100 years ago, the automobile industry was rapidly expanding in America. The internal combustion engine [ICE] autos were rolling out of factories in ever greater numbers. The prices had just come down, installment payment plans were created to fuel the sales of the auto companies and the automobile started to become part of the American […]
It was about 10 years ago that I started to write about electric cars in this space with this and this column. It was clear to me then that, ultimately, they would become mainstream and become a significant percentage of cars driven in the developed countries of the world. In early 2008, I forecast that 2010-2015 would be the dawn of the age of the electric car and of course it was.
There will be more change in the next 20 years than any 20-50 year period in history. In fact, future historians may well look back on this time as a historical transit as significant as the beginning of the Industrial Revolution or the Renaissance. It is hard to imagine any area of life that will […]
In the last two columns about 2017 I took a look at the big picture and at the global economic, energy and geopolitical landscape. Much disruption ahead! Please notice that the title of this column is NOT Technology Trends for 2017. Trends do not happen within a year. Any such titled column is really about […]
We are now about 130 years into the automobile era. Starting with Karl Benz’s patent in the 1880s the automobile quickly became widespread with Henry Ford’s model of mass production scaling up the market 100 years ago. Since then there have been waves of significant changes. The first stage was about mechanics and engines and […]
I have been an admirer, yes, even a fan of Elon Musk ever since I first learned about Tesla Motors ten years ago. I state that because now it seems that Elon Musk is everywhere in the media – on-line, magazines, a best selling biography [which I have purchased but yet to start]- simply because […]
“The chances further down the road seem to me better on the fuel-cell side than on the battery-electric side” There are a number of readers of this blog and members of the audiences when I speak that just seem to think that hydrogen fuel cell autos are a pipe dream that has no chance of […]
In the last column we looked at the general dynamics underlying the reality and need to create an automotive industry in the U.S for the 21st century. We now take a look at what this industry might look like. An analysis of trends, developing technologies and the role that the federal government can and should […]
In the last column I wrote about the National Hydrogen Association annual conference and that it was both informative and generated unprecedented attendance from the public. One of the most exciting aspects of the conference was the opportunity to drive hydrogen fuel cell vehicles, a first for me. I drove three vehicles, and the experience […]
Hydrogen has long been looked at as the ‘fuel of the future’. The general impression is that it will be a marketplace fuel in the future but not for a decade or more. Well, surprise, hydrogen is coming into the fuel marketplace today, albeit slowly. Last week I attended the National Hydrogen Association annual convention […]
