Posted on 11/05/2010 8:09:48 AM PDT by WebFocus
For almost 40 years, the world’s population has faced an indisputable fact: our energy needs are outpacing our supply. And now, the need for new energy technologies is more urgent than ever.
When GE Global Research’s Bob King built his first electric car in 1972, he didn’t have the barest inkling of the energy problems yet to come — he just thought it was a cool idea.
As an undergraduate at Pennsylvania’s Grove City College, King wrote a paper that claimed we would be driving electric vehicles within his lifetime. “After I graduated, suddenly I had some extra time, so I went back and wondered if what I wrote back in [college] made sense,” he told GE Reports.
Working with a Volkswagen chassis, a DC motor, and lead acid batteries, King jerry-rigged an electric car that could rumble down the road for up to 50 miles on a single charge. Since the commute to his new job at GE was just 20 miles, he could make it there and back with a few miles to spare.
But as the energy crisis of the 1970s took root, King realized that he was almost unique on the road: “I was not waiting in line for gas like so many of my colleagues were.”
Thus began his thirty-year quest to build a better electric vehicle. In late 1979, GE won a contract with the Department of Energy to build more efficient cars, and King was appointed project engineer for a new hybrid test vehicle. He sweated over batteries that weighed 700 pounds, and struggled to find ways to keep costs down and make the cars affordable for the average consumer. And since the energy crisis was in full swing, he figured that demand would make his dream of an electric-car world an inevitability.
Then, in the early 1980s, everything changed.
“I thought that in five years, maybe [EVs] would be commercially viable,” King says. “But once the price of gas settled at a dollar a gallon, there was no shortage of gasoline. The energy crisis was over, and everyone went back to consuming gas.”
Nevertheless, concerns about air pollution and global warming eventually brought EVs back into the public eye. In partnership with Ford, King and his GE team switched gears, focusing on reducing emissions by larger vehicles — first vans, then heavy industrial mining trucks and buses.
“There was no way that the emission problem was going to go away overnight,” he says. “So I changed the thrust of the program to what can we do to minimize emissions.”
Under King’s leadership, GE proved it was technically feasible to greatly reduce emissions on a public transit bus, which led to New York’s first hybrid buses in 1996. It paved the way for today’s hybrid buses and established the emissions requirements for New York City’s hybrid transit buses.
Now at last, the EV focus as returned to consumer vehicles. After thirty-plus years, King still recalls when he thought such cars were merely five years away. He’s a little older and a little wiser, but he’s still convinced that electric cars are the future.
“We had the hybrids in the late ‘70s and pure electrics, but the battery technology still wasn’t there,” he says. “Now we’re seeing the battery technology has improved, and we’re looking at a 100-mile range on a single charge. We’re not all going to be driving electric vehicles in five years, but a great deal of people will. Especially with a second car, which many people use to drive less than forty miles a day.
“With India and China increasing the demand for oil, I think we’re at a turning point. And the good news is, the tech is maturing.”
There is nothing “wrong” with electric cars. The problem is that they are not economical yet. Nor will they fit the needs of some (like me) who drive more than a commute.
I would love to drive a hybrid, but the cost per mile (even at 40,000 miles per year) still needs a break even of about $4.00 a gallon. And THEN, I would need to replace the $10,000 battery every three years or so.
And the environmental impact of that would be huge.
When they make one that works, and that I can afford to drive-I will be first in line.
GE is a scum company - MSNBC,NBC,CNBC, Universal. Corrupt slimy, pro-islam disgusting company.
Ford will have plug-in hybrids in 2011 and an electric Focus in 2011. Ford’s hybrid Fusion/Milan are much better than the Prius.
I trust Ford more than scummy General Electric.
Bullsh*t!
OK. Years ago , Bob King took a REGULAR vehicle (the VW), put batteries (regular old lead-acid and heavy) in it, and got 50 miles per charge.
TODAY, GM/CHEVY offers us the lightweight, and very expensive VOLT, which has more efficient and powerful batteries, and gets 40 miles per charge.
And it still didn't have a windsheld defroster. ;~))
I wouldn’t mind seeing the oil change go away at least in a 2nd vehicle or short hop daily driver if electric/battery ever became practical.
our supply is suppressed enviro wacos!
RE: TODAY, GM/CHEVY offers us the lightweight, and very expensive VOLT, which has more efficient and powerful batteries, and gets 40 miles per charge.
LOL, it took them this long with millions of taxpayer dollars to create something WORSE than what one man did in the lab years ago.
That’s government doing business for you...
A VW Polo Diesel will provide better range than his electrified VW.
Again, as the price comes down it would be perfect for my wife. She commutes 12 miles overall. Again, the price per gallon would need to be a lot higher with interest rates for cars really low.
I think Ford is getting closer. I think if they can do a plug-in hybrid for the Fusion/Milan - they might be there.
They are testing it with the Escape. The Germans like VW can probably do something amazing with a turbo diesel plug in hybrid. I know VW, Opel, Ford,BMW and others in Germany have stuff that is close.
For 40 years now, close minded Communist college kids have cried in their red diapers about how bad the US is.
Is the electric car going to make "new" energy supplies?
NO.
Getting "off" oil is only going to require even MORE coal, nuclear, et al POWER PLANTS.
And that oil that we leave in the ground is still going to rise to the surface. When we consume it, we take it out of someplace where it harms the eco system. Now oil will come to our shores. Or we can just let Mexico, Brazil, Russia, China, et al pump it out the Gulf while we pretend we saved the planet.
First electric car was in 1905 still a no sale item must have something better than a battery to make it operate,wonder what that could be?.
There are still too many questions about the impact to the grid when everyone plugs their car into it. Can it support the additional load?
More coal burned too. An nuke power is out. Mass acceptance and use of electric cars seem like a dead end right now.
Obviously, the people pitching it either haven't considered this yet or are figuring that demand will force the solution. Or maybe they are hoping that the general public won't figure it out.
They are too expensive right now, too. $40K for a little scooter is too much.
So he surpassed the new Chevy Volt's range in his first attempt. Good thing GM got a bailout from us. < /sarc >
Another article about electric cars but still no answer about how much they will increase your home electric bill!
Mine is high enough right now.
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