USA February 2014

Tesla Is Back Edition

A positive month for the US EV market, with 7.055 units sold in February, 28% above the same month last year.

Looking at the models ranking, we see the comeback of the Model S, #2 with 1.400 units, just behind the #1 Nissan Leaf (1.425 units), relegating the Chevy Volt (1.210 units) to the Third spot. Also in the four digit area, the Prius Plug-in (1.041 sales) secures #4, followed by the Energi brothers from Ford, with the Fusion (779) winning over the C-Max (552).

Looking at the brands ranking, Ford is going strong these days and it's now just a few units behind Nissan (#1 with 21% share), if the american brand keeps this pace, March will see Ford reaching the top spot for the first time ever.


P.......Model...................2014.......2013
1. Nissan Leaf................1.425........653
2. Tesla Model S............1.400......1.400
3. Chevrolet Volt............1.210......1.626
4. Toyota Prius Plug-In...1.041........693
5. Ford Fusion Energi........779........119
6. Ford C-Max Energi.......552........334
7. Ford Focus Electric......129........158
8. Smart Fortwo ED.........122........N/A
9. Toyota RAV4 EV.........101.........54
10.Chevrolet Spark EV......71........N/A
11.Cadillac ELR................58........N/A
12.Porsche Panamera Plug-In.57.....N/A
13.Fiat 500e......................50........N/A
14.Honda Fit EV...............33.........15
15.H. Accord Plug-in........24.........17
16.Mitsubishi I-Miev..........3........337

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Self-driving cars? We had ‘em back in ‘56

Quick: What involves four-part harmony singing, control towers in the middle of the desert, and a dude smoking a fat stogie? Give up? It's the world of self-driving cars, as envisioned in 1956.

No question, Google’s self-driving car has captured the public imagination. But really, the fascination is nothing new. For instance, at the 1939 World’s Fair, people thronged to see GM’s Futurama exhibit, which depicted a world of cars controlled by radio signals. GM continued to promote its autonomous vision in the 1950s with the Firebird II, a turbine-powered car that could drive itself by following an "electronic control strip" embedded in the road. Here, for example, is a GM-produced video from 1956 in which a musically adept family goes for an autonomous drive:



Fast-forward to today, when it seems that everyone is writing about self-driving cars. Most articles don’t add anything new to the discussion, but their ubiquity suggests that, as a society, we are preparing ourselves for a future in which we give up some degree of control to our vehicles. I find it fascinating that an automaker was at the avant-garde of this process as far back as the 1930s. Talk about looking (way) ahead.

And you know what’s cool? Comparing the vision of the good life captured in the above video with the vision captured in the “Imagined” video that QNX produced 56 years later. In both cases, autonomous drive forms part of the story. And in both cases, an autonomous car helps to bring family together, though in completely different ways. It seems that, no matter how much technology (and our vision of technology) changes, the things closest to our hearts never do:



One more thing. Did you notice how much the sets in the GM video look like something straight out of the Jetson’s, right down to the bubble-domed car? They did to me. Mind you, the video predates the Jetson’s by several years, so if anything, the influence was the other way around.

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