Dude! Where Are All of GE's Electric Cars? - DailyFinance

Dude! Where Are All of GE's Electric Cars? - DailyFinance: "GE noted that its commitment to purchase 25,000 electric cars -- that's what it worked out to -- was "the largest single EV commitment ever.""

How the Stimulus Revived the Electric Car · Oregon Public Broadcasting · EarthFix

How the Stimulus Revived the Electric Car · Oregon Public Broadcasting · EarthFix:

"A123 now supplies the luxury electric carmaker Fisker Automotive and the manufacturers of electric delivery trucks used by FedEx and Frito-Lay.

“Quite simply, if we didn’t get that grant, we wouldn’t have built [the factory] in the U.S.,” A123 spokesman Dan Borgasano said.

The battery grants have created and saved more than 1,800 jobs for assembly workers, toolmakers and engineers, according to a ProPublica analysis of stimulus project reports filed by the companies. That number doesn’t include the workers who constructed the plants or those hired by the matching private investment the companies had to make to get the grants."

Well-to-Wheel

http://www.stanford.edu/group/greendorm/participate/cee124/TeslaReading.pdf

How much pollution an electric car produces per mile – accounting for all emissions, starting from the gas or oil well where the source fuel is extracted, all the way to the final consumption of electricity by the car’s motor. When we work through the numbers, we find that the electric car is significantly more efficient and pollutes less than all alternatives.

Which Are Better: Electric Cars or Natural Gas Vehicles? - Forbes

Which Are Better: Electric Cars or Natural Gas Vehicles? - Forbes: "1,000 cubic feet (cf) of natural gas, converted to electricity, yields 457 miles in an EV. This same 1,000 cf in an NGV would only have a range of around 224 miles."

Gartner Forecasts 100,000 Electric Car Sales in U.S. in 2012 | Clean Fleet Report

Gartner Forecasts 100,000 Electric Car Sales in U.S. in 2012 | Clean Fleet Report: "He acknowledged that 100,000 is quite a jump from the 18,000 sold in 2011 which included 9,674 Nissan LEAFs, 7,671 Chevrolet Volts, and 655 other plug-in cars."

DEPLOYMENT ROLLOUT ESTIMATE OF ELECTRIC VEHICLES 2011-2015 BY CENTER FOR AUTOMOTIVE RESEARCH ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN

http://www.cargroup.org/pdfs/deployment.pdf

Trying to forecast EV sales? Good luck with that | Green Tech - CNET News

Trying to forecast EV sales? Good luck with that | Green Tech - CNET News: "Research company IDC Energy Insights this week predicted that there will 120,000 plug-in electric vehicles sold in North America next year"

Volt as Political Pawn

There are congressional hearings tomorrow, Wednesday (1/25/2012), about the Chevrolet Volt. The Volt was recently cleared of its fire issue by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). That doesn’t mean General Motors’ problems with the US government are over.

Congressman Darryl Issa, R-California, is contending that the NHTSA tried to cover up the fire. The same fire that has miles and miles of press written about it.

When waste and government spending are being harshly scrutinized, this is not the time to be playing election year partisan politics and wasting taxpayer dollars. If there had been Volt fires on the road, if people had been killed, injured, or harmed in any way, I would support a full investigation. Instead these were “lab events”. There are over 200,000 gasoline fires each year, these are far more worthy of congressional investigation.

Further pursuit of them is a waste of time and (my) tax payer money. Issa has been a sharp critic of GM. His facebook page recently posted a New York Post article titled “GM’s flop in green” that called the Volt “one part lemon, one part taxpayer albatross”.

I encourage you to make your opinions known by contacting him and your local Congress person.

Issa's Office:

• phone number: 202-225-3906
• webpage

Here are some statements that have been left on his site:

The Chevy Volt is an investment in the energy and economic security of our country. Every electric mile driven in America equates to less government money wasted on oil subsidies and imports. We need to encourage automakers to continue the tradition of American innovation for the future of our country. The Volt drivers of America encourage you to drop the Volt investigation today. We encourage you to be a leader for American innovation and prosperity.

What on earth can anyone gain by flogging a manufacturer over a media conflagration that was obviously overblown at the outset? The NHTSA was only able to destroy two batteries, after several attempts, enough to cause a fire days or weeks later. A gas vehicle would explode instantly in the same circumstance. Once the test established that any surviving passengers could be extracted before a fire or explosion I would say any remaining investigation is only allegory. We have over 200,000 car fires each year that kill hundreds of victims. I want my kids to drive a car that gives them a better chance to live through an accident. Don't you?

Let your voice be heard.

Energy and Debt

Clean energy is an investment in our future. Every dollar invested in clean energy leads to savings for American families, savings in fuel costs and health care costs. Whereas, every dollar spent on oil subsidies leaves our country and fills the pocketbooks of oil companies. In 2010, the world's governments, including the U.S., spent over $500 billion in oil subsidies, compared to only 1/10th of that amount in investments in clean energy. We need to end oil subsidies and we need invest in technologies that boost the economy and health of our communities.

Secretary Chu Predicts Steep Decline in EV Battery Prices

Secretary Chu Predicts Steep Decline in EV Battery Prices: \

"40-mile range drop to $3,600 by 2015 compared to $12,000 in 2008. By 2020, he said we would see that cost drop to $1,500"