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posted by martyb on Thursday May 25 2017, @12:04PM   Printer-friendly
from the plugging-electric-vehicles dept.

The rate at which new technologies get accepted into the mainstream never fails to confuse people. For the longest time, cell phones appeared to be the exclusive domain of yuppies, bankers and drug dealers. And then, suddenly, my mum had one. (No, she doesn't sell drugs.)

Could we see a similar rapid adoption for electric vehicles?

The LA Times reports that Q1 electric car (EV) sales are up 91% in California. Sales of Plug-In Hybrids (PHEV) are up 54% too. This is, of course, only one quarter, from one state, so let's not get too excited. And the actual number of units sold—13,804 EVs and 10,466 PHEVs—is still tiny compared to the 506,745 cars and light trucks sold in the state during the same period. But anyone who knows anything about math can tell you that it doesn't take long for a 91% growth rate to start making serious inroads into a particular market. (Electric car sales in Norway have already reached as high as 37% of new passenger vehicles.)

It's possible the muscle memory developed for cellphones could help with EV adoption, too: plug in the phone at night, plug in the car at night.


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  • (Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Thursday May 25 2017, @07:25PM

    by Phoenix666 (552) on Thursday May 25 2017, @07:25PM (#515647) Journal

    Really? That's interesting. My brother-in-law loses 4 hours a day commuting down the peninsula from SF to his job at Facebook. He takes the company shuttle because traffic is so bad. But if an EV would give him license to use the carpool lane and get there faster he could get his life back.

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