Each day we burn roughly 8.5 million barrels of oil in our passenger cars and trucks. To feed our oil addiction, we send nearly $1 billion overseas each day, often to governments unfriendly to US policies.
A switch to EVs will make for a more stable and secure United States. Oil payments to foreign nations contribute to half of our trade deficit. US armed forces spend up to $83 billion annually protecting vulnerable infrastructure and patrolling oil transit routes.
Even taking into account the emissions from the electricity produced to charge EVs, these vehicles on average emit *at least* 30% less CO2 than gas vehicles. And that’s today; as we clean up the electricity grid, EVs get even cleaner. Of course, charging EVs based on electricity that comes from solar and wind power is the cleanest way to power the vehicles.
Fuel and maintenance for EVs are significantly lower than gasoline vehicles. Fueling your car with electricity is about 5 times cheaper than fueling with gasoline. Pure EVs require no oil changes and have one tenth the number of moving parts than a gas car. There's no engine, transmission, spark plugs, valves, fuel tank, tailpipe, distributor, starter, clutch, muffler, or catalytic converter.
When Toyota first started selling the Prius in 2000, it sold only 5,800 of these new hybrids, and now more than a million have been sold. It is exciting, groundbreaking, and encouraging that GM and Nissan sold more than 17,000 vehicles in 2011, with tens of thousands of additional sales expected this year and from a growing number of manufacturers.
More than 20 different electric drive vehicles will be on the market within the next three years from virtually every major and several new car manufacturers – with plug-in vehicles and components being built in at least 20 states, creating thousands of new domestic jobs.
Plug-in vehicles are "fueled" by locally generated electrons. This means the money you spend on electricity stays in your community. This helps employ your neighbors, who then in turn spend more money in your community. Money spent locally circulates an average of 5 to 6 times before leaving the community. Whereas less than ~20 cents of each dollar spent on gasoline returns to the local community.
Study: Most Gen Y drivers want to own hybrid cars: "Gen Y's strong affinity for hybrid vehicles could make it the "generation that leads us away from traditional gasoline-powered vehicles," reports Craig Giffi, vice chairman"
Solid-State Batteries - Technology Review: "All this adds bulk and cost. So Sastry wondered if she could make a battery that simply didn't need this much management.
Sastry's solid-state batteries are still based on lithium-ion technology, but they replace the liquid electrolyte with a thin layer of material that's not flammable. Solid-state batteries are also resilient: some prototypes demonstrated by other groups can survive thousands of charge-discharge cycles. And they can withstand high temperatures, which will make it possible to use materials that can double or triple a battery's energy density (the amount of energy stored in a given volume) but that are too dangerous or unreliable for use in a conventional lithium-ion battery."
My Nissan Leaf Forum • View topic - Portland Oregon Group: "West Coast Green Highway is the I-5 project from Canada to Mexico and is being put together via the various transportation departments of Washington, Oregon, and California. The second project is The EV Project, which will be installing DC Quick Charge stations in metro areas. The third project is one just by the Oregon Department of Transportation's Office of Innovative Partnerships and will be installing DC Quick Charge stations along Oregon's various highways. "
Did you spend more on gas in 2011? There were no record breaking gas prices at the pump. In 2008, we saw $4 a gallon prices here in the US. However, if you felt like you spent more on gasoline last year, it is probably because you did.
In 2011, gas prices did not follow their traditional seasonal price fluctuations. This means that you didn't get the budget relief in the fall that we normally see.
US Average Gas Price from GasBuddy.com
Looking at 2008 in the chart above, you can see that prices spiked in June and July; however, they dropped sharply in September. By November 2008, you could buy gas for less than $2 per gallon in many parts of the country. In contrast, during 2011 gas averaged over $3 per gallon for the entire year, while peaking at $3.96 in May.
Given this, 2011 has the (dis)honor of being the year with the highest annual fuel cost that we have ever had in the US. Welcome to a glimpse of the prices that the rest of the world has been paying for some time now.
Historically, January is one of the cheapest months of the year for gas prices. Given at we are starting this year with an average price of $3.25, 2012 could easily have $4 prices this summer, causing you to put more money in your tank, leaving less for a new phone, savings, and the rest of your budget.
Oregon's Building Codes Division (BCD) is helping to ready the state for plug-in vehicles by providing information on home charging to electric vehicle buyers with the recently published Oregon Smart Guide on Electric Vehicle Charging at Home. BCD also has taken action to make it easy for electricians to obtain permits for installing charging stations, by expanding the state’s minor label program and simplifying the permit process.
Going beyond hybrids, plug-in hybrid cars coming in 2012: "87+ MPGe, higher than the regular Prius MPG because it can drive up to 12 miles on battery power from the wall socket. Because the battery pack is so small charge time is only "
