GM, utilities team up on electric cars

[tholland]

Partnership aims to tackle issues that will crop up when electric vehicles are rolled out...

General Motors Corp. has joined with more than 30 utility companies across the U.S. to help work out electricity issues that will crop up when it rolls out new electric vehicles in a little more than two years.

The Detroit automaker said the partnership, which includes the Electric Vehicle Research Institute and large utilities such as Southern California Edison and Duke Energy Corp. (DUK, Fortune 500), will deal with issues from tax incentives for the vehicles to where and when they can be plugged in for recharging.

GM (GM, Fortune 500) is working to bring the Chevrolet Volt rechargeable car to showrooms in late 2010. It's being designed to run on an electric motor powered by lithium-ion batteries. When fully charged, it will be able to go 40 miles on battery power. For longer trips, a small internal combustion engine will recharge the batteries to keep the Volt moving.

"This vehicle is real. It's coming into production," said Britta Gross, a GM engineer who is helping to build the infrastructure for cars of the future. "We know that when the vehicle is in the showroom and ready for sale, it's got to work seamlessly with the infrastructure. It's the whole picture. We've got to make sure the infrastructure is ready."

GM and the utilities planned to announcement the partnership Tuesday at a conference on plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in San Jose.

... cont'd http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/22/news...ion=2008072204

*edit - Also here...
http://www.reuters.com/article/compa...47289020080722

[Chaz_23]

Electricity is going to be the next petroleum. Just wait till everyone has their plug-ins cars in California during summer when ACs have to run 24/7. This is going to be great.

[jbernie]

Originally Posted by Chaz_23

Electricity is going to be the next petroleum. Just wait till everyone has their plug-ins cars in California during summer when ACs have to run 24/7. This is going to be great.

Thats ok, by that stage gas will be back to $1 a gallon and the cycle can restart again

[tamatt27]

Originally Posted by jbernie

Thats ok, by that stage gas will be back to $1 a gallon and the cycle can restart again

So let's buy up all the trucks now and sell them at profits in 20 years a la classic muscle cars were!

[steverino]

The utility companies are trying to figure out how to make a buck out of this so that it eventually equals the cost of a gallon of gas. In addition to the cost of electricity which is pennies they add a $3 hookup charge and $1 per minute that you use the charging station, tack on $5 for the parking space while charging the vehicle. Who's going to be the EXXON of Electric companies

[tholland]

Originally Posted by steverino

The utility companies are trying to figure out how to make a buck out of this so that it eventually equals the cost of a gallon of gas. In addition to the cost of electricity which is pennies they add a $3 hookup charge and $1 per minute that you use the charging station, tack on $5 for the parking space while charging the vehicle. Who's going to be the EXXON of Electric companies

They will already make a buck by selling the excess capacity and will eventually be able to get better kWh rates doing it... won't stop others from trying to exploit those who need an outlet, but I don't think the utilities will need to get into that. What might be cool is if they develop a metered outlet which can identify the car plugged into it or have a keycard or something to simplify billing.

[jcgable]

Originally Posted by tholland

They will already make a buck by selling the excess capacity and will eventually be able to get better kWh rates doing it... won't stop others from trying to exploit those who need an outlet, but I don't think the utilities will need to get into that. What might be cool is if they develop a metered outlet which can identify the car plugged into it or have a keycard or something to simplify billing.

The profit margins of utilities are far too highly regulated for this kind of situation to come to fruition. I'll admit that though I am a hardcore Democrat, I am typically against a lot of Government regulation of industries. Utilities, however, are an exception in my opinion. The possibility of what you stated above is the reason why.