Electric Vehicles & The Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

The world view towards technology will auto fulfill the dreams...

Imagine you (25) predict today that by the age of 30, you will become a millionaire, and five years down the line, you actually realize your dream! How wonderful would it had been, right?

Interestingly, this kinda extraterrestrial coincidence does really happen in our lives, which we refer to as ‘Luck by chance.’ Forget my extreme example, you have predicted many a time something might happen, and that actually happened in real life.

Wish to get rich soon!!!

This socio-psychological phenomenon is called a self-fulfilling prophecy, which refers to – ‘Predicting something which becomes true just because the person who has predicted it, believes in it!’ Whenever you predict the future, your resulting behavior tends to evolve based on your prediction. Your every action, consciously or subconsciously, supports your claim and reinforces the fulfillment in the first place.

Let us first cite a mundane example that you might relate to. Generally, a kid who has just started schooling is never in a position to determine his/ her aim in life. Many a time you will hear a fifth-grader saying, ‘Well, I want to be a doctor in the future.’ She is clearly not able to predict the future right away, but her subconscious mind starts to take action to fulfill her dreams. For example, she feels a strong inclination towards biology, or her parents start taking extra care of her to support every possible comfort for the studying environment (Since educating a child is more or less a long-term investment for the parents). Eventually, when the time comes, she is more likely to ace the exams compared to other regular children who don’t have any specific aim. Students who perform below average often don’t have any specific goal to attribute their purpose of studies.

A Self-fulfilling prophecy might make you a doctor…

Coming to the realm of finance, a self-fulfilling recession occurs when the mass expects a crisis to follow and act accordingly. In the advent of COVID-19, almost all stock prices fall sharply without any specific under-performance of the companies. Rather, the investors believed an economic lockdown is going to prevail in the market and started to liquidate their positions leading to a market crash. A self-fulfilling recession usually freezes economic activities from the fear of an upcoming downgrade.

The same thing is occurring right now in the automobile industry, positively though!

People are gradually shifting from thermal vehicles to electric vehicles, although the former is still economically viable. Thermal vehicles (which burn fossil fuels) can go a long way with a full tank (over 400 miles on average), and most importantly, take less than a couple of minutes to get loaded with fuel!

Electric vehicles, on the other hand, can move up to 200 km on average with a fully charged battery. You will hardly find a public charging station in the locality, whereas petrol pumps are ubiquitous almost everywhere. On top of that, going full charge will take up to 30 minutes-8 hours, depending on your battery capacity and charging outlet.

Photo by Craig Adderley on Pexels.com

You can resell your thermal car anytime you like, since the cars have second, third, or even fourth-hand markets available in the industry. But electric vehicles are still to create a secondary market or scheme a complete recycling facility for the batteries (which is essential for long-term industry sustainability).

Apparently, EVs now have only one edge over TVs, and that’s the environmental advantage of reduced carbon footprint.

With the passage of time, EVs will surely get more cost-efficient, as the charging per mile costs less than two cents in the present facilities.

Soon, you’ll see those charging outlets instead of petrol pumps, all over your locality!

Still, the trajectory of EV evolution may go either into oblivion or a full-fledged replacement of the TVs in the upcoming future. Most probably, the latter is going to happen in the automobile industry.

Already the European Union has started to regulate and support the EV market with their long persisting policies. Countries like Norway, France, or Germany have so soon implemented tax rebates, financial incentives, and free registration for the purchase of a new Electric car.

Norway is loaded with those charging points, Photo by Mike on Pexels.com

In Norway, the purchase of electric cars has already reached a mind-boggling 40% of all new car buys in 2018. The Norwegian government is currently working to replace all thermal vehicles with electric vehicles by the end of 2025!

In the USA, the West Coast Electric Highway program brings together the Western states, California, Oregon, and Washington, in partnership with the private sector to set up a network of rapid-charging stations following the main roadways with one station every 40 to 80 kilometers.

In China, the government is systematically incentivizing electric vehicles by introducing similar tax rebates and charging infrastructures available for every EV. The Chinese government has schemed one public fast-charging port for every 6 electric cars in the market.

Scientists are trying to solve EV’s long mileage problem

Apparently, all governments around the world are trying to overcome fossil fuel dependency by prioritizing clean sustainable energy alternatives. Presumably, this trend will perpetuate a self-fulfilling prophecy, where the Research and Development of new electric vehicles will reach the pinnacle of efficiency. The day is not so far when a typical electric vehicle will complete full charging within 5 minutes, and eventually, it will come under 5 seconds, who knows!

Solar energy technology is also developing very fast these days. A typical solar film can capture 25% solar energy on its surface, whereas new technology is showing a brighter promise to upgrade the energy conversion rate up to 50%. If such changes penetrate the market, electric vehicles will also be able to harness complete energy from solar power or other clean renewable energy sources.

Historically, all great technological developments have been resulted from betting on the future and acting accordingly. Bill Gates had a prophecy that one day, personal computers will invade the market with extraordinary innovation. Little did he knew that Intel or IBM will invent such efficient processors, or NVIDIA will come up with such awesome graphics cards. All the tech development has been implemented by an enthusiastic group of people, who hardly know each other! But they all believed in a common promising future, and their dreams were congruent at one point, which resonated with a single goal.

We must reduce our carbon footprint to save nature

If electric vehicles become the hereafter transportation module, no single inventor or corporation will be the pioneer of such conversion. Rather, many inventors, companies, governments, general users, technicians – everybody will be the proponent of the change, who believed in a green, sustainable future in the making. A self-fulfilling prophecy of the emission-less car will make the prophecy true with a vibrant community, who will work together throughout the journey!