What should the BVS be for?... in a mass market EV world.
Posted: Mon Jun 14, 2010 2:07 pm
I have been thinking. Especially since receiving the last few BVS Magazines. When I joined the BVS five or so years ago, there seemed to be many members who were very vocal about the need for manufacturers to take electric cars seriously, in a mass market sense. "Who killed the electric car" was new and some really seemed to think there was a conspiracy against electric cars. We now know that the manufacturers were working on stuff they just did not want to talk about at the time.
Today, we know that EVs are going to be (are) a fact of life. Yet the BVS review seems to focus on basic DIY EVs, some ideas for future electric vehicles (not all of them likely to ever be manufactured, it must be said) and old electric vehicles (Enfields, Invalid carriages etc). Just recently I was talking to someone very senior at a well known car manufacturer, who expressed interest in the BVS. I was too ashamed of the review to show him a copy, because it is pretty much irrelevant (and very poorly produced).
If this is what the members of the BVS really want, then fine. But I'd like to ask if that really is what all members want though, and ask whether the purpose of the society should be debated and / or redefined? As a member with a modern EV, I find the review mildly interesting but sad to say, increasingly irrelevant. So am I alone in thinking this cannot be what ALL the members want the BVS to focus on?
There seem to be lots of members who are passionate about EVs, but any campaigning fire in our belly possibly disappeared at about the time it became clear that manufacturers were starting to do what we wanted them to
do. Yet there is much to be done to make EVs a truly practical proposition. For example should we not, with all the expertise and passion that exists within the BVS be agitating for nationwide EV charging points? Should we not be seen as THE expert advocates for EVs? Should not news items on EVs regularly feature interviews with our press officer? Do we even have a media-savvy press officer? Should we not be campaigning for standard format swappable batteries? Use of bus lanes? Nationwide charging points? Cheap electricity tariffs for charging EVs?
As far as I know, no other paid-for UK member organisation is taking on the challenge of accelerating the normalisation of EVs. If the BVS is not the right organisation to do this, then who is? Or is it always going to be an organisation focussed on just DIY and classic (dare I say redundant?) electric vehicles?
I know what I would like my membership subscription to support. Anybody else with me on this? Have I touched a nerve? Or am I just out of touch with the vast majority of members?
James
Today, we know that EVs are going to be (are) a fact of life. Yet the BVS review seems to focus on basic DIY EVs, some ideas for future electric vehicles (not all of them likely to ever be manufactured, it must be said) and old electric vehicles (Enfields, Invalid carriages etc). Just recently I was talking to someone very senior at a well known car manufacturer, who expressed interest in the BVS. I was too ashamed of the review to show him a copy, because it is pretty much irrelevant (and very poorly produced).
If this is what the members of the BVS really want, then fine. But I'd like to ask if that really is what all members want though, and ask whether the purpose of the society should be debated and / or redefined? As a member with a modern EV, I find the review mildly interesting but sad to say, increasingly irrelevant. So am I alone in thinking this cannot be what ALL the members want the BVS to focus on?
There seem to be lots of members who are passionate about EVs, but any campaigning fire in our belly possibly disappeared at about the time it became clear that manufacturers were starting to do what we wanted them to
do. Yet there is much to be done to make EVs a truly practical proposition. For example should we not, with all the expertise and passion that exists within the BVS be agitating for nationwide EV charging points? Should we not be seen as THE expert advocates for EVs? Should not news items on EVs regularly feature interviews with our press officer? Do we even have a media-savvy press officer? Should we not be campaigning for standard format swappable batteries? Use of bus lanes? Nationwide charging points? Cheap electricity tariffs for charging EVs?
As far as I know, no other paid-for UK member organisation is taking on the challenge of accelerating the normalisation of EVs. If the BVS is not the right organisation to do this, then who is? Or is it always going to be an organisation focussed on just DIY and classic (dare I say redundant?) electric vehicles?
I know what I would like my membership subscription to support. Anybody else with me on this? Have I touched a nerve? Or am I just out of touch with the vast majority of members?
James