Independence: Electric car warm and fuzzy versus reality

Energy independence will define or break the US empire.

Energy independence and the decline and fall of the American empire.

Can you be a plug-in fan and tell the truth?

If you follow the alt car news then you definitely know about the Tesla Model X, and why shouldn’t you? It’s a gorgeous car from a brilliant company. There’s a lot to love about the X and Tesla. In many ways, Tesla is the epitome of American innovation, and a company to which I don’t mind sending a few tax dollars.

Yet, is it beneficial when the green auto press loves to talk up the $40 million in sales the X launch recently drove, while ignoring the $81.5 million fourth quarter loss the company endured?

Let’s face it, the electric car business is a tough one, and there are many reasons why that’s true. Besides, Tesla might have already planned on that $81.5 million fourth quarter loss. Instead, perhaps it was the $40 million that was the surprise — perhaps the company was only expecting $20 million. Nevertheless, an $81.5 million dollar quarterly loss proves the tenuous nature of Tesla’s business.

More important, does only telling the positive side of electric cars make the business better? Have plug-ins become a form of religion? You just believe or you don’t?

I know. There are real plug-in haters out there, a lot of them. The talking heads of the Republican party have practically made plug-ins an us-versus-them topic. But such a stance simply proves their idiocy. Fighting back with fantasy, however, isn’t much better.

I, for one, completely believe in electrification, but I’m not sure if the future of electrification will be purely battery-driven, fuel cell-driven, or a combination of both. OK. Actually, I believe it will be a combination of fuel cells and batteries that ultimately crushes gasoline and petroleum dependence.

Unfortunately, that future still seems pretty far away, by any measure.

Yet, the dangers of pollution and foreign oil dependence don’t seem that far away. In fact, 9/11 makes them feel like they’ve been sitting in America’s lap for the last decade, but with hardly any effective change since. Nor with any real change planned for the next decade.

Sadly, plug-ins cannot save us fast enough. Likewise, gas guzzlers cannot drive the future.

Anyway, so here’s my warm and fuzzy prediction for America. There was a time, just before the collapse, that the Roman Empire seemed unstoppable. America has already passed that time. Today, power is defined by energy. Today, America has the power to be energy independent. It’s up to us to either embrace our power, or to be destroyed by the weight of that wasted opportunity.

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