Early last week, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu stood in the rain before a row of electric cars parked on the median at the Department of Energy’s massive complex in Washington, DC, speaking to a crowd of journalists, carmakers and utility executives.
Chu, a Nobel laureate in physics, touted President Obama’s goal of putting 1 million electric vehicles on the road by 2015. He then looked further into the future. Driving 100 miles in an electric vehicle, or EV, he said, “is just the tip of the iceberg.” Lithium-ion batteries being tested at the Argonne National Laboratory, which helped developed the battery technology used in the Chevy Volt, could enable cars to travel up to 500 miles on a single charge by the end of the decade. These batteries, Chu boasted, will be “one-third the cost of today’s batteries but have at least three times the range.”
The excitement about these breakthroughs, Chu said, as the crowd huddled under shared umbrellas, is “palpable.” After the speeches, industry officials got in their electric cars for an “innovation motorcade” through the capital to the Electric Drive Transportation Association conference. But, for all of the enthusiasm about the advance of auto technology, it remains to be seen if the U.S. can put 1 million EVs on the road by 2015. The symbolism of the rainstorm was as fitting as it was obvious: would reality rain on the electric car parade?
The Real Problem Here! Green Living Guy Speaking!
They sunshot is not really happening. The reality is that most EV products sell out so quickly. The Nissan Leaf! Poof! The Volt. Tesla Roadster or the Model S to half the price. We can do it. More is needed not retrenchments.
Today, oil company profits are at their highest while others scrounge to make their electricity payments.
Anyway, then when you want to getta car. Gone. Hybrids you can get but some of them are hard to get and even overpriced by the dealerships. So it’s yes but not really.
WTF Am I Saying?
What I mean from all of this is that most car companies can and should have always offered a hybrid for every car for starters. Watch them come running. America must lead our addiction off of oil. Period.
Even the Lincoln MKZ Hybrid electic car for goodness sake. We need more of these cars on the road.
Our addiction to oil is very strong and will take some serious intervention to get off of it.
Here’s another fact. Take 10,000 EVs and put em in a batch.. you can use those cars for backup power. Local, reachable and inexpensive electricity. Then, give the car driver a break; not a price hike!
Just the facts.
Check em out for yourself. If I’m wrong..let me know.
