EDITORIAL: Extension Cord Needed

Electric utility executives are charged up thinking about the possibilities of electric vehicles.

Brenda Pulis, senior vice president of distribution with Oncor Electric Delivery, a Dallas-based electricity carrier and transmitter, conveyed that excitement at the Electric Utility Fleet Managers Conference in Williamsburg, Va., in June when she talked about the possibility of the utility being able to take a truck to a job, plug it in, work the job and recharge the batteries, all for pennies compared to what it would cost to fill up with diesel or gasoline.

Dave Meisel, director of transportation services for San Diego-based Pacific Gas & Electric, was in Williamsburg, too. He was enthused about an all-electric bucket truck PG&E displayed that can be charged off a 240-volt system. This was not a concept truck. The utility will put 10 of them into service this year.

“I’d love to see electric vehicles part of the industry,” he told me.

Other suppliers showcased additional pieces of equipment, all designed in one way or another to draw energy from the relatively limitless supply of electricity.

Is the time right for consumer and commercial electric vehicles?

Thanks to the stimulus money, there are a number of proposals and projects underway to bring an economically viable electric vehicle to the market.

There is GM’s Volt, of course. Ford has an application before the Department of Energy to put more than 700 electric vehicles into service in a long-term test of their viability.

If approved, about a dozen utilities will participate by putting cars into their fleet service. Chrysler announced plans to bring several electric vehicles to market, too.

Those in the know are sensitive to the sudden rise in electric vehicle hype, especially with memories of GM’s EV1 electric vehicle still fresh in their minds.

GM built several hundred of the cars beginning in 1996 and leased them to users in California and Arizona as a viability test. According to published reports and interviews, the users loved the cars.

GM pulled the plug on the project in 2003 saying that there wasn’t a business case for the vehicle. The company probably spoke the truth. Battery technology was still developing, production costs were high and public demand just wasn’t there. But the way GM ended the program was terrible for publicity. GM took existing EV’s off the market and crushed them. Whether fair or not, the image of GM crushing what some thought was a viable alternative to gas-guzzlers sent a visual message that the company had no real interest in such alternatives, despite official protestations otherwise. <

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