Bay Area Hopes To Be Electric Vehicle Capital Of The United States

gas2.org:

Last November, I joined Oakland Mayor Ron Dellums and San Jose Mayor Chuck Reed to announce a nine-step policy plan for transforming the Bay Area into the Electric Vehicle Capital of the United States. Our bold regional initiative has been recognized by Coulomb Technologies, Better Place, General Motors (GM), and other companies who have made the Bay Area a high priority in their EV investment programs. In November, Better Place said it would invest $1 billion to create networked electric mobility systems in the Bay Area. Last month GM announced it will roll out its plug-in Chevy Volt in San Francisco, and Nissan named the Bay Area a prime location for launching its battery powered car.

Commercial availability of EVs is targeted to begin in 2010. GM plans to begin selling its long awaited Volt in San Francisco next year. A number of other manufacturers have electric vehicles in development, including BMW, Ford, Nissan, Toyota and Volkswagen.

Read the whole story: gas2.org

Comments

[johnnyjust]

Still no damn parking there.

[plantguy]

Complain about power plant emissions so we build a car that requires more electric to charge the batteries.

[quiviran]

Go do your homework. All of the energy required for the a fleet the size of the existing US auto fleet is presently available as excess capacity during off-peak hours.

[plantguy]

excess? Do your homework.

[Harrier]

I still say the GM car that they leased was the best car made. But they crushed them all. All they need to do is buy back the patents and they go back in production tomorrow and they're their problems end. But the chose to re-invent the wheel. Tesla is a great car-say what you want, but give them the money and they will do the R&D to make any type of car you want.

[RTIII]

I agree _except_ for the fact that I feel that GM should be _punished_ for its atrocious behavior in crushing the EV1. It was not only asinine, it was horribly (significantly) destructive of the resources of our shared planet. _I_ won't forgive them any time soon - certainly not without better behavior that gives me some _reason_ to forgive a soul-less corporation.
.

[Emerald1943]

The EV-1 debacle by GM was the beginning of the end for them. If they had only continued to produce and sell the cars, perhaps we would not be having this conversation! My question is why they are having so much trouble re-tooling to make electrics? If they could do it then, why not now?

The demise of the EV=1 was the early demise of GM! And to think they could have been on top of the world!

And what about the battery developed by Oshinsky (sp?) that was bought out by one of the oil companies? The choke hold of big oil is still apparent!

[cyclobenzaprine9]

Yay for the Bay, my home.

[blurredtruth]

This will not occur...just another reason to waste taxpayer funds in cost overrides, work stoppages, and corruption. Besides the area has a very good unfortunate chance of a major earthquake.

[KillTheMessenger]

So let's see... Detroit is wasting money, inhibiting progress, is going bankrupt periodically, is home to the mother of all mortgage meltdowns... and in general a rather unhappy place packed with whiners. Time to move on.

[fil2670]

I don't see how this helps at all given that the grid loses a majority of its energy in transmission and most of the electricity is produced by burning fossil fuels. This just shifts the pollution from urban areas (where a vast majority of energy is consumed) to rural areas where the power is generated.

[KillTheMessenger]

Electric cars plus transmission plus power generation are at least twice as efficient as internal combustion engines. In addition electricity can be generated with clean renewable technology. hydrocarbons, at the moment, can not.

[RTIII]

B.S.

Without stating the SOURCE of the energy, you _CANNOT_ say how efficient or inefficient ICEs are vs motors, PERIOD. Sure, ICEs are inefficient on the face of it, but, traditionally speaking, motors are worse. With engines, at least, you have the Opportunity to locate them locally wherein the heat factors can be used to increase overall efficiency vs remote generation.

Your statements, like this one, are COMPLETELY unqualified and are therefore COMPLETELY wrong. When you learn to properly qualify your statements, they may then be properly considered.
.

[quiviran]

KtM - Ignore RTIII. He is full of it.

The other great thing about electricity is that you can make your own, in your own backyard. That is the great fear of the energy industry. Someday, we may all just disconnect and go humming by the filling stations.

The times, they are a-changing.

[bdaved]

Oh no! The Cloud of Smug!

[amadorjon]

bravo......

go nor cal

[bluejay10027]

Blah , Blah.

Most people where I live drive a Prius.

[JuergenHartl]

Tesla should NOT get any money. A company whose main clients are high income households ($100,000 for a car) , a niche product, does not need any taxpayers money.
Now if they change their course and will develop for th masses it is a different scenario.

[Eyeswideopen1]

It's a bridge product to more mainstream initatives. You don't just start mass producing cheap electric cars starting from zero.

[Bocado]

The flip side to that argument is, they clearly decided their market from the beginning.

Honda didn't come out with their Acura NSX instantly.

[KillTheMessenger]

It's a bridge to nowhere. Taking a Lotus, ripping out the guts, putting a bunch of batteries in that wouldn't cut it for a mass market product to begin with and adding a poorly performing electric drive train is nothing a real automotive engineer would be proud about.

[research]

Let's include the small Business incentives we used to do.

Tesla should get more help proportionally than GM

[KillTheMessenger]

Tesla is a rich boy's toys company. Live with it.

[research]

investment in car racing helped car technology in general.

better than war.

[RTIII]

GM destroyed the EV1, on purpose, so its success would never be known.

Yet we know.

YOU seem to think this type of behavior should be rewarded through your belief that competition should be condemned.

Wake up. We NEED competitors. Tesla has a good plan for making a "practical" car. If you don't address this, specifically, in your criticisms, you just come across as an uninformed jerk.

[Wilsonv]

So we went with the big guys and gave up on Tesla?

www.teslamotors.com

We should push for a Bay Area company and Tesla makes a much better car then the big three.

[RTIII]

I agree, but you'll bring more people to the cause when you understand the difference between then and than.
.