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GM, utilities team up on electric cars
July 22, 2008
General Motors and three dozen utilities will collaborate on the rollout of electric cars, according to a report in today’s Wall Street Journal. The goal is to ensure that cars don’t undermine grid reliability while recharging.
Specifically, utilities want built-in intelligence that is able to identify cars plugged into an outlet so that they can permit recharging only at optimum times—at night, when spare generating capacity is available—and not during hot afternoons. Also, the article reports, utilities might get special consideration with respect to restrictions on carbon-dioxide emissions “if they can prove their electricity is replacing gasoline and cutting overall emissions.”
In addition, “GM would like to take special rates and incentives and use them to build sales. According to current projections, it should be much cheaper to recharge a car overnight than to buy the equivalent amount of gasoline.”
The article also reports that “Austin Energy, a city-owned utility that serves the Texas capital, has decided to offer a $1000 incentive to people who buy plug-in cars”
Posted by Rick Nelson on July 22, 2008 | Comments (3)
