The electric vehicle (EV) market has been experiencing significant and sustained growth in recent years as drivers seek to cut their carbon footprint and reduce gas costs. While EVs still make up a relatively small share of the automobile market, that’s expected to change within the next few years. By 2025, it’s estimated that EVs will account for 20% of new car sales.
As stay-at-home orders are lifted, businesses reopen and programs restart, we remain optimistic about the future of our industry. While the development of new technology—like virtual energy audits and touchless installation support—has undoubtedly changed the landscape of energy efficiency, it's important to keep traditional programs in mind as well. Relying on a mix of brand-new offerings and proven reliable services is the key to success for the utility of the future.
My husband and I went to college together; we’re familiar with “working together alone.” It was how he wrote his thesis on McCarthyism and I wrote mine on Post-Soviet Russia, two feet apart on a hand-me-down couch in a cramped upstairs apartment in a sketchy part of Schenectady, NY. Headphones firmly planted in ears.
But until COVID-19 hit, we never really worked from home together, except for the occasional snow day. And on those days, he was more likely working from the couch with Sports Center on in the background, while I toiled along like usual in my home office.
As shelter-at-home restrictions begin to lift and people are getting “back to business,” we understand there’s no going back to “business as usual.” We’re all being forced to evolve and adapt to our new normal, even though we may not yet fully understand what that means. Despite the atmosphere of constant change, I’m proud of the way the Franklin Energy team has risen to the occasion. We have begun pivoting our program delivery to give our utility clients' customers what they need, with new safety precautions in place to support implementation.
COVID-19 has affected us like nothing we’ve experienced in this lifetime. We’ve undergone social distancing, schools across the nation have closed, jobs have been lost, incomes affected, and so much more. As our nation takes steps to recover, it has become clear that we will be embracing a “new normal” in our daily lives.
