The road to the future can often be found in the missteps of the past!
— Jim Carroll
The opportunity
Significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution from transportation, lower reliance on fossil fuels, and decrease vehicle operating costs due to cheaper fuel and maintenance.
From “Decoding Tomorrow: Daily Inspiration - Automotive Trends: “The road to the future can often be found in the missteps of the past!”” (February 2026)
Quite simply, electric vehicles became part of the culture wars.
2035: A ‘balkanized ’ market where vehicle choice is determined as much by voting record as by fuel price; mass adoption in some regions is significantly harder.
It was believed that one day, there would be ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicles, and then there would be a world of all-EVs. It’s not happening like that - hybrids are taking over as people simply weren’t comfortable with full electric, for a variety of real (and not-so-real) reasons.
From “Decoding Tomorrow: The Way Forward: #9 Auto & Transportation - “A decade from now, the automotive landscape will be dominated by companies that treated 2025’s reality check not as a crisis, but as the greatest competitive opportunity they ever witnessed!”” (October 2025)
The acceleration to electric. The shift from internal combustion engines (ICE) to electric vehicles (EVs) is a complete re-architecting of the vehicle, supply chains, and the energy infrastructure that supports it.
Hard to say. In one way, it’s a pretty rational market response. High upfront costs, persistent public charging infrastructure challenges, a widespread belief that the range-anxiety issue will never be solved (even though this has proven to be a canard), and wild, significant policy whiplash have collectively created a pretty vast chasm between the early-adopter segment nd the rest of the population. A 2025 survey by AAA reveals a stark shift: only 16% of US adults now report being “likely” to purchase a fully electric vehicle, the lowest level since 2019. The primary barriers? The high purchase price (59%), potential for costly battery repairs (62%), and lack of convenient public charging (56%).
Japan’s “Multi-Pathway” Vindication : The market turmoil has largely vindicated the cautious, “multi-pathway” strategy of Japanese automakers. While Toyota’s first major global BEV, the bZ4X, was a commercial failure, its core hybrid business is thriving, delivering the profits that are funding a more methodical development of next-generation electric vehicles.
From “AI Megatrends - AI In Energy : Connected, Intelligent Energy and Energy SaaS” (June 2023)
“EaaS” - or ” Energy as a Service. ” This new grid involves not only new energy sources but new energy uses including electric vehicles. In that context, consider UgoWork, a Quebec, Canada company that has an AI-based software platform that provides for easier management of the large-scale fleet deployment of batteries
demand on the grid will increase with other trends, i.e. electric vehicles and always-on technology, i. e. iOT
Smart grids are typically characterized by a high penetration of distributed generation, consumption, and metering devices. These include wind, solar, hydro, tidal, and thermal generation units, electric vehicles, microgrids, residential smart meters, etc. Control and optimization of all these elements require exchanging an enormous volume of data and metering information that should be ingested, inferred, and reflected upon. In this context, big data analytics, in particular artificial intelligence methods are a key enabler of fully autonomous smart grids.
Read the full pieces on jimcarroll.com:
Decoding Tomorrow: Daily Inspiration - Automotive Trends: “The road to the future can often be found in the missteps of the past!”
Decoding Tomorrow: The Way Forward: #9 Auto & Transportation - “A decade from now, the automotive landscape will be dominated by companies that treated 2025’s reality check not as a crisis, but as the greatest competitive opportunity they ever witnessed!”
AI Megatrends - AI In Energy : Connected, Intelligent Energy and Energy SaaS