of the planet and decentralize monetization so let’s keep moving slowly and surely in that direction.
