From IBM: All Cars Hybrid By 2020?

Blaise Zerega steps on the electric pedal. By 2020, the remaining auto makers will sell environmentally-friendly cars like hybrids and those powered by non-petroleum fuels according to a powerful new report from IBM. Among the Prius set today, it's been ricocheting from blog-to-blog.

Add this excitement to the excellent argument for electrifying transportation put forth yesterday by Andy Grove, and the tour de force Wired story on Shai Agassi, by Dan Roth, and one cannot help but sense the winds of change, if not those of revolution.

Called "Automotive 2020: Clarity beyond the chaos," the IBM report identifies five developments that will drive the change away from gas-powered automobiles:

1, More sophisticated consumers - pronounced environmental awareness, new ownership models
2. Intelligent vehicles- networked cars; new technologies for fuel and re-fueling, navigation, and the like
3. Dynamic operations - profitability will depend on innovation
4. Integrated enterprise - car makers need to reinvent themselves to attain 1,2,3 above
5. Interdependent ecosystem - automakers need to work with other industries to conceive new mobility solutions

Given how mobilized, bottoms-up, and grassroots the move away from gas-powered vehicles is becoming, is 2020 too conservative?