Happy New Year!

As the odometer of MINI-E #250 turned 48,000 miles today, New Years Day 2011, I can only think of how much has happened in the eighteen and a half months that I have been driving the car.

Back in 2008 when I first applied to be in the trial lease program electric cars weren't really talked about too much and if you wanted one you had to either buy a $110,000 Tesla or build your own, and for most folks neither were really viable options. Now, only two years later you hear about the Chevy Volt or the Nissan LEAF in all media outlets since retail customers have begun to take delivery of them.

The electric car has gone from virtual obscurity to a topic that is debated by pundits on a daily basis. Customers are finally getting a choice. We can finally decide for ourselves what type of fuel we use to power our cars: oil that is pumped halfway across the planet and who's profit goes to radical fundamentalist regimes, or electricity that is generated entirely in the United States by US workers, working for US companies and where 100% of the money you spend on that electricity stays in our local economies.

Sure there are sacrifices to be made when driving a pure battery electric car. The limited range and long recharge time makes EV's less versatile than a typical internal combustion engine car, but this is only the beginning. These cars will continue to improve, battery technology will advance, charging compatibilities will get faster and the gap in functionality in the two propulsion systems will shrink.

Energy independence will not happen overnight and we are a long, long way from being able to tell the OPEC puppet masters that they do not own us anymore, but at least there is now hope. Hope that we can break the chains that have kept us dependent and even subservient to the regimes that control the supply of oil we so desperately need. Happy New Year everyone!

I also wanted to say "thank you" to everyone that has visited this blog, sent me emails and posted messages to the entries. Your enthusiasm and support help to inspire me to keep the blog current.

In 2010 this blog had 31,000 visitors from 93 countries! There were 10,000 visits from the United States followed by 3,300 from Germany, 800 from Canada, 400 from Spain, and 350 from the UK. The rest of the countries all had less than 300 visits per country. Thanks again for the support!