Steve Marshall

Our think tank is primarily concerned with transportation and energy issues. We have worked with Ford over the years to figure out ways to link electrified vehicles with transportation and communications networks.

In order to move beyond oil and make communities more sustainable, we need to align the interests of vehicle manufacturers, software firms, regulators and utility companies. That in itself is challenging, since these groups have never before had to work together.

For example, if electrified vehicles are going to succeed, we need utility companies to be on board without reservation, since they will provide the infrastructure for the re-charging stations that will become the gas stations of the future. Now they're concerned about uncertainties. Will they need to add generation capacity to make energy for electric vehicles and, if so, can they pass on the costs to consumers? Utilities are creatures of regulation and the rules and incentives have to be right.

Many stakeholders recognize the potential benefits of plug-in technologies, but there's a lot of work to do before they can become mainstream. There are issues with infrastructure, power grid limitations – even concerns about declining revenues from the gas tax, if consumers switch to electric vehicles.

At our Beyond Oil conferences, we strive to point out that moving away from foreign oil and toward electricity will actually create an economic stimulus effect for the United States. Last year, for example, my home state of Washington spent more money to import fuel from overseas than it spent on K-12 education. For those worried about loss of gas tax benefits, there are other alternatives, such as a gas tax stabilization plan that ensures a set level of revenue or ultimately moving to a vehicle mile travel fee and congestion pricing, where vehicles are charged more per mile based on the time of day they travel.

Henry Ford famously said that if he had asked his customers what they wanted, they would have answered: "a faster horse." People didn't know what was out there, so they didn't know what to request. The same holds true for electrification and the mobility hubs of the future.

What Henry Ford did was introduce a systems approach to making affordable cars. The more affordable the cars became, the more roads and support services were created. I would urge people to think of a systems approach when it comes to new forms of vehicle technology. The question is not should we move toward plug-in vehicles. The real question is how can we get there quickly. Information technology will play a critical role in linking the elements of the system together and making it seamless for consumers.

We need to re-think our transportation systems. Imagine being able to drive an electric vehicle from your home to a transportation hub where you can plug in your car for charging while you then take light rail or a rapid bus into a core metropolitan area.

Years from now, people will look back and wonder what it was like to drive a gasoline-powered car, much in the same way that people now look back and wonder what it was like to rely on horses for transportation.

Ford has been taking a leadership position not just on electric vehicle development, but on a whole host of sustainability issues, such as mobility hubs and overall transportation systems approaches. There are very few companies that are thinking broadly like that and trying to link the different components that will make them work – and work to their optimum capability.