Think Customers: The 1to1 Blog

Friedman suggests that gasoline-powered cars will soon go the way of the typewriter, cassette tape, and mail order catalogs. One day that may be the case, but the reason he sees this future coming upon us soon is a company called "Better Place." The company creates cars that generate electricity from roadside generators powered by renewable energy. He cites the places the company has piloted its products (Hawaii, Israel, Denmark, San Francisco) and says that soon all of American transportation will be powered by electricity and we'll all plug our cars in at the side of the road. Sounds Utopian. I call it naive.

The problem with Detroit isn't that it doesn't recognize consumers don't want gas guzzlers anymore and only want hybrids (which I don't think is the case), it's that they don't have a wide array of options for consumers who have different needs. That's also what Friedman fails to see. Yes, electric cars work great in small, densely populated areas. San Francisco can easily adopt such a program. South Dakota would have a tough time justifying the cost.

America is not Israel or Denmark, and Americans are not going to accept his plan. In the 90's women were attracted to minivans (and then SUV's) because of their number of seats and large size that made them feel safe. Men bought sports cars and pickup trucks to satisfy their need for speed and machismo. Until electric cars can go fast and far without recharging, and are big enough to house a large family safely, customers just aren't going to flock to them en masse. Detroit's problem may be they don't have the pulse of what consumers want, but I don't think Friedman is any closer.