Spark of ingenuity
The Tango, an electric car, is so cute you want to take its picture, the way adults take photo after photo of babies new to the family. Rick Woodbury, president of Commuter Cars Corp., the Spokane-based creator of the Tango, said that when the Tango zips by, people snap its photo with their cell phones. The Tango has been getting a lot of attention lately, because a gallon of gas in the Inland Northwest now costs $4 – or more.
“Our e-mail has jumped through the roof,” Woodbury said in a recent interview. “There’s quite a bit of interest.”
Suddenly, the words electric car generate as much hope for redemption as Holy Grail did once upon a time. How high do gas prices need to rise for consumers to alter gas-guzzling habits? In the Inland Northwest, $4 a gallon might be the beginning of the alteration. Bus riding is suddenly cool. And watch out for all those commuter bicyclists sharing our roadways. Human resource folks toiled in obscurity for years managing Commute Trip Reduction programs. Now eager employees inquire about bus passes, carpooling and incentives for alternative commuting.
But hopes for the electric car are generating the most buzz, the way the hope to someday land on the moon generated enthusiasm – and financing – for the ambitious space program of the 1960s and 1970s. Atlantic magazine reports this month on the quest by General Motors to mass produce the Volt, a plug-in car that would go 40 miles on an overnight charge. Other companies are looking to plug in, too, including Toyota, Nissan and the Silicon Valley company, Tesla.
“Simply by announcing the Volt, GM has attracted a bevy of competitors, bringing the electric car’s mass-market advent from over the horizon to around the corner,” writes Atlantic’s Jonathan Rauch.
Tango president Woodbury articulates well the challenges ahead, starting with the expensive and complicated battery technology. The cars, so far, are pricey. Tangos – two built, 10 in production – cost more than $100,000. And GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz told Atlantic: “It may be years before we make a dime on the (Volt). Years!”
Woodbury compares electric car technology – and hefty sticker price – to the days when cell phones were shoe-box size and sold for thousands of dollars. Someday, Volts and Tangos could be as ubiquitous on our streets as razor-thin cell phones.
The race for the electric car shows how market forces can and will respond to society’s needs. Our independence from foreign oil will come about through government and business programs and incentives – and free-market enterprise.