ICE Heads To The ICU
Didja hear the news? General Motors, makers of the Corvette, Nomad, Cadillac, Nova, Camaro, Malibu, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, GMC truck, GTO, Chevelle, Trans Am, Escalade, Suburban, et al is phasing out internal combustion engines (ICEs) in all its vehicles by 2035.
WHAT?
BY 2035. Could happen sooner.
No more gas stations! Muffler repair shops! Emissions checks! Emission equipment!
Piston rings! Main bearings! Leaky valve cover gaskets! Radiator hoses!
Fuel filters, Carburetors, Points, Dwell settings, Antifreeze, Head Gaskets, Timing Belts, Oil changes, Catalytic Converters, Exhaust Manifolds, Rocker Arms, Valve Clearance Adjustments, Spark Plugs, Distributor Caps, Motor Mounts, Belts, Chains, Wires, Water Pumps, Turbochargers, Fumes, Oil Stains, Blue Smoke, Carbon Monoxide, Carbon Dioxide, Heater Cores, and so much more.
In fourteen years or less every car on the GM lot is going to not have the kind of motor most Americans have ever known and if that ain't a game changer I don't know what is.
The Way It Was
Marek Piwneki-Unsplash.com
Just the fact that there will be a dwindling number of gas stations is enough to amaze. Gas stations for me are like McDonalds. One on every corner!
Auto parts is not a business anybody is going to want to be a part of. Napa, Auto Zone, O'Reilly, and others.
Mechanics are going to be a vanishing breed. Electric cars don't need the kind of attention that ICE cars do. 'Decimated' as concerns that career path is not too strong a word.
Of course this is all subject to the actual course of events (i.e. reality) but I've been doing my research and am not surprised (though I am) that GM announced it's taking a 90 degree turn from what was. Other countries are moving full steam ahead on electric vehicle production and in all likelihood might convert faster than we in the US will. China isn't holding back.
Fourteen years is not a long time. I can clearly remember where I was and what I was up to fourteen years ago like it was yesterday.
In 2035 there will still be plenty of gasoline (AND diesel, the changeover applies to both) vehicles on the road but you gotta think- what will the resale value of those relics be? Not much, I'm guessing. They'll live out their life expectancies and be scrapped, most of them. The ones that remain will be powered by most likely far more expensive (and harder to find) liquid fuels than we have accessible to us today.
By 2035 the charging infrastructure to keep the electrics on the road will have gone from sporadically available to everywhere. Gas stations will have gone from everywhere to sporadically available. Many different modes of charging electrics will be available.
I never thought I'd live to see this. It's going to be amazing.
Still, I'm going to miss gasoline powered cars. For all their mechanical fobiles they were fun to drive. I never was much of a car nut but people around me were and they're going to go through serious withdrawal.
Internal Combustion Engine vehicles are destined to join the ranks of cassette tapes, VCR's, film cameras, telephones, wired earbuds, analog televisions, television networks, movie theaters, FM radio, DVDs, and the like on the junkpile of history.
Hopefully (thinking ahead) we humans won't be prevented from driving the electrics when the changeover comes, A.I. by that point making human drivers in comparison exponentially more error prone and possibly unfit to sit behind the wheel. However, we, through the extensive history of us piloting gasoline powered cars all by ourselves proved that we can do so reasonably well and thus should be allowed to continue. After all, driving is pleasurable. 'See The U.S.A. In Your Chevrolet' would not be any fun at all if a robot was driving you.
Electric vehicles might never wear out. That's going to be a problem. They are so low maintenance as to be ridiculous. Model year upgrades will still have to occur, that is imperative. Even though the drivetrain might not change the body must, as nothing would be more uncool than being in the 2037 model if it looks exactly like the 2035 one.
What about the rumble of the motor? Sorely missed. Perhaps a sound effect dealer option could be added. The ever present concern about breakdown? Gone! Replaced by 'insufficient warranty' concerns, perhaps. 'Range Anxiety' (not having enough juice in the battery to get home) will have been long ago problem solved by the time those new electrics- and only electrics- show up on the GM lots.
Where am I going to get a bag of Doritos, a cupa joe, a donut, a pack of smokes, a six pack of brew? Are there going to be enough convenience stores populating the major byways as there were in pre-electric days???!!!
Citizens Of The Future Won’t Know What This Place Is
Donny Jiang- Unsplash.com
What about Dino the Sinclair dinosaur? The Exxon tiger? The ARCO AM-PM sign lighting up the night? Meeting the rest of the citizenry at the busy multiple pumps fuel island joint that everybody in town goes to?
We will have no gas station commiseration, sharing stories of having to pump fuel in freezing cold weather or having had to dash into the store in pouring rain because the credit card reader at the pump didn't work then being forced to stand in line while some gal in the front of the line was buying way too many items for what is obviously to everybody else a convenience store.
It's going to be very interesting watching this changeover play out over the next bunch of years. Heck, it's interesting already. Teslas used to be rarely sighted by me, and once they were, they were eyed with great interest. Now I don’t linger on them at all. They're commonplace. Chevy Volts, Nissan Leafs, and electric BMW's are starting to be indistinguishable from gasoline powered cars, as the designers have made adjustments over the model years. There might be more electrics on the road now that the average driver realizes.
I'm sure the oil industry realizes!
Any chance this is going to turn back? That we're going to return to the 'good old days'? That chance is zero. Battery technology is improving every year. Capacity is increasing and driving range is lengthening. When that first Tesla pickup comes blowing past you looking like something that just emerged out of a military top secret program and makes your car look sick at the traffic light by its sports car-like acceleration the message will be firmly driven home. “The future is here”. Might as well get on board with that- ‘cuz it’s not like you're going to have much of a choice!
There will be many who will resist. But that's like saying that earth’s singular reality can have alternative physical dimensions and they'd prefer to live in the world where they can not only see the car in front of them, they can smell it too. That world is ceasing to exist. It’s disappearing! Forever. (And with it will go all those diesel hooligans ‘rolling coal’ (look it up)). Your days, my snickering friends, are numbered.
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