Are EVs About to Become The Dippin' Dots of the Automotive Industry?

Many of my fellow parents of the ‘80s and ‘90s will remember when the Dippin’ Dots ice cream product first appeared on the market.

The first Dippin’ Dots display I can remember spotting came when we held our daughter’s 8th or 9th birthday party at Arlington’s local Chuck E Cheese in 1990 or 1991. “Dippin’ Dots: The Ice Cream of the Future!” was the logo on the counter where this freeze-dried ice cream product was served. It was yummy. It was new. It was cool in every definition of that word. I’m pretty sure I spent about 20 bucks (real money in those pre-Biden days) buying cups for every kid at that party.

Before you knew it, Dippin’ Dots stands started popping up all over the place: At the local movie theaters, at old Arlington Stadium where the Texas Rangers played, at the malls, at the Dave & Busters, and later even in the huge Buc-ees roadside convenience stores when that franchise first began expanding in the late ‘90s.

Any place where people could be expected to show up in masses, the Ice Cream of the Future was almost certain to be there, too.

And for a full quarter of a century, until about 5 years ago per my own observation, Dippin’ Dots continued to advertise itself as the “Ice Cream of the Future!”

But the future arrived, and Dippin’ Dots never really did arrive with it en masse.