BE "Green": December 2009

Hello All,

It has been a few months, but we have lots to talk about so hang on.

I have been doing a lot of things over the last few months involving green transportation. If you have been following the blog up to this point you know we like electric or zero emission vehicles. Or anything that reduces CO2 for that matter.

I know this industry very well and have been working on it a long time. I have seen more activity on EVs in the last few months than I have seen in 13-15 years. This situation started me thinking we could really make it this time. Individual zero emission transportation is almost here!!

Wow! It is all most here, well OK the bigger impact will be 10-12 months from now when the Leaf and Volt are available. But still Wow!

Then something really strange happened; instead of continued joy, there was dread. I started remembering the 90's and the pitfalls. I started thinking, what can I do to ensure, we make it across the finish line this time. Infrastructure is always key, it can be E85, CNG, BioDiesel, Electricity or Hydrogen. All new vehicle platforms need available fueling infrastructure. So that is what I spend most of 2009 doing, helping with infrastructure development.

OK, everything should be fine now right? Well no, unfortunately I started thinking again about potential pitfalls or roadblocks to zero emission vehicles hitting the road in volume.

Thats when it hit me ... the goal is not just a lot of ZEVs on the road. The goal is to cut CO2 by massive amounts (think KyotoPlus), provided people with choices for green/CO2 free transportation. Will just getting ZEVs on the road do that? I came to the conclusion that it starts the journey, but it cannot possibly finish it alone.

More is needed to compliment green vehicles. Green, smart and flexible mobility was the key. I had to know if anyone was looking at this stuff? Lucky people are in various ways. Companies like Intrago, Zipcar, Car2go and Ultra are doing it now. Furthermore many states are looking at more light rail and high speed electric trains systems to reduce their CO2 footprints.

www.car2go.com