This was said in the early 1900's by Thomas Edison to Henry Ford. Fairly well known and respected figures of their times.
In the book, "The Internal Combustion Engine" the author talks about how Ford and Edison were conjointly working on an electric car.
On January 19, 1914, Ford announced to reporters that he and Edison were working on an electric car. It would weigh 1100 pounds and have a range of 100 miles between charges.
The cost then was projected at $600. They could see the writing on the wall, even then. It is interesting to note that at the same time Ford announced a $5 a day living wage, and "unprecedented $10 million profit sharing for his employees."
Their plan way back then was to make oil obsolete, and to provide an affordable vehicle for every family, to create a national infrastructure of battery swapping, and to use independently produced home energy to make these cars universally operable.
This joint effort may have been spurred by the 1912 shortage of gasoline when prices rose some 75% over the previous year.
Isn't this starting to sound a little familiar.?
Edison, who had the first totally electrified house, planned on using windmills to recharge his battery banks. He saw a whole nation of local power producers, and his new batteries which would power both cars and homes were to be leased. This, he thought, would allow people to not have the expense of buying batteries, they could simply rent them cheaply.
There was a war going on between the new Edison Nickel-Iron batteries (which weighed 55lbs. per horsepower hour) and the standard lead acid batteries (weighing 150 lbs. per HP hour.)
Edison's batteries had twice the range at half the weight. Due to machinations by forces opposed to Edison and Ford, and the mysterious fire which destroyed Edison's lab on Dec 9, 1914, the end soon came to the Edison/Ford electric car.
We could have had efficient electric vehicles over 100 years ago. We need not have put all of our eggs into the one-time-only fossil fuel basket.
We could have used President Carter's directive on CAFE standards and have high mileage gas vehicles now.
Fate and vested powerful interests are not interested in being usurped by creative minds.
"The Internal Combustion Engine", by Edwin Black reads like a spy novel. What the special interests have done to us and our once-efficient transportation system needs to be read. These very same interests (of a sort) still want things their way.Things will not change unitl we all rise up and demand loudly and consistently that things change.
Marie Antoinette did not hear her call at one time. She lost her head. People finally got fed up.
Instead of being told 'let them eat cake', we are told, "let them burn oil."
Things are not going to change unless YOU get involved and participate and make your voice loudly and constantly heard.
The Phoenix electric car, the car of the haughty rich still is not being produced. After years of research, constantly changing staffs of engineers, and many millions of dollars being thrown down a rathole, I have heard that only ONE has been delivered. Do we need a quarter million dollar electric car which will do 140mph to impress our friends? And how many of us can afford that?
My wonderful friend, the brilliant engineer I have talked about repeatedly has a 100 mile electric retrofit vehicle. I've driven the prototype. It uses lead acid batteries instead of exotic metal expensive stuff, and it works.
Incidentally, I am told by him, that with proper care, the lowly lead acid may last as long as 20 years. Something to ponder. Perhaps we should even re-look at the Nickel-Iron Edison battery.
And while billionaires are pumping thier fortunes into folly fancy speedy sportscars that don't work, my friend has invested years of his time and energy and finances and resources into something that works.
And can he get any funding? Is anyone interested enough to look at his good works? Will anyone with venture capital invest the $50K needed to finish this project?
Guess what, the answer is no.
I believe enough in this good work to continue promoting it, as both a candidate for office and a concerned private individual.
And I will continue to do so, up to the election, and after the election.
We must help our brilliant ones fully and upfront. There are many many brilliant ones among us and they are all suffocating under the blanket of greed and "self" which runs our markets and world.
Let them eat cake....

Our epitaph will read, "America, we ran out of gas, idling at a stoplight Rest In Peace"
Good night and good luck.

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