Incoming: Electric Cars and Trucks

If you have read this blog for any amount of time you know that my first purpose in writing is to describe my motorcycling experiences. The thrill of riding and seeing things from the back of a bike never gets old for me. But two wheeled machines do not represent the limit of my interest in motorized transportation. While I did not grow up in a motorhead family nor develop an interest in cars at a young age, it did not take long for my interest to grow once I learned to drive.

The first car I owned was a 1972 Pontiac Le Mans. My dad had to co-sign on the loan, but it was my very own car and represented freedom. Within a month of owning it, I was on my way to New York City for my sister's wedding. At the age of nineteen I drove that shiny copper colored car through Chicago, the mountains of western Pennsylvania, the wilds of New Jersey and into the Big Apple. 

Over the next fifty years I have owned many cars and a few trucks. They have all been gas powered internal combustion engines. No diesels made it into my garage, and I have not ventured into the electric car market. But it appears that, if I live long enough, that may have to change.

Two of the big American manufacturers, Ford and General Motors, are investing heavily in car battery research. These companies have been around for over a century, and they know their business. They would not be spending the sums that they are if they did not see electric cars as the future of personal transportation. 

I have the opportunity to be around people who have been interested in cars their whole lives. Some have made living dealing with all things automotive and for some it has been a hobby. For the vast majority internal combustion engines, gas or diesel, have been the only engines they have encountered. It is understandable that they have a fondness for them, but I am puzzled when some discount the approach of electric vehicles. I have heard the phrase "smoke and mirrors" used to describe battery-powered cars as if there is no science behind the technology at all. 

It may be that the buggy whip manufacturers thought the same thing about horseless carriages. The difference now is that we all have access to the latest scientific information regarding electric car battery technology through the internet. In battery technology, as well as other aspects of 21st century life in America, science is often scoffed at or ignored. My money is on the car companies and their investors to know what the automotive future holds for all of us.