We just experienced the US electoral mid-terms. No matter what side of the electoral spectrum you sit on, one item that did not come up is the environment.
It is clear that the consequences of the US mid-terms may well affect the climate agenda for the for-seeable future for every one of us on the planet. Again, it does not matter what side of the environmental debate you sit, we are all going to experience what is and will be happening on the planet with pollution and climate changes. It is odd that such a big issue is such a third rail for what a very important US election is.
There are clear areas where it is tough to do something at an individual level to counter the pressures of an impending recession. We are all experiencing the effects of inflation, in one or many ways, such as energy or food costs and we are all seeing what is happening in the war in Ukraine.
Yet there is an interesting light at the end of the tunnel for how many US adults are looking to spend their money to make a difference. It is oddly in the automotive industry.
El Monte, CA - March 23: A woman looks at the 2022 Toyota Mirai hydrogen-fuel cell car at Longo ... [+]
Starting sometime early in 2023 and definitely before the middle of 2025 more Americans will consider their next car purchase as being and electric car than an internal combustion car. Not just that, but between 2023 to 2025 more Americans will believe that EV’s are better for the environment than an internal combustion unit. The conclusion being, we vote with our wallets. Five conclusions from this:
Consumers are ahead of the government – They vote with their wallets
The government set a deadline for all vehicles being new EV’s by 2035. We should be moving way faster than that as US consumers hit the dual tipping points of considering an EV (2023 to 2025) and also that majority believing that EV’s are better for the environment than internal combustion units. In fact, if you take the model out on a time curve, we are wasting seven and a half years where consumers are going to be ahead of the government’s mandate. The government should be pushing harder and faster to keep up with the US population here. A very small percent of the US driving population count themselves a petrol heads by 2035 and we should be moving way faster.
Wallets drive momentum – If only governments used that as a lever
If as a leader you said something had to be done by the end of the month, but it got achieved today you would be excited and celebrate success. Governments need to celebrate how citizens are driving a faster adoption of EV’s than the mandates. We don’t get this sense of celebration around citizen momentum and that might be the greatest lever governments have to drive societal change that could matter to the planet. The EV example is a perfect illustrator of this because over half the car buyers in the US will have made that leap to EV for the right reasons by 2025.
Transformation at a large scale, the largest being societies, can be mandated but real success comes from watching those around us take the first few steps, either together or in close sequence. If we want to avoid environmental threats and we want to also avoid the subject (as a third rail) in the election cycles we need to celebrate the magnitude and ranges of changes that normal citizens are installing in their own lives, day in and day out. The same is true for organizational transformations where the greatest engine for change is the constant illustration of living examples, often right in-front of our faces.
The power of the EV Revolution
Democracy is at work, outside the bounds of elections, as we as consumers decide how we will spend money to change the world around us. If EV’s are one transparent example of this there are many others that will evolve of the next few years around ideas like Freeing energy consumption to be more local. This is the subject of a forthcoming interview on the Forbes Futures in Focus podcast with Bill Nussey.
