Electric vehicles on display at "Beyond Oil" 2009. From left to right, the Ford Focus, RAV 4 and Tesla Roadster. Mike Wussow/Cascadia Center of Discovery Institute
If you walked by Microsoft's Executive Conference Center late last week and saw more than one dozen cars lined-up on display outside the main entrance, you could have been forgiven for thinking the future hadn't arrived. The electric vehicle display (which included cars, trucks, motorcycles, a van and bicycles) was part of Discovery Institute's annual conference about the convergence of transportation and technology. What was surprising for some conference attendees was that with the exception of a power outlet instead of a gas tank, many of the world's most advanced electric vehicles look so very, well, normal.
Bruce Agnew, director of Discovery Institute's Cascadia Center--the institute's transportation policy center--says things weren't always that way and technology and design have changed dramatically in the six years since the institute held its first "Trans Tech" conference. Back then, he told The Seattle Times in a front-page Sunday story about the conference, the "parking lot was full of funny-looking cars." But now, he says, electric cars have gone "from a quirky passion shared by some Northwest drivers to a mainstream interest." Among the all-electric cars on display at the conference were the sleek and speedy Tesla Roadster, the Ford Focus and Toyota's RAV4. (In addition to The Seattle Times, Seattle television stations King 5 and KIRO 7, along with KOMO 1000 radio, covered the conference. Links to coverage of the conference by Seattle's public affairs channel can be found on the event site.)
Discovery's "Trans Tech" conference for two years has gone by the title "Beyond Oil" to reflect the interwoven policy tapestry of oil dependence, national security, transportation and the economy. Last week's conference, attended by 300 participants and sponsored by Microsoft, Clean Cities, Ford, Idaho National Laboratory and others, helped show that the trajectories of technology, transportation and policy are now closer than ever before. Importantly, in addition to ideas and innovation, there is now money behind both.
For its part, the Northwest has has received a $15 million U.S. Department of Energy grant for the Puget Sound Clean Air Agency's Clean Cities Coalition program for alternative fuel and vehicle projects. That money will be used for new fueling and electric charging stations and will put at least 650 alternative fuel and advanced technology vehicles onto the region's roads. Congressman Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) presented the Clean Cities grant at the conference. The Northwest also will benefit from a $100 million grant that Nissan and eTec received, with help from Idaho National Laboratory, to install charging stations for owners of the all-electric Nissan Leaf.
As Discovery Institute's Cascadia Center predicted several years ago, technology and policy initiatives have finally caught up to each other as automakers have made the investments to produce electric vehicles, and federal, state and local policy makers are finding ways to support the integration of the new technologies. Just as now normal-looking electric cars have shifted from "quirky" to "mainstream," the receipt of federal grant awards, which will help establish the charging and information infrastructure for plug-in cars, will help the Northwest lead what will likely become a mainstream national shift away from oil in transportation.
