Plugging the Electric Automobile : Energy: A Burbank consortium unveils a vehicle that it hopes will fuel a $150-billion local industry and create up to 55,000 new jobs.
It may travel the world in the next year, but the electric vehicle unveiled Tuesday by a Burbank-based consortium of private firms and public agencies will probably never wear out its tires.
Although it can run, the light blue, teardrop-shaped vehicle is a “showcase” model that will be used only to demonstrate its various high-tech components at auto shows from Geneva to Tokyo.
In short, it will probably never be stuck in a 9 a.m. SigAlert on the Ventura Freeway, but will spend its life as a rolling example of a hoped-for future.
Nevertheless, the vehicle was the star attraction at an unveiling ceremony at the headquarters of CALSTART, the public-private partnership whose goal is to foster development of an electric vehicle industry in Southern California.
CALSTART officials said the vehicle demonstrates how an electric car can use advanced electronic components made by California companies, particularly by defense and aerospace firms that face an otherwise bleak future in the aftermath of the Cold War.
The components include an aluminum frame that reduces weight, a lead acid battery that can power the vehicle for up to 140 miles, and an energy management system that monitors voltage, current, engine temperature and speed to extend driving range.
More futuristic components installed in the car include a collision warning device that uses radar sensors to warn a driver about potential accidents, a navigational system that responds to verbal commands to map out the fastest route to the driver’s destination, and a seat that heats and cools the occupants using minimum electric energy.
CALSTART officials hope that the production and sale of such components to American and foreign auto makers, which are under pressure to meet legal deadlines to develop electric cars under clean air laws, will create up to 55,000 new jobs in Southern California and help foster a $150-billion local industry.
Clean air laws require that 10% of new vehicles sold in California by the year 2003 be emission-free, and to date, only electric cars meet the standard.
Among the dignitaries present were Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Rep. Howard L. Berman (D-Panorama City), Rep. David Dreier (R-La Verne), state Sen. Herschel Rosenthal (D-Los Angeles) and Assemblyman Richard Katz (D-Panorama City).
Many of the speakers Tuesday stressed the potential for converting Southern California’s troubled defense and aerospace firms into producers of high-tech electric vehicle components.
“This can represent a breadth of technology that is simply not available anywhere else in the world,” said Lon Bell, manager of the showcase electric vehicle program and president of Amerigon Inc., a Monrovia engineering firm.
“Today, the handwriting is on the wall,” said Berman, who authored legislation that provided a $4-million federal grant for CALSTART.
“We can no longer depend on the defense budget to create jobs.”
Feinstein agreed, saying CALSTART “speaks to all of us who want to see a defense technology conversion that finally makes sense.”
Katz said CALSTART can be the impetus for creating “the Silicon Valley of electric vehicles” in Southern California.
The electric vehicle unveiled Tuesday will appear at the Los Angeles Auto Show in January and then at a Geneva auto show in March and an auto show in Tokyo next summer.
The creation of the electric vehicle is the first of three key CALSTART projects.
The other two efforts are to build charging stations, battery recycling stations and other infrastructure services and to promote the production and use of electric buses.
