GM has partnered with 30 utility companies to help with infrastructure for electric cars
Anyone who drives knows that the price we are paying for gas at the pumps is skyrocketing. Environmentalists and drivers looking to help the environment are looking to alternate fuel sources like electricity right alongside drivers merely looking to save at the pumps.
One of the most exciting plug-in electric vehicles on the horizon is the Chevy Volt. The Volt will have an all electric range of 40 miles, but has a gasoline motor that can be used to charge the batteries and allows for a much greater overall range. GM has always stressed that the Volt is not a hybrid and that the gasoline engine is merely there as a back up to allow for long trips.
GM announced that it is teaming up with 30 different utility companies in 37 different states as well as partnering with the Electric Power Research Institute to help develop a national charging infrastructure for electric cars. The lack of a charging infrastructure along with the very limited driving range for the majority of electric vehicles is the main reason plug-in vehicles are not a real alternative for the majority of drivers today.
The reason GM is teaming up with the utility companies is to find ways that will allow an already taxed electricity infrastructure to support the tens or hundreds of thousands of plug-in vehicles GM expects to take to the roads in the years to come.
GM Vice President of global product management Jonathan Lauckner says that he hopes another 50 to 70 utility companies will join the partnership by the end of 2008.
One of the hurdles that GM hopes to tackle with its partnerships is the ability for electric companies to know that what is plugged into an outlet is a vehicle according to The Wall Street Journal. This is important because it would allow the utility companies to control when the vehicle is charged and would allow for charging at night where excess capacity on the electric grid is at its highest and energy costs are the lowest.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Congress is considering legislation that would set a price on carbon-dioxide emissions and that utility companies that prove their electricity is helping to replace gasoline could get special consideration.
DailyTech - GM, Utility Companies Team up to Improve Electric Vehicle Infrastructure
