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21 Feb 2013

How to Achieve Obama's 1 Million 'EV' Goal

By Bill Moore

This past January, President and First Lady Obama walked down Pennsylvania Avenue as part of the traditional Presidential inaugural parade and right over the answer to his one million electric vehicle conundrum.

It was during Barack Obama’s first term that he set the goal during his 2011 State of the Union address of putting a million electric vehicles on the roads of America, seeking to stimulate a flagging economy and assert US leadership in the technology of the future, while also reducing the need for imported oil and cutting carbon emissions. With two years to go before the 2015 milestone, sales of e-drive vehicles from plug-ins like the Chevrolet Volt and fully electric models like the Nissan LEAF (the latter now having surpassed 50,000 units globally) haven’t lived up to industry expectations or government hopes, much to the delight of the President’s detractors. At the current pace, most analysts don’t see the million EV goal even close to being achievable over the next 24 months.

So, what did the President and First Lady walk on that could help achieve his goal? The bike lanes that run down the middle of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Bike lanes? Yes, bike lanes. I suggest that instead of the Administration focusing its efforts on more cars, albeit, more efficient ones, that it throw more of its weight behind bringing the nation to e-bike parity with the Netherlands, population 16.7 million as of 2011, five percent that of the United States. Depending on the time of year, as many as 40 percent of all trips in Holland are made by bicycle, and as of 2012, one million of those bikes are electric-assist, also known as e-bikes. Gazelle, one of Holland’s largest bicycle manufacturers, reports that 25 percent of its current sales are e-bikes; and it predicts this will rise to 40 percent by 2017.

This story continues for EV World Premium subscribers and will be available to non-subscribers in EV World Insider Illustrated.

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