Making Stuff
Lynchburg, Virginia, is a place where you can get stuff made. A rich history of manufacturing – shoes, and then textiles – left Lynchburg with a machine tool industry that managed to hang on, even after the textile plants closed. This legacy has been crucial to Lynchburg’s ability to attract businesses such as Babcock and Wilcox, Areva, and, yes, Edison2.
Which is why we were pleased to read the business feature in the NY Times GE Goes With What It Knows: Making Stuff. It is not just that GE wants to return to its research and production roots after an ill-advised foray into the financial world, but that it understands just how crucial it is that our country have a robust ability to create and manufacture. “Technology based manufacturing of all sorts has to be a central part of reinvigorating the economy” asserts CEO Jeffrey Immelt.
This is exactly the message Oliver gave in his X Prize acceptance speech and why Oliver and several others on the Edison2 team carpool an hour each day to Lynchburg. Lynchburg simply has manufacturing resources that some communities, like Charlottesville, never really had and that many other communities had but lost. The importance of these resources was underscored by Oliver’s passionate impromptu introduction to his acceptance, acclaimed as “one of the most compelling summaries of what we need to do to restore the American dream”.
Innovation is crucial to our future as a nation and cannot be outsourced. GE’s Jeffrey Immelt knows this and so does Edison2’s Oliver Kuttner. And hopefully so do a lot of other people. Our future depends on it.
Edison2
Reader Comments (4)
Does this mean that Edison2 is making plans for production?? I hope so!
I'd love to be at the head of the line to buy one. Do you have any news of future plans you can share with us all?
Yes, Edison 2, tell us what your dreams are. Also, if that includes a production model, I would also like to be high on the list to buy one.
Because the perceived mileage of EVs can easily overshadow good aerodynamics as accomplished by Edison2 folks, there exists a public perception that electric drive represents a big technological advance. Thus, we can expect our factories to hum again making stuff that is not innovation at all.
Thus, there is a great surge of interest in EVs faked on by government and industry. This will enable mass production of the same old vehicles, only they will stuff in electric motors and batteries.
In the wake of the Nissan Leaf, Edison2 will have a hard time to not be forgotten.
Absolutely Jim, after all what car in the x prize had the lowest CO2 emissions?, Edison2's piston and oil powered VLC! I recently read a newspaper article about the readiness of utility power plants for electric cars, and they used the Tesla roadster for example consumes as much energy as a small house! I guess it's better than an SUV, but it's like come on people, let's not forget what the purpose of all of this change is for. Reduction in CO2 emission and energy efficiency are the two biggest goals. Also, when I go to work, or to school, my schedule is quite different from anyone else's. So for me, car-pooling is not an option. Since, most people don't, won't, or can't car pool either, why didn't the X-prize have a 1 seater class? The X prize said in their statement that they wanted purpose built vehicles, how is a 1 seater for daily commutes not a purpose built vehicle? I don't know of any motorcycle that gets mileage better than 100 mpge, do you? So it seems like quite a challenge just from that aspect. Any thoughts about that?
Also Edison 2, if you want to maintain US manufacturing, might it be possible to team up with factory five racing, or something like that in the kit car world? It would at least be sure to knock down any bureaucracy standing in your way. Factory Five knows how to do steel tube frame chassis, and without it costing too much either. Just an idea though, I know you have bigger goals, but if they fall through I think it's worth looking into.