A couple weeks ago, CEO of Tesla Motors, Inc. Elon Musk announced that the futuristic tech company would be opening its patents for clean energy electric cars to any automaker interested in making them. While the announcement was originally met with a less than enthusiastic welcome from the automotive community, now Tesla is starting to see more interested car makers from across the world get interested in their revolutionary technology for clean burning automobiles. Needless to say, if those with a little more credibility in the world of consumer vehicles get behind Tesla’s designs, it could spell good things for Tesla, the green energy movement, and the environment.
Partnerships will Add Fuel to an Already Booming Sector
While Tesla itself hasn’t seen much success in the sale of its family of electric vehicles, thanks in no small part to the fact that they boast a price tag of $71,000 and up, overall sales of electric vehicles across the world are experiencing something of a boom. A recent study from ABI Research, a global technology research firm, shows that the sale of electric vehicles is on track togrow by 48% every year through 2020. With reports that BMW is looking to share patents with Tesla, particularly those that relate to rapid charging batteries, ABI might have to amend their statistics to slightly larger numbers in the near future.
“Electric cars are the wave of the future, but it will still be a long time before they become affordable enough for the average person that we will be able to start phasing out the old gasoline powered cars of the past,” says Jim Mac, Shipping Distributorfor Mac Auto Parts. “Hopefully this helps bring prices down and makes the electric car market more competitive.”
Tesla’s technology is unique in that its electric car designs aren’t actually worse for the environment than traditional internal combustion vehicles. The Berkeley Energy & Resources Collaborative has long pointed out that, despite electric vehicles being better for the environment in theory, the production of energy cells to date have taken a greater toll on the environment than the use of similar amounts of fossil fuels. The standardization of Tesla tech, technology that is actually green, could become a watershed for smarter, more ecologically friendly transport technology.