Pacific Standard March-April 2013 Cover

With Electric Cars, Opening a Two-Way Road to the Bank

A small fleet of Mini Coopers at the University of Delaware both draw electric power from the grid and return it, based on the needs of the moment. (PHOTO: UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE)

The feds have dubbed it “tiny but promising,” but “vehicle-to-grid” electrical regulation officially has gotten off the ground in a small way. Last Friday the University of Delaware flipped the switch connecting—via car charging stations—a small fleet of electric-powered Mini Coopers to electric-grid managers PJM Interconnection. (Actually, the switch was flipped on February 27; last week’s event was a sort of debutant’s coming-out party for the technology.) In a piece subtitled "A New Spin on Car Payments," Dan Ferber told us in the November 2011 issue of Miller-McCune (the ... Read More

The First Golden Age of Electric Car Advertising

Ad for the a Hupp-Yeats electric car (January 27, 1912 Literary Digest)

In 1910, Thomas Edison declared, “In 15 years, more electricity will be sold for electric vehicles than for light.” Edison’s prediction would prove woefully inaccurate, but it's easy to understand his enthusiasm. The first decade of the 20th century was a golden age for electric vehicles. According to the IEEE, a full 28 percent of the 4,192 cars produced in the United States in 1900 were electric. Of course, Edison in 1910 also had a vested interest in seeing electric cars succeed, as he'd been working on more efficient batteries to put in them for nearly a decade. But there really ... Read More

Vehicle-to-Grid: A New Spin on Car Payments

Willett Kempton is an anthropologist. And an electrical engineer. On this winter morning at the University of Delaware, both skill sets come in handy as he courts two Japanese businessmen. They’ve traveled here from Tokyo to see how much progress he’s made toward a revolutionary idea: electric cars that will make several thousand dollars a year for their owners, and speed the switch to renewable energy sources. Observing Japanese business etiquette, Kempton presents his business card to the senior visitor, Makoto Horiguchi, then the two exchange bows. He repeats the ceremony with ... Read More

Electric Cars Get a Jump-Start From Feds

The early adopters of many new technologies — the calculator, the computer, the color TV and the hybrid car — could afford to be pioneers. In fact, technological trendsetters have long earned prestige as the lone owners on the block of the next big invention. But the latest wonder, poised to come on the market in America this winter, carries a different set of circumstances. If you're the only person in town who owns an electric vehicle, good for you. But you're not going to be able to drive it very far. The mass deployment of EVs requires more than just eager buyers. It requires a ... Read More

Charging Up The Electric Car Landscape

At a certain point, emergent technologies become part of the kitchen-table dialogue, no longer the domain of wacky environmentalists or trendy technophiles. The electric car may be at that juncture today. Or maybe it was Thursday, when the United Kingdom announced subsidies of up to $7,500 to get Britons in electric cars — a boost for automakers and a sop, or sop-up, to greenhouse gas fears. In the larger car market of America, President Barack Obama touted the cars during his campaign; he pledged to get 1 million plug-in hybrids on the road by 2015, which is not so far away. So ... Read More

Electric Cars: Great Promise, Potential Potholes

While the technical problems are formidable, a provocative new paper looks at the equally daunting social and cultural realities that will have to be addressed if a switchover away from gasoline engines is to occur. Writing in the journal Energy Policy, Benjamin Sovacool of the National University of Singapore and Richard F. Hirsh of Virginia Polytechnic Institute note that the vehicle-to-grid concept – in which automobiles would be continually hooked up to the larger power grid, both taking energy from it and supplying energy to it – would be a major advance on many levels. Such a ... Read More

In Praise of the Electric Car

Energy wonks and advocates of plans that reduce America's reliance on foreign oil are playing tug-of-war with natural gas. A cleaner energy source than oil and coal, its use for electrical generation has been on the rise. Now, some advocates are using compressed natural gas, or CNG, to power America’s cars and trucks. Others say it doesn't pencil out as a vehicle fuel. While most agree that the country must address the growing economic and environmental costs associated with fossil fuel imports, as energy plans are marched out, it’s increasingly clear that agreement on how to do it will ... Read More