The future is coming… on four wheels!  I just read an interesting article, “Cities Prepare for Life with the Electric Car,” discussing current plans to equip certain cities for the first wave of electric cars, to be introduced later this year.  San Francisco is leading the charge (no pun intended), with upcoming building code revisions that require new structures to be wired for car chargers.

According to the piece, “The first wave of electric car buying is expected to begin around December, when Nissan introduces the Leaf, a five-passenger electric car that will have a range of 100 miles on a fully charged battery and be priced for middle-class families.”  It’s thought that the cars will see their most significant trial in only a handful of cities, including San Francisco, Portland, Ore., and San Diego, where consumer interest in cutting edge technology, as well as a high level of general green consciousness, seem to be fueling public interest in the new cars.

” ‘This is the game-changer for our industry,’ said Carlos Ghosn, Nissan’s president and chief executive. He predicted that 10 percent of the cars sold would be electric vehicles by 2020.”

However, as exciting as this may be, there are still significant obstacles on the road to widespread electric car adoption.

“When the president of the California Public Utilities Commission, Michael R. Peevey, leased an electric Mini Cooper, he said, it took six weeks of visits by installers and inspectors before he could plug in his new car at home.

“ ‘It was really drawn out and frustrating and certainly is not workable on a mass basis,’ Mr. Peevey said.”

In addition to hashing out installation issues, there are also questions around car prices and tax incentives, finding locations for charging stations, and reinforcing local electrical grid to avoid massive outages.

So, while it may be too early to know how well electric cars will be adopted on a mass scale, the possibilities are incredibly intriguing.  The day when your spouse says, “honey, don’t forget to plug in the car,” may not be too far off!