Not many years ago, Keawakapu beachgoers were startled one evening to see a portly man in a swimsuit wading through the shallows clutching a plastic box topped by a stubby antenna. The man was shouting into the box.
Bystanders didn't realize it at the time, but the guy wasn't just another Maui "lolo." He was an early adopter of a visionary new technology: personal telecommunications. His "box" was a prototype battery-powered satellite phone.
Fast-forward 20 years, and now everybody has one. Only today, that boxy, 10-pound phone has become a sleek, wafer-thin computer "platform" with seemingly limitless audio and video applications.
The cell, in other words, has landed.
Some of the same forces that drove the global satellite telecom boom are now pushing another technology - the battery-powered electric vehicle (EV). Like Maui's first satellite phones and kite surf rigs, these cars may seem odd and out of place. But if their backers are successful, EVs might become the next new normal.
A few early adopters can already be seen tooling around the island in economy-priced Chinese Flybos and American-made Wheego Whips. If you're in the right place at the right time, a high-end Tesla might even streak past, but those sightings are rarer. Whips and Flybos cost around $10,000; the Tesla runs into six figures.
Read more about this news @ http://www.evhub.in/news/234#234
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