New Trade Routes

Drawing digital pathways on the new trade maps.

Seattle, WA USA

Trade drives the way people interact.  People, products, money, and ideas follow the trade routes and impact everything in their path.  Keeping pace with the way trade routes are changing is essential to success or even survival.  New Trade Routes is working to better understand the changes so we can help our clients, investees, and grantees improve their chances of success.

 

Dirty Electric Cars

March 28, 2013  /  Jay Leon

Electric cars are clean in that they produce no emissions.  The dirt I am referring to in the headline is on the cars.  Why is it that so many electric car owners fail to clean their cars?  Could it be that car washes are at gas stations?

There are several other ways that electric cars are disrupting the way things work.  Here in Washington we pay 37 cents per gallon in taxes - largely used for road improvements.  Electric car owners pay nothing for gas and therefor nothing for road improvements.  I know I use about 25 gallons of gas per week, so my weekly tax is about $9.25.  Over a year then I pay $480 for road upkeep.  ​

eCarPlugIn.jpg

In response to this our legislature passed HB 2660 charging each of the electric car owners $100 per year for road upkeep.  Sometimes I am amazed at how fast certain bills get passed (tax increases) and others drag on forever (anything having to do with education).  So this year, our 1,600 electric car owners will contribute $160,000 to road maintenance in Washington and the three million other vehicles will pay through the gas tax.​

As the cars on the road change, so will the business opportunities   Edmunds reports that 5% of all new car registrations in Washington State are for electric cars.  Since electrics make up just 1/20th of a percent of registrations now, change is clearly coming. Who is going to wash all of those electric cars?

Comment