Under What Considitions Will EVs Be Manufactured?

My post on how EVs will be taking over our roads in the not too distant future raises a question.  Where will they be produced and under what conditions?

While working on Smart Grid and electricity to EV charging stations regulations, a theme that I heard at every conference was how the regulatory regime under which utilities operate was stifling innovation.  What I was witnessing was the integration of communications with an industry that placed a high value on stability.  In fact, as we rely more and more on digital technology and integration of all parts of life via the Internet, the need for quality power increases. 

Yet, what I’ll call the “Young Turks” from communications companies wanted regulators to unleash the electric utilities so that innovation could flower.  That, at the time when concerns about security of utility operations were morphing beyond security of the physical plant to now include communications networks with hundreds, if not thousands, of points of contact with the Internet.

There’s another issue that’s cropping up and that is working conditions at the Tesla factory in Fremont CA, across the bay from Sunnyvale.  Here is one such story. 

photo courtesy of Tesla