Crowdsource a CES booth with me

I paid for a booth at the biggest tech conference on the planet. Will you help me design it?

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Well, I went and signed up for a 10’ x 10’ booth at CES. And since My Next Electric’s more community than course, this is me asking you — the entire community — for help making our first CES awesome.

I’m headed to CES to explore the future of personal electric vehicle fleets.

Most of the innovative vehicles I’m crushing on right now, from super lightweight e-bikes to microcars, have something in common — they’re going to be at the Consumer Electronics Show in early January.

What was once a conference known for hyping giant televisions and gadgets of questionable usefulness has become all about the future of electric transport.

Tom’s Guide: CES 2023 — the biggest trends to watch

I’m going because there are some really cool vehicles I want to see. Guilty.

I’m also very curious about what the new mix of vehicles has to say about one brutal fact about going electric - energy density.

Energy density - THE big difference between gas and electric?

We’re in a 100-year old rut - using the same kind of vehicle for every trip. This comes in huge measure from one truly magical element of fossil fuels - energy density. Gas is a really good way to carry energy around, like 100X better than using batteries. It’s really not a big deal carrying way more fuel than we need for most trips when, relative to the rest of the vehicle, that extra fuel’s a rounding error.

Brutal fact alert: As we switch to electric cars, we’ll have to deal with the reality of less energy-dense batteries.

I am here for that brutal fact. Bring it on.

A new mix of vehicles can save us money, make life more fun, and save lives. Real talk — we need to get a little more honest about the downsides of economies, public policies and personal budgets dedicated to the hammer-looking-for-a-nail, gas-car-for-everything approach we take now. This could get really, really fun.

Remixing the “two-car” garage

The “two-car garage” of the future could look very different than it does today. Here’s one possibility:

LEFT: This is your garage on gas.

• One big car with all the fuel you'd need for any trip.

• Another one just like it. 

RIGHT: This is your garage on electricity. 

The garage of the future may not have two big EVs in it, but a mix of vehicles that could way cost less to buy and operate. And they could be more fun.  

• 1 electric car - 2-4 miles per kilowatt hour (mi/kWh)

• 1 electric bike - 50-100 mi/kWh

• 1 micro car - Somewhere in between. (The Microlino:  ~11 miles/kWh) 

• 1 dinghy for your EV - 70-100 mi/kWh, but lives in your electric car*

*I'm running two "dinghy" EV experiments now. These get near the top end of e-bike efficiency, are always locked up and charged up by the battery of my EV. I can grab them from my car, whether it's parked by my house or after I've made it most of the way to my destination for "the last mile."

Exploring this future at CES - Will you give me some feedback?

I am taking My Next Electric to CES with all of this in mind. I have some ideas, and I’ve written them down. But I can’t figure this out on my own, so I’m asking you for help. Here’s a handy button that takes you to a survey on my rough CES plan. If you can, take a few minutes and let me know what you think…

Thank you.

As we head into the final days of 2022, I’d like to say thanks for making this community so much fun and welcoming for other folks, especially those who’ve just showed up.

Onward towards ‘23, Matt

PS, there are a few more spots in our January 10th and 17th cohort. Sign up or send your friends here!