Is America ready for the electric car?

Is America ready for the electric car?

Paul Basha, YEC President & CEO
Paul Basha, Pres­i­dent & CEO

Much buzz sur­round­ed the 2011 release of elec­tric vehi­cles by two promi­nent automak­ers. The Chevro­let Volt and the Nis­san Leaf were hailed as “the future is now” cars that would ush­er in a new era of ener­gy inde­pen­dence and tech­no­log­i­cal inno­va­tion for the Unit­ed States.

One ques­tion I hear a lot about elec­tric cars is their effect on the envi­ron­ment. Because you plug them in just like any oth­er appliance—creating more work for pow­er plants—will we real­ly pre­vent car­bon emis­sions? Accord­ing to the Elec­tric Pow­er Research Insti­tute, a Palo Alto, Calif.- based con­sor­tium, the short answer is yes. Despite the extra load, var­i­ous air­borne emis­sions will decline with the onset of elec­tric cars. Each region of the coun­try will see reduc­tions in green­house gas emis­sions over sev­er­al decades, thanks in part to tech­nolo­gies that decrease car­bon diox­ide emis­sions from pow­er plants. In addi­tion, elec­tric cars could actu­al­ly help elec­tric coop­er­a­tives if con­sumers plug them in at night—that helps the sys­tem run more effi­cient­ly because pow­er costs and demand are at their low­est.

Jay Leake checks out the all-electric Nissan Leaf with Central Electric Power Cooperative's Scott Hammond during YEC's Annual Meeting.
Jay Leake checks out the all-elec­tric Nis­san Leaf with Cen­tral Elec­tric Pow­er Coop­er­a­tive’s Scott Ham­mond dur­ing YEC’s Annu­al Meet­ing. Cen­tral is the pow­er aggre­ga­tor for YEC and 19 oth­er S.C. elec­tric co-ops. In the back­ground is the “Co-op pow­ered” Chevy Volt. Pho­to: Wal­ter All­read

How­ev­er, the costs may still be pro­hib­i­tive for most Amer­i­cans. The Coop­er­a­tive Research Net­work esti­mates that pay­back in terms of gaso­line sav­ings would take about a decade (depend­ing on your dri­ving habits). And if you want the car to charge up quick­ly (instead of the usu­al four to eight hours or so with a reg­u­lar 110‑V out­let), you’ll have to install a high­er-volt­age out­let at your home. Besides the cost of hav­ing the 220‑V out­let installed—which one coop­er­a­tive whole­sale pow­er provider esti­mates to be about $2,000—your home­’s wiring may need to be updat­ed to accom­mo­date it. The costs add up.

Whether an elec­tric car suits you also depends on your lifestyle, how much you dri­ve, and whether you want your vehi­cle to have fan­cy ameni­ties that use more elec­tric­i­ty.

Cities across the coun­try are attempt­ing to do their part—electric vehi­cle charg­ing sta­tions are spring­ing up at var­i­ous loca­tions here and there. But bar­ri­ers, includ­ing cost, lim­it­ed dri­ving range on a charge, and easy access to charg­ers, still inhib­it wide­spread use.

Your coop­er­a­tive is doing its part, too. We’ve installed a Lev­el 2 charg­ing sta­tion at our York office which is open to the pub­lic and free of charge to use. YEC is also pre­pared to offer appro­pri­ate elec­tric rates as an incen­tive to mem­bers who charge their cars at their homes dur­ing off-peak hours. Such an effort would help low­er pow­er cost for the entire mem­ber­ship.

Paul Basha

Paul Basha
Pres­i­dent and Chief Exec­u­tive Offi­cer