Imagine If Electric Automobiles Were Invented First

Suspend your disbelief for just a moment to put yourself into a time and space where the gasoline powered engine has not yet been invented and everything you would think of on the planet that typically runs on gasoline is instead powered by an electric motor.

There is virtually no noise with these motors.

There are no emissions and no carbon dioxide.

There is no smelly exhaust.

There is no smelly gasoline or need to visit a gas station.

There is no delay between pressing the accelerator and zooming away.

There is virtually no downside.

What a world it would be!

And then some mad “genius” comes along with an alternative: A way to power vehicles and machines using a combustion engine consisting of a steel tank full of highly flammable liquid that while attached to the moving vehicle, will be converted to gas and burned for energy.

These “improved” vehicles will be better than the electric ones in use…because…

They will be way louder!

They will emit poisonous gases!

They will smell awful and be impossible to stand behind while powered on!

They will need refueled at a cost of $20-$100+per week!

They will have a lag between hitting the accelerator and actually moving!

Clearly no rational person would argue that gas-powered vehicles are superior – yet plenty of people are still dwelling on, hell, they are hoping for, the failure of Tesla and other electric car makers. Perhaps this is a knee jerk reaction to some of the bone head things Elon Musk says or because Elon insists on sending people to their deaths in Outer Space, or perhaps it is just that haters are gonna hate. 

Amazingly, none of the haters seem to bring up or have a problem with auto dealers being regulated at the State level and lobbying to keep Tesla from selling their cars via dealerships – an insanely anti-capitalistic policy won by auto lobbyists themselves, that does nothing other than benefit one group (auto dealers) to the detriment of all other groups, none more than the consumer (you and me!) In other words, supporting this policy literally takes money out of your pocket.

Whatever the reason, the haters are loud and plenty, but they will ultimately eat their words. There is no version of society advancing past 2019 where electric motors (and whatever tech is to follow) do not surpass and eventually eliminate combustion engines within the next xxx number of years. It may not be this decade or even the next, but for those of you reading this in 2119, you know what I’m talking about!