The electric industry is proof that we can get off oil. Before the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo, almost 20% of US electricity came from petroleum. Now, it’s less than 1%. The same industry will play a critical role in accelerating the deployment of electric cars.
PG&E proposes new electric car rates with lower off-peak prices, equivalent to buck-a-gallon gasoline.
Toyota just announced the price and details for the first all-electric SUV to reach the market. Starting at $49,800 this exciting new electric SUV can be ordered with a 100-mile range thanks to its 41kW lithium battery pack. This SUV went from design to production in only two years, instead of a more common 4-years. The development speed is thanks to a collaboration between Toyota and Tesla which is 2 percent owned by Toyota.
With gasoline prices over $4 per gallon in many states, Ford is rolling out a variety of exciting hybrid cars and electric cars. In April, consumers will start buying the new Ford Focus Electric. Yesterday, I rode in this beautiful compact hatchback. This year, Ford will also offer other exciting hybrids and plug-in hybrids all using lithium batteries: C-MAX Energi, C-MAX Hybrid, Fusion Energi, and Fusion Hybrid.
California already has over 10,000 of the new electric vehicles on the road and 2,000 public charge points. Over 10,000 new electric charge points will be added to give EV drivers added range. The charge stations will be built by NRG with private money, not public funds.
I drove the car and talked to the Coda sales representatives extensively during the San Diego auto show. The Coda headquarters are in Los Angeles, the body and many components are Chinese, and their assembly is done in Benicia, California, less than an hour from Tesla’s new manufacturing site. I suspect that Coda is under capitalized.
The Opel Ampera and the Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid cars won the European Car of the Year 2012 award voted by a panel of 59 judges from 23 European nations. The success of the Volt and Ampera has encouraged GM to target making 65,000 electric vehicles in 2012, also including the Cadillac ELR and Chevrolet Spark EV. Originally, most production was scheduled for the U.S.
For a typical American car being driven 15,000 miles annually, 8 tons of CO2 emissions result. The number is higher if emissions from making the car are added. Some of Ford’s most exciting new electric and hybrid cars will be a fraction of typical emissions including the Ford Focus Electric, the Ford Transit Connect Electric, the Ford C-MAX Energi, the Ford C-MAX Hybrid, the Ford Fusion Energi and the Ford Fusion Hybrid. Ford is also the Ford only Automaker to receive Climate Leadership Award.
Various conservative talking heads are attacking electric cars, while defending subsidies for Big Oil. Bob Lutz, former GM Vice Chairman, and a conservative Republican himself, takes issue with the “fact-free” journalism that is smearing electric cars. These unfounded attacks perpetuate American dependence on oil and hurt the Americans whose livelihood depends upon making the next generation of clean vehicles.
“The electric car doesn’t do any good because it’s just powered by coal” gets repeated by the oil industry, by news pundits who ignore fact checking, and even by some environmentalists. I have yet to meet an electric car driver or fleet manager who only uses coal power. In the United States, 36 states have utility scale wind power.