In my position in the University Utilities Department in the middle 1990’s I purchased the University of Michigan’s first electric vehicle (EV). At that time, Detroit Edison had just launched its roll out its first EV “pilot” program; collaborating with the University’s Transportation Research Institute. Hastened by the Michigan Public Service Commission. Researchers on the academic side of the university needed money so they came to me to persuade my boss, Ken Beaudry — a regular golfing partner with the CEO of Detroit Edison – to use some of the surplus reserve our department set aside every year for emergencies. That’s a fair example of how business got done in those days.
We saw all the fatal flaws then. They have not gone away since: Fire hazard, range and burdening a power grid that may never keep pace with the other zietgeist — generative artificial intelligence — and the need for more power to supply the necessary data centers for the transformation to be fully realized.
With this perspective I am not optimistic for a national electric vehicle changeover within the next ten years. Effectively, policy makers are building in a single point of failure for our local, regional and national power systems. I will expand upon this from time to time. For now, I close this statement by steering education communities toward hybrid vehicles — i.e. vehicles that use a combination of fossil fuel and electric energy. While education settlements are the near-ideal use-case for electric-only vehicles because of the relatively short runs around campus and within the host municipality, they are not practical for the much lengthier transportation needs in the middle part of the United States — the so-called “Red States” — where most of the nation’s natural wealth lies — its oil reserves, agriculture and rivers.
