Electric cars have buzz, need spark

Sunday, July 23, 2006
JAMES MAYER
The Oregonian

For decades, the electric car has promised to deliver us from the gas-guzzling, pollution-belching internal combustion engine. It's quiet, fast, clean and, best of all, cheap to run.

Now, soaring oil prices and global warming are breathing new life into that old promise.

But despite years of earnest tinkering, the reality of a reasonably priced, mass-produced electric car remains what it has always been -- tantalizingly just around the corner.

Barriers are partly technical and partly political. There's still no low-cost, long-lasting, lightweight battery with short recharging times. The auto industry lacks an incentive to solve the electric car's problems on a large scale, and it's hugely expensive for small competitors to break into the market.

And now automakers, with the blessing of state and federal governments, are turning their alternative-propulsion attention elsewhere, to ethanol and biodiesel and, farther down the road, to a hydrogen-based electric system using fuel cells.

Advocates aren't ready to write the electric car's obituary, though. Gas-electric hybrids such as the Toyota Prius are popular, and they point to a next-step hybrid that could be plugged in and charged up for a 40-mile all-electric ride before the gasoline engine kicks in.

High gas prices, oil insecurity and even a cultural buzz inspired by the documentary film "Who Killed the Electric Car?" keep the promise alive.

"I think they will catch on," said Ron Freund, chairman of the Electric Auto Association, a San Francisco-based national advocacy group. "The strangle lock and lack of choice that American consumers have had for 90 years has got to come to an end."

Tesla roadster

If you are rich, or handy, or adventurous, you can go electric. On Thursday, Tesla Motors of California unveiled a high-performance electric roadster -- available in 2007 -- with a 250-mile range, an operating cost of about 1 cent a mile, and a reported sticker price between $80,000 and $125,000. Or you can buy one of several brands of Neighborhood Electric Vehicles on the market -- top speed 25 mph -- for about $10,000.

But much more common are cars such as Eugene resident Bryan Avery's converted 1997 Honda Accord, license plate BZZZZT. The car, one of 216 electric vehicles registered in Oregon, was one of about a dozen on display earlier this month in Pioneer Courthouse Square for Electric Vehicle Awareness Day.

"It's just my hobby," Avery says. Building the car reminded him of playing with Legos as a kid. "I've always been fascinated by the idea of the electric car."

Avery has spent $15,000 on the conversion "so far," he says. The car has a range of 10 miles, and it's "a little embarrassing when the battery runs out" and the car slows to a stop.

Affordable batteries limit the range of most electric cars to 25 to 50 miles, and the batteries require 10 to 12 hours of recharging between uses. Better batteries, such as lithium-ion technology, can extend range significantly, but they increase the cost and early versions had a tendency to explode.

Federal tax credits are available for new electric car purchases, and state credits are available for conversions. There are free charging stations in Portland, at Portland General Electric offices at 121 S.W. Salmon St. and the Hillsdale Library, 1525 S.W. Sunset Blvd.

Plug-in hybrid

But it's another just-around-the-corner innovation that many enthusiasts hope will finally bring electric cars to the masses.

Even purists such as Freund, who has traveled 66,000 miles in all-electric cars since 1988, are pushing auto companies to offer a "plug-in hybrid" -- a beefier battery that can be plugged in to a wall socket overnight, giving drivers about 40 miles before the gas engine kicks in.

It can be the best of both worlds. The electric range is enough to handle the daily commute for millions of Americans without burning a drop of gasoline, and the gas engine is available for longer trips.

A California company plans to offer such a system for 2004 or newer Toyota Prius models for about $10,000. The system boasts a 20- to 25-mile electric range. One drawback: The modification could void the new-car warranty. Toyota and other hybrid makers say they are looking into mass production, which would bring the added cost down possibly as low as $3,000.

It's a short psychological step from there to all-electric cars for consumers, advocates say.

"If we can get people used to the idea of plugging in a car, they will demand bigger batteries," Freund said.

Industry disinterest

Maybe, but car manufacturers still have lots of reasons to resist. For one thing, there's the lucrative parts and service business, which electric cars all but eliminate. A gasoline engine has more than 200 moving parts. The electric motor has one, Freund says. Batteries have to be replaced every three to five years, however.

The last time America came close to realizing the electric car promise was in the 1990s when California required 2 percent of cars sold in the state to have zero emissions by 1998 and 10 percent by 2003. GM, Toyota, and other car makers responded with electric cars that became hugely popular with enthusiasts.

The birth and ultimate death of the EV1, GM's answer to the zero-emission requirement, is detailed in filmmaker Chris Paine's documentary, "Who Killed the Electric Car?" which is playing at the Fox Tower in Portland.

The film makes clear that there is plenty of blame to go around, but it centers on GM as the prime suspect. In reaction to industry pressure, including a lawsuit joined by President Bush, California eased the regulations in 2003, and the manufacturers quickly discontinued their electric cars. Over the passionate objection of people who leased the cars -- you could not buy them -- GM took back the 800 or so EV1s on the road and had them destroyed by a car crusher.

Since the movie's release in the U.S. last month, a GM spokesman has said the company understands the heartfelt reaction of the few customers who enjoyed the car so much, but that the company invested $1 billion in the car's development and did not see a long-term market for it.

But the sight of the sleek, still new-looking EV1s being fed into the crusher is a powerful metaphor.

Freund says he doesn't expect the solution to come from Detroit, which he says never has understood electronics.

"It's something that will come out of Silicon Valley," he says.

Just around the corner.

James Mayer: 503-294-4109; jimmayer@news.oregonian.com

©2006 The Oregonian