When you talk to people about electric vehicles there is a range anxiety. People are concerned that they will run out of electricity on the highway.

It is for that reason that taking baby steps will be important for plug-in electric vehicles to succeed.

There are two types of electric vehicles I look forward to on the road: the E-flex extended range vehicle (E-REV)and the Plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV).

There are a number of range extenders from Cadillac, Chrysler, Mercedes, and Fisker. Jaguar is testing a 4-door luxury sedan in a couple years that they say will get the equivalent of 60-70 miles to the gallon.

The Politics of Electric Cars

Let’s put aside the batteries, or anything to do with cars. Let’s assume the car companies are ready and the people will buy the cars.

There are questions that need to be answered by the city and country politicians about electricity.

Take me for example. I live in the country, with plenty of room to put a charger in my garage. But my electric lines were put up over 50 years ago, before air conditioning, hair dryers, flat screen TVs. How much would it cost to change out these old lines to accommodate the need for more energy? And who will pay for the upgrades?

What if I lived in the city?

Wouldn’t it be great to think that you park on the street, put some change in a parking meter and some more change in a charging unit?

There are companies that are working on stand alone units to charge your car for a price.

The problem with that is the electric companies are franchised monopolies. As it stands right now, no one is allowed to resell electricity.

I wrote an article in 2006 about the savings from a In a white paper written by the USEPA entitled “Effect of Single Wide Tires and Trailer Aerodynamics on Fuel Economy and NOx Emissions of Class 8 line-haul tractor-trailers” tests were done that proved that there was a fuel savings with the X-One single wide tire on Class 8 trucks.

Luc M. Minguet, Executive Vice President of Michelin North America explained how the biggest savings occurred; “the duals truckers have been using, XDAHT, were the least fuel efficient. The truckers got on average 5mpg with these tires. If they were replaced with the more fuel efficient XDAs they received an increase in fuel efficiency of 5.25 mpg.

If the duals were replaced with X-Ones the mpg went up to 5.45 on the same vehicle.” CFI gets 6 mpg. They have studied their numbers in real world exercises and know they will get an increase of 5/10 from duallies to X-Ones that brings their mileage to 6.30 mpg.

To a passenger car that goes about 15,000 miles a year an increase of .30 mpg is nothing. You could get that much of an increase by clearing the junk out of your trunk. But to a long-hauler every increase in mpg counts.

On average a long-hauler drives 130,000 miles per year. At 6 mpg the long-hauler purchases 21,667 gallons of gas per year. By just switching to X-Ones there would be a savings of close to 1,032 gallons of gas a year. There are approximately 1,250,000 long-haulers on the road yearly, bringing the savings of fuel to 12,900,000 gallons of gas yearly if they changed their duallies to the X-One wide tire.

There is also a savings in oil when making the X-One wide tire. The main ingredients in producing a tire are steel, natural and synthetic rubber and carbon black, aka oil products. It takes approximately seven gallons of oil to produce one dual truck tire.

According to Michelin engineers it takes 9.5 gallons of oil products to produce an X-One. On an 18-wheeler with dual tires (2 steer tires and 16 duals) that means 126 gallons of oil product used in the production of tires. Replacing the tractor and trailer duals to X-Ones would save 36 gallons of oil products in production. With 1,250,000 18-wheelers on the road that would be a savings of 45,000,000 gallons of oil products.

Saba has a small electric roadster with a lithium-iron phosphate battery. How safe is that battery? Saba’s cars are lightweight,  less than 2,000 pounds, which allows it to go further on a charge. A smaller, lighter eletric car means a smaller battery pack, resulting in shortened recharge times.

About the carbon-zero roadster:

Zero pollution vehicle: 100% plug-in electric vehicle

high performance: 0-60 in 5 seconds 105 mph top speed

low operating cost: <$0.03 per mile typical fuel cost

Inherently low manufacturing cost, easy to scale vehicle design

Employing proven motor technology: 40,000 plus in use

available in late 2010!

