Where's the Electricity?

While there has been a lot of coverage about alternative energy cars, both electric and hybrid, only about one in five consumers are "very familiar" with the technology. That number is growing however.

It doesn't help when the boss of GM calls the Toyota Prius a "Geekmobile." A cheap shot that hurts the industry. My daughter has a Prius, she's had it five years and it runs great and sips gas in the range of 50MPG. We have a Ford Escape Hybrid at our house. It averages 32MPG.

I think one of the reasons, especially in areas of the west, that people aren't engaging this new technology is whether or not it can handle the weather and roads (or lack thereof) in this part of the world.

You have nothing to fear but fear itself.

Our previous car was a Volvo XC-70 AWD and to be blunt, it was awful in snow. The Escape is fabulous in the white stuff. It also negotiates roads like the one over Hermit Pass in the Sangre de Cristo Range. Actually to call that a road is overly charitable.

We're at least a generation if not more from weaning ourselves of gasoline engines. I'm not against them, but having worked in "Oil Patch" states like Wyoming and Texas I also know it's a finite resource. The less we use, the longer it can be available to us.

Being the son of an engineer, I like the hybrid best because of it's technology. Why run your engine when you're at a stoplight? You use the most gas when you first accelerate your car. Having an electric motor do the initial heavy lifting just makes sense.

The one irony with electric cars is, they'll need to be recharged with electricity coming mostly from coal-fired plants. Practical wind power is again, a generation away. So are the Nuke Plants we'll need. So those huge coal trains you see headed south through Denver we'll keep on rolling for years to come.

But hybrids can handle anything you toss at them. Think about one when it's time for your next car.

Brian Olson
Conversation Starters Public Relations
"We start the conversation about you"