The term “range anxiety” is heard so often when contemplating the purchase or lease of an electric vehicle that one might start to wonder if an anti-anxiety medication should be prescribed with every vehicle delivery. Thousands of non-residential charge stations have been deployed in public locations over the last year, with thousands more in the […]
Jon LeSage, Editor
Mark Duvall, Director of Electric Transportation, for Electric Power Research Institute, and the leading organizer of Plug-in 2012 (and the other annual events going back to 2008), says there are three main industry sectors that are laying the infrastructure for plug-in electric vehicles to reach large scale – automakers, charging developers, and utilities. I’ll be attending the conference next week in San Antonio, Texas, and look forward to learning more and networking in this growing transportation system.
During an interview last Thursday on AV Clean Cities Radio (which is still available on archive to listen to), Duvall, made some more points about the future of electric vehicles. He says benefits of EVs creates four strong legs to support the chair – more freedom from petroleum dependency, reducing CO2 emissions, improving air quality, and US job creation making the cars, infrastructure, and electricity for this cost effective transportation fuel. (Editors note: special thanks to Brett Hauser of EVConnect for his commentary on workplace charging - see below.)
Some of this is about learning to speak the same language, Duvall said. Automakers and utilities come from widely disparate mindsets on what they’re doing and how they do it. Coordination is important – you must have the power sources and the vehicle. An extensive exhibit hall is part of the education, speaker panels featuring experts in their fields, an EV ride and drive, and a public night where the local community can access displays and hear educational presentations.
The Plug-in conferences have been in Silicon Valley, Long Beach, Calif., Raleigh, NC, and now will be in San Antonio. California has been an important region for EVs and the charging infrastructure, but there are other regions of the country with growth markets. San Antonio does have an interesting selection of green technologies being utilized by fleets, cities, and technology companies in the region. I'm interested in learning more about the "Texas Triangle" while visiting there.
State governors are advocating growth of natural gas vehicles as a more environmentally friendly fuel source at about half the cost. Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, Oklahoma Secretary of Energy Michael Ming and Oklahoma Secretary of Commerce Dave Lopez visited Detroit on Monday to meet with automakers and push for CNG vehicles […]
Vehicles with alternative power sources have done very well in the first six months of 2012, benefiting from market force changes seen in the larger US auto market including higher gasoline prices. The sales trend comes at a time when automakers and dealers are seeing cars do better than trucks – overall, small cars are […]