“Whatever Can Be Done Will Be Done”
Posted by mbgs on December 10, 2008
Thomas Friedman’s column today talks about the concept of “mobility miles,” a pilot model for electric cars being piloted by Shai Agassi’s Better Place. Essentially, the concept works like this: You lease a car, and pay a subscription to Better Place to take advantage of their charging stations (for trips less than 100 miles) and battery exchange stations (for trips greater than 100 miles). The cost for subscription averages 6 cents per mile, or about half the cost of gasoline. The system is currently in pilot stages in Israel, Denmark, Australia and Hawaii.
Friedman’s main conceit in the column is that the Big 3 are currently reacting like record executives investing in CDs on the eve of the iPod’s invention (GM declined to be a part of Better Place’s pilots)– that they are bypassing innovation, and will thus be passed by when Better Place and companies of its ilk demonstrate that they have a sustainable — in all definitions of the word — business model.
The most shocking revelation that Friedman makes in the column further underscores how entrenched Detroit’s business model has really been:
Remember, in 1908, the Ford Model-T got better mileage — 25 miles per gallon — than many Ford, G.M. and Chrysler models made in 2008.
Contrast the narrow focus of Detroit with the recent moves of T. Boone Pickens, the oilman who has recently started financing wind farms, calling wind “the next gusher.”
