The switch to electric will be "sudden"

I recounted the story of my time on the Australian Tesla Model S waiting list last year and my reluctant withdrawal because of unfavourable (to me) changes in the USD-AUD exchange rate. Though I haven't seen one in Australia myself yet, a friend told me last week that they had spotted their first one so there have been some deliveries here.

After cancelling my order I did take stock of what I would have been in for with the servicing, recharging etc that owning an electric car involves. In Australia at least the electric car infrastructure is nowhere near ready for prime time it seems. Despite that, I believe that the switch to electric cars will be "sudden".

I made up my mind a while ago that my next car would be electric. It might be anywhere up to 5 years in the future however, and that means I'll keep my current car beyond ten years - a first for me (record so far is 7 years).

In my forties, I have lived through other "sudden" things that seemed to overtake society like the Internet which no one can now truly live without, and yet I remember my first Netscape Navigator experience back in 1995 at Liverpool Hospital's library on an ancient (now) Windows 3.1 beige PC. Websites useful to me were countable back then and a printed booklet which you could refer to for URLs was as close as you came to a search engine.

Smart phones are another "sudden" thing. I remember my Sony P900 from 2003 fondly when other dumb phone users would wonder why on earth I would bother with such a huge phone when they had small Nokia slider phones etc. I also remember being among the 5 people who even bothered lining up for the initial Apple iPhone at a local phone shop when there were no Apple stores in Brisbane at the time. Fewer than 1 person in 1000 even knew what it was or what it was capable of. Now hardly a person on earth doesn't know.

So I firmly believe the electric car's day will also come "suddenly". I don't think my first electric car will be a Tesla though. I think other manufacturers will also develop electric cars as they have been and this will bring the era of the electric car to the masses. One day when it has all happened it will also seem as "sudden" as the other examples I have listed.