Electric car inventor drives his point home to US house of representatives
A BOFFIN TOLD the US House of Representatives that a US electric car infrastructure could be set up for the price of only two months' worth of oil.
Shai Agassi CEO of Project Better Place argued thats for "$100 billion, we can put in place the infrastructure needed to power the nation’s cars and end this oil dependence".
Knowing that trying to woo politicians with only the promise of a greener future was probably futile, Agassi threw in an incentive that of the $100 billion, 80 per cent would go into creating jobs for American citizens. Or underpaid illegal Mexican aliens, whoever applied first.
Pushing his luck even further, Agassi went on to say that for the price of one whole year’s worth of oil (some $500 billion), fully renewable electrical generation could easily be achieved, enabling all of America’s cars to be powered oil-less-ly.
Razzle-dazzling the reps at a Select Committee hearing on Energy Independence and Global Warming, Agassi explained that if the average American got 25 miles (40 kms) per gallon (3.8 litres) and paid $4 for every gallon guzzled, he’d end up paying 16 cents per mile (1.6km). Still with us?
Meanwhile, the operating costs of an electric car, including the depreciation of the battery, works out at only six cents a mile. Savings in Europe where petrol is even more ludicrously expensive would be significantly higher.
Banging on, Agassi cajoled the house, noting that with American’s averaging 2.6 cars per household (one usually a big brute of an SUV driven by a chirpy ‘soccer mom’) "there is no reason that one of them can’t be all electric for use on every trip of 120 miles or less."
Agassi has already raised some $200 million in investor capital for building an electric grid in Israel, where drivers will be able to change or charge batteries quicker than it would take to fill up a full tank of petrol. The Israeli government has already promised to give tax breaks to anyone driving an electric car, and it is a vision Agassi is passionate about.
“We can build a virtual oil field; one that works better and leaves no footprint”, he gushed.
Agassi also told the Select Committee, that his firm was currently in talks with over 30 different countries to try to implement his firm’s technology. Let’s just hope his little speech didn’t drive the house mad. µ
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the cost of "stabilising" oil supplies in the environs of Iraq

one cannot help but wonder what might have been if they had spent the money on converting the USA to renewables and ending reliance on oil in the first place

one ends up wondering if the subprime credit crunch collapse would have happened at all if $500 billion had been injected into the US economy around about then

just make sure they put solar panels on the rooves of the e-cars OK, so they charge themselves for free, tell them God said to do it, that ought to swing it.
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drashek
As always, the battery-car mafia claims wonderful green savings by eliminating oil--only to push the non-green badness across an electrical wire to some place a hundred miles away. Electric cars only replace oil with coal and/or natural gas or hydro-power if we're lucky. Problem is no $100 billion will fix THAT problem.
they are going to out-compete America.

Therefore, his company, 
and any other that might offer such enabling to foreign countries, 
must/will be suppressed or stopped.

The alternative, is for America to become permanently relegated to inferior status, 
and causing that would be an act of war/terrorism against America, wouldn't it?

Some agency'll stop him.

Remembering some of the news items of such doings, over the past decades...
There simply is no possibility that the energy demand of any significant part of the auto fleet of any major first world country can be transferred to the electric grid and generation system without bringing both systems to their knees.
$200 million for a grid in Isrial will not add a single kilowatt to their capacity.
We are talking hundreds of billions here in the USA.
Someday, I'll read one of these article where the promoter considers the entire supply chain of his proposal and prices it. With 200 million cars in the USA converting to electricity, the price of electricity will soar. 
I wish the dream were real, but it only another special interest hoax. Oh, I know they are sincere, but also wearing blinders.
The inventor of the electric car has been dead a very long time.
I think that sounds like an awesome plan, and would be one of the first to buy an AFFORDABLE electric car. It's just too bad that his speech most likely fell on deaf ears, seeing how Big Oil probably paid to put most of those representatives in their seats.
... The generation of electricity is 100% fossil fuel free, the use of electric cars will simply move the pollution from the exhaust pipe to the power station. In fact given the losses involved in the production and distribution of electricity, more pollution is will be produced per mile driven than if the car was electric.

Given that battery technology is a major hurdle for electric transport, would it not be better to start with the renewable energy power stations and then work from that direction instead?
...and I especially love George Bush! Praise Allah!

He's done EVERYTHING I've ever asked of him! Like, bankrupt his own Country through endless War, their addiction to our Oil, & quietly steal his people's freedoms... And not a single person is screaming to impeach him! It's sooooo much more than I ever hoped! God has truly blessed our efforts, thanks to Mr. Bush.