Cerven showed us the newest electric vehicles, the WAVE and super car, INIZIO.  Cerven talked about the X-prize and the future of emission free, domestic powered vehicles that EVII is producing today from the U.S. car maker, headquartered in North Carolina.

Cerven talks about the car: how many miles can it go? what about if I get an additional battery? What type of battery is it? How fast will it go? What is the drag co-efficient?

The car is made out of fiberglass composite, but they are looking at a hybrid composite for their next generation vehicle.

Just how well did Hyundai do last year?

Other car companies claim fuel efficiency but Zuchowski quoted the EPA as saying “Hyundai was the only car company that had 30 mpg average on their entire fleet.” Zuchowski says that makes Hyundai the American fuel economy leader.

What are the qualities that Hyundai has in their cars that make them such great sellers?

Dr. Oliva talked to us after he gave a speech at the Detroit auto show. Michelin has a special place in my heart. Edouard Michelin was a wonderful man who was taken from us all to soon. He didn’t just start Challenge Bibendum, the sustainable mobility convention, he believed it. Michelin Corporation continues Edouard’s inspiration by building tires that the utmost in safety and fuel efficiency.

Michelin started in 1992 with fuel efficient tires. This is their fifth tire.

Today, about 45 percent of the oil extracted worldwide is used for road transport.

Of the fuel used by passenger cars, up to 20 percent is directly related to tire rolling resistance. It’s more for buses and trucks, he says, over thirty percent.

That equates to about 9 percent of total global oil consumption that is directly related to tire use.

Nine percent equals eight million barrels of oil a day.

That is not how much it takes to manufacture a tire, but the use of energy. The quantity of energy used to make a tire is minimal.

Lutz talks about the Cadillac that was unveiled at the Detroit auto show.

Why Cadillac?

Will General Motors have a problem with the supply of the battery, like Toyota has said they would.

A group of Senators were at the show. Did Lutz talk to them?

About the Cadillac XTS Platinum Concept:

Plug-in hybrid system is matched with a 3.6L V-6 and all-wheel drive for dynamic and efficient performance.
The XTS Platinum concept’s plug-in hybrid electric propulsion system (PHEV) builds on the experience Cadillac has gained with the Escalade Hybrid and Escalade Platinum Hybrid flagship models. The plug-in capability boosts the car’s electric-only driving capability, offering additional battery energy capacity and enabling it to recharge from a standard external electrical outlet. The key benefit of external plug-in recharging is that in many situations – such as overnight parking – the battery can fully recharge in roughly five hours while the car is not in use. The plug-in system operates at maximum efficiency when operating on power the battery has drawn from the electric grid. In some conditions, such as urban commutes, drivers can experience efficiency that doubles that of conventional hybrids.

At higher speeds or when conditions demand it, such as brisk acceleration, a combination of engine power and electric power or engine power only, propels the vehicle. The combination of the Direct Injection V-6 engine and the PHEV system featuring fully electric variable drive provides a spirited driving experience. The system provides an estimated 350 horsepower (260 kW) and 295 lb.-ft. of torque (400 Nm).

How much are you pulling back at the National Automobile Dealer Association (NADA) meeting in Orlando?

The UAW are not only your workers, but they are your second largest investors/owners. Has that changed your relationship with them?

how do you become profitable and earn market share without incentives?

Reuss says it has been a tough, tumultuous year since returning from bankruptcy and that it hasn’t been a prefect process.

You have a program that allows people to return their car if they don’t like it. How many have returned their car?

Have there been any product decisions that have come from those returns?

Your Chairman Ed Whitacre says he expects GM to be profitable in 2010. Do you think GM USA will be profitable in 2010?

I wish everyone would stop and listen to this piece and answer these questions.

Reinert talks about the readiness of utility companies, states and government policy.

Do we have enough electricity to power electric vehicles?

What about the cost of electricity, would it go up?

Is a normal house ready to electrify a car?

What is the California Public Utilities commission saying?

What  about the charge-for-profit machines?

How does all this play with the electric companies that are franchised monopolies?