- A tiny Himalayan kingdom that’s long been fiercely protective of its ancient Buddhist traditions wants to transform its capital into an electric car city. Tshering Tobgay, prime minister of Bhutan, said this week that the city of Thimpu would start replacing all official government vehicles (paywall) with the Nissan Leaf. Taxis and private cars will eventually be replaced with electric cars made within the country.
I found this the most fascinating fact: Wow. Can you imagine if we did that in any city in the US? I'm sure people would throw a tantrum but that would be an amazing sight - especially in overcrowded cities like NYC. I remember when LA shut down the freeway ("Carmageddon") and I had to venture up north for a meeting. Because everyone was planning on not being on the road I made in from Redondo Beach to Northridge in under 45 minutes - even without the freeway. It was really weird. To have a whole city, regardless of size, have no cars on the roads for a day would be unbelievable. Almost all of our parking cops and related vehicles are now either the Prius of the Leaf. It's smart and not just in terms of the environment. When your sole job is to drive in circles all day, you can save heaps on gas by switching to electric or hybrid. I think we'll see more and more of this as time goes on and they replace older models with newer ones.Bhutan has pledged to stay carbon-neutral country and requires that 60% of the country always remain forested. It enforces a pedestrian day once a month, barring private cars from the roads.
Perhaps a more honest headline would be "The National Council of Bhutan wants to force the Bhutanese people to drive electric cars." After all, people don't need special permission to buy a Leaf if they want one. It would be great fun to enjoy a day without cars, if you didn't need to be in a car that day. Remember the cool opening to "Vanilla Sky"? (And can anyone spot the goof?) But cars are popular for good reason. And the Bhutanese don't seem too happy about the ban; the weekly car-free day was changed to monthly, and now that too has been scrapped.
The big surprise to me here is that they plan to manufacture their own vehicles. I'm surprised that a small, poor, landlocked country could pull something like that off, given that electric cars aren't exactly cheap or easy to manufacture. Importing Leafs (Leaves?) seems like the better solution here. It's definitely a commendable goal and I wish them luck, but if the world's biggest, most knowledgeable, multinational auto giants can't build a cheap, reliable, safe electric car, I fear for Bhutan's chances.
Do you think that without the bureaucracy that the big major auto manufacturers have to contend with, the Bhutanese may have an advantage? So much of me thinks that the reason the big auto makers don't have a fleet of viable electric options isn't because they can't do it, it's because they are locked in to a current product line and are beholden to other industries and powers that be. Who knows, ten years from now Bhutan may be a major player in an emerging market.
I hope for everyone's sake that that is true. They certainly don't have shareholders to please, so they can lose money for some time while they figure it out. They also don't have the pressure of making a car with all the best creature comforts that will fly out of the showrooms. But still, making a good car is not easy.
I have to imagine that the bureaucracy large OEMs currently face is easily trumped by all of their other advantages, -access to the best R&D, engineers, economies of scale, etc. The largest automakers currently have a problem delivering hybrid/electrics that compete with fossil engines on price, -even with government subsidies that are extremely generous you still have to be careful with your CBA calculation if you're considering buying one it seems like. tangentally, mk were talking about driverless vehicles on the way back from DC. We both agreed that fleets will be the first to adopt. The moment the cost of a driverless rig technology is lest than the cost of a trucker's salary over a few years, they'll make the switch. I think we're still waiting for hybrids/electrics to get there on the whole vs coal fleets for consumers.