At the time of the concept's unveiling, nuclear technology was relatively new and it was believed that soon nuclear-fission technology could be made compact and affordable such that nuclear fuel would become the primary energy source in the U.S. and gasoline would become obsolete.[3] Ford envisioned a future where gas stations would be replaced with full service recharging stations, and that the vehicle would get 5000 miles before the reactor would have to be exchanged for a new one. These would be scaled down versions of the nuclear reactors that military submarines used at the time, utilizing uranium as the fissile material. Because the entire reactor would be replaced, Ford hypothesized that the owner would have multiple choices for reactors, such as a fuel efficient model or a high performance model, at each reactor change.