We got a new car a month ago, and it hit me as we were signing the papers that we had probably just bought our last gas-powered car. We usually keep a car six or seven years, so what will be in the dealer showrooms in 2020?

Even now, I see more and more hybrid and electric cars on the road, cars that were rare only five years ago. The reason I didn’t buy one this time is that they’re still a little pricey for the way I drive, and in six or seven years, who knows how much the technology will have improved? I don’t make enough money to have the high eco-principles of wealthy movie stars and millionaire plastic surgeons. But by 2020, the hybrids and electrics will probably be the same price as gas-powered cars.

Did you catch that? “Gas-powered cars.” Ten years ago, that would have been a silly way to describe an automobile. It would be like saying, “I have to buy some electric light bulbs,” or, “I’m going to buy a color TV,” as if there were some other kind. What other kind of car has there been for most of your life but gas-powered? Ten years from now, we may not say “electric car,” either. All vehicles may be electric.