The evolution of the car is becoming less and less about the powertrain.
The car is dead, only we just don’t know it yet
Today, the Toyota Prius is easily the best car in the world. It’s not perfect, but it’s the closest. When all factors are considered, the Prius is one of the best values out there according to the likes of JD Power, Consumer Reports, Kipplingers and Forbes, for instance.
And at $4.00 gas, the Prius only shines brighter.
Fortunately, a few new options will make the Prius even better.
A smaller, cheaper Prius is still required, and the Prius C is heading in that direction. Then there’s the plug, but that’s also coming. In fact, in just the next few years the choices for a Prius won’t just be small, medium and large, but hybrid, plug-in hybrid, plug-in electric or fuel cell.
How do you top that?
Neither the Chevy Volt nor the Nissan Leaf have that kind of scale planned. Not yet at least. Regardless, neither is going to become the next Prius. Both are just becoming more Prius-like. Adaptable, efficiency-based platforms that utilize electrification.
The next Toyota Prius might just be impossible.
OK. Not impossible. Flying cars will probably be a paradigm shifter, if such a thing is ever mass-manufactured. Of course, who knows, maybe the Prius will be the first flying car as well. Still, it’s going to take a lot to top the Prius.
More realistically, when the Prius is topped, the car as we know it will be dead. Inevitably, future car buyers aren’t going to care about the driving experience, they’ll care about the high tech communication and entertainment capabilities – plus the monthly cost of course – that comes with their transportation subscription. It’ll be more like owning a phone than a car, I’ll bet, for most consumers, especially the younger ones, aka, the future.
Besides, in the future commuters won’t have time to drive, that’ll be the ideal time to maintain personal networks. To play the latest game. Maybe even some homework. Maybe. However, the future of transportation will have little to do with driving.
Inevitably, the car is dead. It doesn’t matter if America plugs-in the hundreds of millions of energy guzzling SUVs and pickup trucks already on American roads. It’s over. Sure, in some form personal guzzling – whether gasoline or electricity – will be around for decades. Old timers will even gloat about the feel of rubber to the road in the real world – ‘I remember the days when I’d idle in mind-numbing traffic for hours every day – those were the days!’.
Of course, we’ll all still drive, via simulators and amusement parks of course. But I bet that’ll still be funner than the daily commute ever was – and cheaper.