Driving Green

According to Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) Senior Contributor Michael Liebreich, the International Energy Agency predicted back in 2016 that there would be a mere 23 million electric vehicles (EVs) on the roads worldwide by 2023; fast-forward to 2018 and they have since upped their projection to 127 million due to sales exceeding projections over the past two years. Liebreich, alongside BNEF Chief Editor Angus McCrone, argues in their 2016 report Electric Vehicles—It’s Not Just About the Car that “the very fact that there is now a scalable technology competitive with internal combustion vehicles means there is a cap on long-term oil prices.” Which is to say, the technology that makes EVs possible is reaching a stage where buying and selling fossil fuel-powered vehicles simply may no longer be the economically viable choice.

While the prospect of EVs becoming the global standard is exciting in itself, we have our sights set even further. Replacing internal combustion engines with battery systems is an obvious step in the right direction as it pertains to environmental friendliness, but the source of the electricity itself ought to be duly considered. Unsurprisingly, we totally have an opinion on this, and it’s one that involves pre-empting public demand for increasingly sustainable goods by developing the necessary infrastructure to charge EVs with nothing other than solar energy. In nations whose electric grids are already reliable sources of energy, the idea is for EV owners to tap into this existing resource without forcing consumers to deviate too far from what is familiar and relatively efficient. Nigeria, on the other hand, is capable of bypassing this phase. Seeing as the grid may already stand to benefit from purchasing excess energy generated privately, introducing the right products at the right time will allow car-owners to make the switch to more sustainable products sooner than they might have anticipated. Just imagine: no more hours wasted queuing up for fuel only to fill up half a tank. Crazy, right? Whether we like it or not, change is well underway. But on the bright side (pun wholly intended) it’s looking preeeetty clean.