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Electric Vehicle--The Immediate Years Ahead

Shai Agassi's Electric Car Plan Good Enough to “Wipe out Gasoline Cars” Says Deutsche Bank

The $300 million incentive plan proposed by John McCain to motivate the “development of a battery package that possesses the size, capacity, cost, and power to leapfrog the commercially available plug-in hybrid or electric cars,” has been scoffed at by politicos and energy experts alike.

Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama said the $300 million award is nothing more than “bounty” for some “rocket scientist” to claim. McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds said the specifics would be introduced and made policy if McCain is elected. McCain wants Americans to understand that yet to be discovered approaches can help solve America’s dependence on oil, he said.

But experts such as Edwin Black, author of Internal Combustion: How Corporations and Governments Addicted the World to Oil and Derailed the Alternatives, publicly declared that the candidate did not seem to be aware of more than a century of existing battery technology waiting to be resurrected. In an interview with FOXNews.com, Black criticized McCain’s proposal for lack specifics. “As of now, there is no proposal,” he said, “A battery? For what car?” Black continued, “The money could already be put into manufacturing the many existing battery designs waiting for a boost—if the government wanted to.” The author equally criticized both presidential candidates. Weaning America off oil immediately in months, not years, should be the goal, Black said, and neither Obama nor McCain has offered a program to accomplish that.

Nor do either of the candidates seem aware of existing plans to mass market electric cars in the U.S..

Norway is ready to test its “Think” electric vehicles, invented and marketed successfully during the early nineties. About 1,000 vehicles were running until Ford Motor Co. bought the company, which led to its bankruptcy. Rachel Carroll, vice president of corporate communications at Ener1, whose subsidiary, EnerDel, produces one of the batteries used in “City,” said that research, development and concerns about safety have made the costs of the battery project astronomical. Ener1 has already invested $200 million in its venture and would welcome U.S. government support. It is unlikely that new developments in efficient batteries will “happen in your backyard,” she said.

Despite the lack of McCain’s knowledge of the existing industry, Carroll stated the proposal has “created a buzz and excitement and done wonders for us,’’ she said, adding, her consortium has been working for five years on the very idea that McCain seems to have just discovered.

Another major project is Shai Agassi’s Better Place electric vehicle, an ambitious Israeli program to create a network of electric cars, charging stations, and battery swapping facilities, all powered by renewable electric sources such as wind and solar. The cars would be as relatively cheap as cell phones because regular electric consumption would pay for the cars the way phone minutes pay for cells. Israel and Denmark in 2010 and 2011 will be the first to host the Nissan-manufactured cars and their clean network. The business model is new, but the technology idea parallels the electric Model T network envisioned by Thomas Edison and Henry Ford in 1912 before the project was subverted. The Ford-Edison network plan was discovered and popularized by Black in his book Internal Combustion.

It appears McCain did not know about the “Think,” Project Better Place or the numerous other developments in battery technology, when he proposed his recent award program.

Jennifer Watts with the Electric Drive Transportation Association insists that domestic development is key. Foreign production of the battery would simply trade dependence on foreign oil for dependence on foreign technology.

Bounds countered that the prize could go to anyone, anywhere, according to his understanding.

Cathy Landry with the American Petroleum Institute told reporters she couldn’t comment about the McCain proposal but that America must develop a balanced energy policy that promotes energy efficiency, conservation, and a greater supply of all forms of energy, including natural gas and oil. Landry’s remarks gave no specifics.

Major oil companies contacted by such major news organizations as FOXNews.com refused comment about McCain's proposal and did not return telephone calls to FOXNews.com.

“City” will be introduced in Europe soon. Southern California should see the first vehicles in 2009. Similar projects are planned for 2009 and 2010 by an array of manufacturers from Volkswagen to Nissan to BMW. Even GM and Chevrolet have resurrected the decades-old “Volt,” an electric vehicle now projected for completion by the end of 2010. Ford alone is refusing to join the electric revolution saying it prefers to let others lead the way.

Jesse Cogan is a New-York based writer.

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