"The brave new world is upon us. The new opportunities are just starting to show green sprouts. There is money to be made, jobs to be created, opportunities to be chased."
Okay young folks. Looking for a career with a future? Oh, there are going to be lots to chose from. BUT - one which is right around the corner, is connected with the new direction the auto industry is going in. ICYMI, I did an article earlier this week about the rapid changes coming in cars. Not just a design change, but a fundamental change on how they will run. The world is going electric on vehicles, that is a certainty, and the logistics to support that change will be sprinting like crazy to catch up with that change.
Today, I attended a monthly political luncheon event. On the way home, I stopped at my auto dealership to get a slow leak in a tire fixed. While I was waiting, I was standing outside enjoying this 20 degree warm-up. I noticed the dealership (a very large one), still had only one charging station for the Volt. I asked one of the people on the sales floor if they we aware in five years, GM was planning on having 20 new models which will be 100% electric. In those five years (and the other car manufacturers are also joining the crowd), we are going to need a boat load of new charging stations to service these cars.
How many charging stations will be required all over town, on the road, and in most garages? Millions. Maybe tens of millions. So opportunity is there. To be able to have the capacity to manufacture as well as install these stations. These are HUGE opportunities in this developing market. Then (and this is also a big one), is the juice. Will we be able to produce enough electricity at an affordable price to charge all these cars? And how will we produce this electricity? Bring back coal? Nukes? Oil? Wind? Solar?
This is something I can tell you right now is going to be a big problem. The industry has made the choice (and the financial commitment) to evolve from gasoline to electric. And in five years, we will be in the smack dab middle of this change. We better (as a nation), come up with a plan on how this will work. If we don't, we are going to have a whole bunch of electric cars sitting idle and people being stuck in their homes.
One more thing. As we are starting to phase in the charging stations, we also need to start phasing out gas stations. This change on how we keep our vehicles running is going to be HUGE - MASSIVE. How is it going to work? Pay attention youngins. This is your opportunity to excel and shine. This is virgin territory where there is no plan, no cookbook. You will able to shape the future by the way you solve this opportunity (and problem).
The brave new world is upon us. The new opportunities are just starting to show green sprouts. There is money to be made, jobs to be created, opportunities to be chased. It is now 2018. The clock is ticking. If we don't grab the future, someone else will.
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