IN 2010, CARS PLUG IN

Year of the electric car dawns
Peter Whoriskey, December 24, 2009 (Washington Post via Seattle Times)

"…As many auto companies tell it, next year may be the year the massive U.S. auto industry really begins to go electric.

"Nissan's all-battery Leaf is scheduled to go on sale in November. General Motors will begin selling the Chevy Volt, a primarily electric car (with a small auxiliary gasoline engine that kicks in to boost the car's range). Ford plans to produce an electric commercial van. The Obama administration has doled out $2.4 billion to companies involved in producing batteries and other parts of electric cars…But overshadowing prospects for the transition of the vast U.S. auto fleet to electric — and the billions of dollars the automakers invested in the switch — is the question of whether anyone beyond a sliver of enthusiasts will embrace the newfangled cars."

click thru for Plug-in America's complete listing of battery electric vehicles and how they are progressing

"The only major automaker with a fleet of new all-electric vehicles priced for mainstream consumers is BMW, with its 500 Mini E…Electrics pose two primary challenges to convention: When fully charged, they generally cannot travel even half the distance a conventional car can go on a full tank. And once the battery is depleted, there are few places to recharge besides home, and charging can take hours…Still, Department of Transportation data show U.S. drivers travel an average of 29 miles a day, well within the electric vehicles' range…

"…Mini E drivers are rhapsodic about the car's performance and the promise of environmental benefits…[and pay] $850 a month to lease the cars and have a recharging wall box installed…But when Mini E drivers gather, their talk often turns to the art of maximizing the number of miles they can get with a single charge…They slow down…In a pinch, they turn off the heater or the air conditioner, tolerating a chill or a sweat to get another mile. And they have learned that in extreme cold, they must restrict their travels further. When temperatures dip, the normal 100-mile range can shrink to 80…Car companies…say such difficulties will be minimized soon…[T]he cars, now pricey, will be manufactured more cheaply when produced in greater numbers. Battery innovations will provide greater range at lower cost. The problem of the cold will diminish [with better] heating systems…"

click thru for more about BMW's Mini E

"Perhaps most critically, they say, public charging stations will become far more common. There are about 117,000 gas stations in the United States. By contrast, a database of public recharging stations maintained by Tom Dowling, an electric-car enthusiast in California, lists 734 public charging stations, with the vast majority in that state…[But] the comparison to gas stations isn't completely apt because most charging can be done at home. Still…In conjunction with Nissan, a company called ECOtality has a $100 million federal grant to set up about 7,000 stations in Arizona, California, Oregon, Tennessee and Washington. More than 2,000 charging stations will be built in the Puget Sound area alone.

"Given these hurdles, some automakers and environmentalists have cast a wary eye on the enthusiasts…John DeCicco, a University of Michigan lecturer and former senior fellow at the Environmental Defense Fund, said expectations for electric cars were similarly high in the 1990s, after California passed a zero-emissions mandate…Nevertheless, enthusiasts remain optimistic, many hoping to lead the way to weaning the United States from foreign oil…"