Electric Cars

Claiming that an EV1 is cheaper to drive than a gas-powered car is incorrect [“GM’s Electric Vehicle,” Letters, Jan. 28].

Jim Howard used only the cost of energy in his calculations. Cost of ownership includes depreciation, insurance and registration, and in the case of the EV1, changing the batteries every few years. The 11.3 cents per kilowatt-hour is the capped price Edison is forced to charge. The true cost of electricity is three to five times greater.

ANDRIUS V. VARNAS

Redondo Beach

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* I feel compelled to make some remarks concerning electric vehicles after reading the letters on this subject. The only ideas presented were about the cost of electricity.

The bureaucrats have decreed that a certain number of electric cars be sold in 2003. As in any equation, it must be balanced. In order to sell a specific number of cars, there must be the same number of buyers. Now, how are these same bureaucrats going to compel car buyers to make purchases? Will it be that every third car buyer must buy an electric one or they simply cannot buy?

In order to sell, there must be a market. Electric cars, in their present state of development, will not sell.

CHARLES G. VOELKER

Palm Desert