Getting in Gear
Michael Britt is the vice president of Southern Company’s Energy Innovation Center and leads growth initiative development and collaboration across the Southern Company system.
Tom Flaherty is a senior advisor to Strategy&, a part of the PwC network, and has consulted for more than forty years to the power and gas sectors on strategy and growth.
The authors acknowledge the contributions of Adam Smith from Strategy& and Dennis Smith and Darren Epps from Southern Company in the preparation of this article.
Nearly every month major announcements are made about electric transportation (ET). That category includes on-road electric vehicles, infrastructure, and off-road transportation or handling by an original equipment manufacturer or a government entity.
These frequent ET announcements come from a wide range of OEMs, such as Volvo, Honda and Renault. They address production-line conversion, battery and charging technology performance, new development partnerships, expanded category offerings and autonomous vehicles. They are capturing an increasing share of news headlines.
Conspicuously absent, however, has been a demonstration of how the utilities industry is actively enabling ET market development.
Today's U.S. electric vehicle marketplace is different from what it was just two years ago.
However, it is still playing catch-up with developments in other parts of the world. As consumers recognize that automakers are offering attractive model options that appeal to their ownership preferences, EV sales will steadily increase.