The news about Sony’s victory in the high definition DVD war, got me thinking about another battleground: petro-fuel versus electric cars. It seems to me that petro-fuel distribution companies are missing a huge opportunity.
Consider the needs of electric cars. The need to be able to be efficiently charged. I’m not talking about the efficient transfer of energy to the vehicle’s battery. Yes, that is important. But, even more important is the need for ownership to be easy. If you are driving across country in your electric car, you want the comfort of knowing that you won’t find yourself in the unhappy situation of needing a charge but being get it.
Last October, we noted the story of an entrepreneur that was raising capital to take on this challenge and build a network of refueling stations for electric cars. But, wait! Who has a network of fuel distribution centers conveniently located for motorists? What if these companies were to retrofit their distribution outlets to handle delivery of services to electric vehicles?
It seems that petro-fuel distribution companies are in the catbirds seat to act on this opportunity. The question is will they do anything about. So far, the evidence would suggest that they are going to protect their turf. However, this would be a big mistake. It ignores one of the fundamental principles of innovation practice: “figure out how to obsolete your own product before someone else does.” Of course, the petro-fuel distributors don’t even have to obsolete there product; they can truly have their cake and eat it to.
Perhaps, they are just waiting for the electric car technology to mature a bit more before they jump in. What do you think?
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