Electric cars:

The speculation that electric cars will  equal in number internal combustion vehicles by the end of the second decade must be a real horror story for our politicians.

Right now there's probably whole hordes of bureaucrats frantically trying to figure out how to replace the revenue they get for taxing gasoline and Diesel. 

Here in Oakville, Ontario, a long-standing motor city, more and more electric cars are showing up all the time. There are Teslas, Toyotas, and a collection of other pure electrics plus dozens of gas/electric hybrids everywhere.

It is definitely not the best of times to be investing a lot of money into hydrocarbons, but don't tell the Arabs.

It seems like only yesterday--actually, the '70s--when any mention of electric autos brought on a sneer and comments to the effect that all one needs is a really long electric cord. The problem was building a battery with enough energy density to propel a car more than a few miles.

That is still a problem, but lithium ion has been refined enough to take a family car about 400 Km's on one charge, which is good. Rapidly evolving capacitor technology promises to do even better.

How far that car would go on the coldest days of a Saskatchewan winter is not being advertised. The only time I drove one of these vehicles was during the warm days of summer in a Detroit suburb.

Entrepreneur Elon Musk, the guy behind the Tesla, is investing fortunes into batteries and further research in that department. Big players in related industries are joining in. He currently has his engineers working on electrics that you and I can afford.

I'm not sure all that is exciting motoring news. I'm one of those people who experienced a loss of driving fun when the manufacturers introduced automatic transmissions. Since then there's been a steady introduction of new technology and a steady decrease in the need for a driver to exercise any motoring skills, and more important--stay involved with what he's doing.

We have surrounded ourselves with so many technological miracles and the politicians have surrounded us with so many laws and regulations that there is a steady erosion of the necessity for us to make any decisions on our own. I'm not sure that's good.

Today, liquor and cell phones are not the only distraction for suicidal drivers. The new cars have things like astral navigation, backup sensors, automatic this and digital that, which serve as built-in distractions.

Nor have all those electronics made life any easier. I've had my Astra three years now and still haven't figured out how to re-set the time on the dash clock.

I recall fondly my '53 Ford Customline which had a strictly mechanical radio station function. Just find the station you like on the dial, unscrew a push button, push it in all the way, then screw it back in and voila! your station is zeroed in. 

The clock worked the same way. Unproductive consultation with the operations manual unnecessary.