Electric Vehicles (EVs)

In the recent weeks there has been a number of events that have led me to believe that 2011 could be the breakout years for EV adoption in the US. First is the BP oil spill which just reinforces the fact that drilling for oil is simply not sustainable in the long term, not to mention the enormous security risk of transferring trillions of dollars to outside economies,  some of whom are not friendly towards us (Note: Canada is our largest oil trading partner closely followed by the middle-east).

Fisker-Karma

Tesla Roadster

Tesla Model-S

Some of the recent headline events -

• Almost all major manufacturers have now announced their plans for introducing EVs. 
• Toyota announced its plan to introduce its 2nd generation of RAV4 EV in partnership with Tesla. Toyota also announced a $50-Million investment in Tesla recently. 
• With Prius, Toyota already has the largest market share in the Hybrid Electric Vehicles which can be converted into a plug-in electric vehicle using A123's Hymotion L5 PCM. 
• Honda announced its plan to introduce EVs in 2012 in US
• GM will have Chevy Volt in 2011
• Nissan has Nissan Leaf and a rumored sports version of the Leaf
• Ford has Focus Electric
• Hot IPOs and funding events
• Tesla is trading at over $2Billion in market cap. Their 4-door Model-S sedan is expected to come on the market in 2011
• A123, a provider of batteries for EVs is trading at $1-Billion in market cap
• Fisker is expanding its manufacturing base with a new round of $500-Million+ funding from DOE to manufacture its Karma sedans. 
• Emergence of charging infrastructure from independent third party providers is reaching critical mass now - 
• BetterPlace  - providing a network of battery replacement centers
• Coulomb - providing a network of charging stations

EVs represent one of the biggest revolutions in the automobile industry in over a century. Introduction of EVs will give rise to a number of interesting problems in terms of managing the electric grid which is going through its own once in a century revolution with introduction of new Smart Grid technologies. The next 10-years promise to be an exciting time to be at the intersection of two of the largest industries in modern society undergoing simultaneous and overlapping transformation!