Are electric cars for real this time?
There seems to be an increasingly greater number of media articles and advertisements telling us that electrically power passenger cars are arriving. In fact, most major vehicle OEMS have announced plans to release either a plug-in hybrid or full electric vehicle later in 2010 or in 2011. Will this trend of moving from gasoline to electrically powered transportation really stick this time? Some would argue that they have seen this before. An interesting fact is that GE has background in electric vehicles with Charles Proteus Steinmetz, the founder of our research center and one of Edison’s chief technologists. Steinmetz was rather bullish about electric vehicles, so much so that he founded his own electric car company, The Steinmetz Electric Motor Car Company. However, the car company closed soon after his death in 1923. And now, almost 90 years later we still drive gasoline powered vehicles. So why now? Only by trying to answer this question can we hope to identify and overcome the “roadblocks” to widespread consumer adoption.
Here at GE Global Research, we are studying how electric vehicles interact with the grid. We’re trying to find ways to connect the vehicles to the grid in an intelligent manner, such that our electrical infrastructure is not stressed. The ultimate goal would be to someday power these vehicles with renewable energy. In upcoming issues of this blog, I will try to discuss or present issues for electric cars and relevant potential solutions.
I seem to struggle to try and get involved in test markets. I would love to be part of testing electric cars, fuel cells and or any other alternative energy markets. Where do I go? How do I get involved?