Gee, I hope the Bussard Cold Fusion tests their Navy is working on, never come to anything... That would ruin EVERYTHING!

Down with WB-7!

Signed,
Bin Laddin
Agreed that converting to electric cars pushes the power generation from the car back to the generating station. However, the typical generating station is quite a bit more efficient than a car engine when you look at the total energy efficiency from fuel to use.

I have expertise in this; I work with generating companies to increase their efficiencies, and am quite familiar with the economics at work.

A stationary generating station can employ solutions that reuse energy that in a car would be merely piped out the exhaust.
The US trade deficit is $60B a month. 

$45B a month of that is foreign oil.

For perspective, the 'War on Terror' that's 'bankrupting' the country is $10B a month. Of course, one could argue that should be added to the true cost of foreign oil. Just 2 program changes would almost close the trade deficit. Think about it.

The US has a staggering amount of solar power available in the southwest. The DOE's own numbers show that a square 100mi on a side would deliver the entire energy consumption of the USA with no imports, no polution and no radioactive waste. It would last until the planet dies.

There's also huge amounts of geothermal energy available in the US with the new high pressure deep well tech. A perfect baseline power compliment for solar.
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Right, so we're going to suddenly abandon a century of vehicles, create a bunch of powerplants, install service stations around the country, and everything will be fine and dandy? I'm sorry, but Rome was not built in a day, and neither will curbing oil dependence. I can't imagine the government-centered countries of Europe pulling this off, let alone the private-sector centric US.
So, $100 billion for the infrastructure. Not bad. 

Our fleet of vehicles gets replaced each 20 years (ignoring a few vintage autos), meaning that about 5% of people buy new cars each year. If 1/2 of those buy electric, that is 2.5% conversion each year - little enough that our electrical generating infrastructure can adapt, particularly given that most charging will occur during off-peak hours of electrical consumption. Increasing off-peak actually INCREASES generating efficiency - plants work best under stable loads.

America has PLENTY of energy - the problem is always getting it to where it is needed. Solar and geothermal power are clean and virtually unlimited, but produced best out west where it does the east little good. Improvements in infrastructure, including superconducting power lines and / or trains carrying giant batteries can change this equation, allowing cheap renewable power to replace petroleum for all but a few specialty uses in our lifetimes.
You folks saying "we can't fix this overnight" are missing the point. Saying we can't fix it overnight is not an excuse to not try to fix it at all. This plan may sound grandiose, but it's pretty much a given that if you *start* implementing it, pollution and oil dependency *will* decrease. It may not get to zero overnight, but that's obvious, and obviously better than throwing up your hands and saying it'll never work.

As for solar panels on car roofs - dream on... At 4 watts/square foot, you'll get maybe 100 watts from a car rooftop. Remember that 1HP = 746 watts. Even 8 hours of full sun wouldn't get you enough energy to move a car. It'll power your stereo and other electrical accessories but not much else. And of course, most of the time my car is parked, it's in a covered garage/parking structure.

It wouldn't be a bad idea to cover all parking areas with solar panels though. That would also prevent all that asphalt from baking in the sun.
You do realize that the power plants are burning fuel 24x7 right (it's why off-peak power is cheaper). There's excess capacity at night that's currently just going to waste.

So having electric vehicles WOULD be a net gain, because we'd be getting some use out of all that electricity produced at night. 

No electric vehicles = burn oil at night + burn gas in cars during the day

Having electric vehicles = burn oil at night
Mr. Electric didn't describe the infrastructure that would be built. Most importantly I saw no explanation of where the electricity would come from. 

I'm sure that the oil lobby will insure that politicians don't "do anything stupid", like build huge solar farms in Arizona and Texas or anything that might actually create oil independence. No, I'm sure that they're paid handsomely to just keep on wagging their finger at big oil during fabulously well performed "I feel your pain" acts and doing nothing.
The artemis transmission looks cool. They have it in a BMW 530i and have some impressive results for fuel consumption reduction.

http://www.artemisip.com/appli_auto_transm.htm
Where were you when we put a man on the moon in lees than 10 years? Making an affordable <20k electric car for the masses is a lot easier than that. 40 - 60 percent of us commute less than 60 miles to work every day. We need to be in electric cars in 2-3 years people. Stop talking about it and writing about it and go out and do it.