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During a break in whatever sporting event I was watching on any random Sunday morning , I would plug in my corded electric lawnmower and cut the grass on my 500 sq . ft . lawn . It took about 20 minutes including clean-up ; I rarely missed much of the game . I never missed the oil and gas .

I don ’ t recall what I paid for this mower in 2003 , but I know I sold it for $ 25 about a dozen years later . That money didn ’ t make a dent in the battery-powered model I upgraded to , but that ’ s okay . I already used that cash to buy a new mower blade .

I don ’ t own any gas-powered equipment . And nearly all my tools today run on battery power . I do have a plug-in table saw , but I will upgrade to a new battery-powered model soon . I will most likely have an electric car in the next couple years . Am I a tree hugger or environmentalist ? Probably , I mean I do own two Subarus .

GLENN HANSEN

Gasoline will not go away in my lifetime , though I will use less of it year by year , except to fill my thirsty 1965 GMC truck . I love pumping ethanol-free premium in the tank of Old Blue . I don ’ t care what it costs . And my grandsons love the smell of my garage .

Time Change We live and work in one of the biggest technological shifts ever . We might call this the Battery Era , but it will evolve . Maybe it will be the Hydrogen Days . I don ’ t know , nobody does right now , but I ’ m trying to find out . Or to at least document this phase of the transition . In the feature article on p . 18 , we look as closely as we can at electrification . I spoke with several manufacturers and dealers about the state of gas .

I ’ m excited because I believe OPE is leading the way . While electric cars and trucks get all the attention , electric power equipment and battery-powered tools are doing the work around the country . Electric car makers should be thanking the OPE OEMs making battery-powered tools because they ’ re showing Americans that batteries have potential .

Electric vehicles – the road-legal kind – account for less than 1 percent of the 250 million vehicles licensed in the USA . That percentage will climb , perhaps rapidly , in the next five years . How about power equipment ? According to Traqline , the consumer insight company , electric and battery-powered equipment make up 64 percent of the total OPE market in terms of unit sales . Of course , I ’ m comparing Teslas to trimmers , but think of the manufacturing focus and the retail shift that created the 64 percent figure . And it ’ s on the increase , maybe even more so than the auto market .

Gas isn ’ t going away . Nor can you put the lithium-ion genie back in the bottle . With that , I give a bit of space to honor John Goodenough , who passed away at 100 years old in June . Mr . Goodenough won a Nobel Prize in 2019 for work he did on the lithium-ion battery to transform cellphones and pacemakers and electric cars and leaf blowers . I and an evolving world of tech . pioneers salute you , Mr . Goodenough . OPEB

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4 OPE Business July 2023 www . OPEBusiness . com