GM And Utilities To Study Impact Of Electric Cars
General Motors is looking down the road to solve potential problems for the electric cars it plans to roll out in about two years.
GM has joined with more than 30 utility companies to address potential issues from tax incentives for the vehicles to where and when they can be plugged in for recharging.
GM hopes to bring the Chevrolet Volt rechargeable car to showrooms in late 2010. It’s being designed to run on an electric motor powered by lithium-ion batteries, which is already a fixture in personal electronic devices. When fully charged, it will be able to go 40 miles on battery power. For longer trips, a small internal combustion engine will recharge the batteries to keep the Volt moving.
GM and the utilities planned to announcement the partnership Tuesday at a conference on plug-in hybrid electric vehicles under way in San Jose.
Panelists at the Plug-In 2008 conference predict the lithium-ion batteries will soon become the answer to high oil prices and environmental concerns as it bulks up to power rechargeable electric vehicles.
Lithium-ions can be charged by plugging them into a conventional home outlet and also carry a small conventional motor to recharge the batteries and extend their range. Plug-ins generally can get up to 100 miles per gallon of gasoline.
There have been problems reported with lithium-ions batteries in the form of overheating that can cause fires. But one panelist said there have been only a few incidents out of the millions of lithium-ion batteries now in use in laptop computers and other devices.