The Future is Electric
February 08, 2021
From a very young age, cars have held a special place in my heart. My grandpa had a black 1953 Buick Roadmaster that he’d restored. I will never forget rumbling along on that leather bench seat, singing old doo-wop tunes on our way to eat lunch at the drugstore. This experience, and many fond memories of working under the hood, gave rise to my love for big, loud, combustion engines. My personal favorite is the Shelby GT500 fastback. If you’ve seen the iconic 1968 film Bullitt with Steve McQueen, you’ve seen this awesome car. ‘The times they are a changin’ though. The loud old cars I love may soon call a museum their home because the future is electric, and it sounds suspiciously silent.
Combustion engines may have been given their marching orders but have the big oil giants been listening? 2020 was a rough year for oil, marking the first time crude oil prices have ever turned negative. There’s no doubt the oil companies are feeling the heat from their investors as well, who cite their failure to address long-term energy transition needs, with the absence of any concrete changes in strategy.
The future of renewable energy depends on reliable stable storage options for energy collected from alternative sources like wind and sun. There is one big oil player that is placing bets on our battery powered future. The largest crude oil producer outside the U.S., Saudi Aramco, which is owned by the Kingdom’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), is a big investor in renewable energy. Silicon Valley’s newest electric motor company, Lucid Motors, closed a $1B investment from the PIF last year to build the beta version of its first vehicle, the Lucid Air. The Air’s major claim to fame was a 517-mile range on a single battery charge, beating Tesla’s model S long-range, EPA rated at 402 miles. It only took Elon Musk a month to claim his top spot back with the Tesla Model S Plaid, which has a battery range of 520 miles, 1100 horsepower (no, that’s not a typo), and a top speed of 200 mph.
The $139,990 Plaid may be slick, but it isn’t very affordable, which is one of the major steps in achieving large-scale fossil fuel reduction. General Motors has made a commitment to address this by producing electric vehicles for “every lifestyle and price point.” Evidently, they are in a race with Norway, which has more electric vehicles (EVs) per capita than any other country, and where over half of all new vehicles sold are now electric. Another American company is helping Norway charge their EVs – Circle K. They are ready to bring similar infrastructure to American stations by 2025. And, if you’re a petrol-head like me, Swedish company Soundracer has a nifty piece of hardware that will allow your electric car to accelerate with a noise like a V8, a V10, or even a spaceship. Now that sounds interesting.
Whitney Butler
