Pros and Cons of Electric Vehicles
* Re “Perspectives on Electric Cars,” Commentary, March 28:
We should also consider that on hot summer days, with air conditioners operating, existing power plants already run at their maximum capacity, a hairbreadth from a brownout. Thus with a multitude of electric cars we certainly will need more power plants. While electric cars do not pollute, conventional power plants do. Unless the environmentalists are thinking of atomic power plants?
We would also need to upgrade electric power distribution systems to handle the heavily increased demand for power. This would be good for manufacturers producing the necessary components as well as for the construction contractors installing them. Of course money is no object.
BRUNO LAAN
Los Angeles
* The column by Sen. Barbara Boxer concerning electric vehicles seems to overlook two significant factors: cost and free market choice.
I’m aware that a dedicated production program for any manufactured product can result in major cost reductions as a function of units produced but the demand for these EVs must be there for the free market forces to operate. The California mandate is “that in less than five years, 40,000 EVs must be sold in California. . . .”
Suppose that nobody wants to buy them? Or, further, nobody can afford to buy them? What then?
I suspect Detroit, having an opportunity to produce state-of-the-art EVs on a sound financial basis, will respond. But, a government mandate is not the way to do it.
JOHN J. CORCORAN
Playa del Rey
* Directors of the Michigan-based Study of Automotive Transportation think that the mandates for electric vehicles in California are premature.
David Cole and Michael Flynn are right about several things. On entry into the market, electric vehicles will cost more, and loud trepidation about buyer acceptance of limited range and long charging time is understandable.
I own a 1971 Mazda powered by 18 lead-acid batteries. It cost me $6,000 used. It has a 50-mile range on freeways, doing 60 miles per hour in the slow lane when traffic is moving. It has a 60-mile range on surface streets. My car is called a “conversion” and conversions have been going on for over 30 years.
From-the-ground-up electrics, with their advanced motors, give nothing away in performance to gasoline models. Requiring their production will work to bring down the cost and increase range. A lead-acid battery that could double the present range of electrics is in the works and will probably be in production before the 1998 when 2% of the cars sold in California must be non-polluting. A stationary charging system has been developed and demonstrated that reduces charging time to 18 minutes, and an affordable on-board version is on the drawing boards which will do the same in an hour or so. With some commitment to infrastructure (such as charging stations at work and low rates for off-peak night charging), electric vehicles could be a viable alternative to more of the same. That is if the Big Three do not succeed in lobbying the state to postpone or rescind the mandates.
DENTON PORTER
Long Beach
