I had the opportunity to attend the 2010 Toronto Auto Show on February 11. What more can anyone ask for than to check out hundreds of new vehicles and wish they had a few hundred thousand dollars kicking around to add five or six vehicles to the personal fleet? Ok, back to reality.

Big picture, I am encouraged by the direction of the automakers. But it was a couple of vehicles that I noticed that struck me as a window to future years at the show. The Tesla, the Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf (misssed that one). Are these vehicles game changers? Maybe. Will there be more like these in the near future. Good chance.

These cars impress me from a consumer experience perspective and a business opportunity perspective.

Tesla claims the Roadster accelerates from 0-60 mph in 3.9 seconds, 244 miles (about 390 km) and the vehicle is about two times more efficient than the Prius. Sign me up!

A quote from the Volt web site: When our engineers designed Volt, they wanted to find a battery range that would allow many people to drive gas-free much of the time. We took a look at the survey by the U.S. Bureau of Transportation Statistics and we found that more than 75% of people commute 40 miles a day or less(4). With that in mind, we developed Volt to meet most people's basic driving needs while preserving their ability to drive on a pure electric charge most of the time.

Two pieces of information on the Nissan Leaf site struck me, not for the car itself, but for the intersection of technologies. First, the Q&A for the Leaf is powered by Twitter (go figure). Second, the car will contact your smart phone when charging is complete and you can use the phone to preheat your car - very cool!

Who'd a thunk five years ago that your car would talk to your Blackberry? An electic vehicle for that matter? On the same note, who'd a thunk ten years ago you could put 200 albums on your cell phone? Etc etc.

Which brings me to my final point. Electic vehicles, and technology convergence, will likely cause concern for many automotive suppliers (take a look under the hood of an electic vehicle!), but will also create opportunities for companies that have not traditionally supplied the industry.

There is no doubt that the industry is changing. The question is - how can your company benefit from this change?

Like Bob Dylan wrote years ago, The Times They Are a-Changin'.