See how Project Get Ready partners measured up.

Check out their website here.

Watch webcast here.

A recent conducted poll by the Electrification Coalition shows strong support for electric vehicles and legislation that will facilitate their deployment. Read more here.

The Electrification Coalition has created a presentation, which covers the results of the poll. You can find that in our resources page or download the pdf here.

Read more and download the study here.

Whether or not you agree with that prediction, one thing seems clear: American consumers are far less dubious of electric vehicles than they have been made out to be. Still, a number of educational barriers may stand in the way of widespread adoption. Read more about those, and the rest of the survey’s findings here.

To read more about the paper, click here.

But isn’t this the case for all car buyers?

Click here for more information.

The automaker is one of five companies working with the postal service to create an electric version of the classic Grumman LLV. Quantum Technologies Inc., Zap!, EDAG Inc., AC Propulsion and Auto Port Inc. will work with the USPS to test the feasibility of an electrified fleet.

Bright Automotive, working with AC Propulsion, will supply an electrified mail truck in July, when it will undergo testing in Washington D.C. for a full year.

Click here to read more.

To learn more about this partnership and others, click here.

Read more: Avis to Offer Cars with Cords

Read more here.

Read more here.

Read more about Ford’s electric vehicle here.

This information follows the great news that SAE J1772 has finally been approved!

Read more here.

Read more here.

For the full press release, click here.

Read More:

Better Place adds $350 million toward its electric car goals.

Goodbye Miles Per Gallon, Hello Monthly Fuel Cost is the title of a new article by the leading vehicle research guide. As is noted in the article, various new technologies coming on board will dramatically alter the way we perceive the energy use of our vehicles.

For more information, click here.

The paper adds that, while many consumers will prefer extended range electric vehicles like the Volt, smaller neighborhood electric vehicles (NEV) may thrive as well. The logic behind this is that many early adopters will purchase EVs as second cars and use them for the specific purpose of commuting within these urban areas. Smaller cars will likely carry smaller batteries, meaning greater maneuverability in dense areas and a cheaper price tag.

The McKinsey study is an interesting look at the relationship electric vehicles will have with the urban environment. In many ways it reinforces PGR’s findings, but it also focuses primarily on the world’s largest cities-New York, Paris and Shanghai.

Project Get Ready, however, is finding opportunities for the EV in less dense cities, as well. Electric vehicles, we’ve found, could play an important role in cities that lack strong public transportation systems and whose working population largely resides outside the city.

Check out more information on the McKinsey and Co. study here and here.

Remember range anxiety, the fear that electric vehicles would leave drivers stranded on the road with a depleted battery?  Well, everyone’s favorite EV critique just got a bit less relevant. Yesterday, Coulomb Technologies and Aker Wade  announced plans for the worldwide deployment of level III charging stations. The deal will add substantial muscle to Coulomb’s ChargePoint network and  enable drivers to charge their cars in less than one hour.

Once again, innovative businesses are finding answers to supposedly impossible problems.

The arrival of Think further emphasizes Indiana’s leadership in the vehicle electrification industry. For more information on related work in the area, check out PGR’s Indianapolis page.

Wall Street Journal’s recent article on Think’s EV plans: Think Electric Car Will Be Built in Indiana

The City of London has announced an audacious plan to have 25,000 charging points throughout the city–essentially, a charging station within a mile of every citizen. These charge points will be found in public, residential and commercial zones.

London’s goal to take the lead in vehicle electrification is aggressive, to be sure. However, it is important to carefully weigh the case for each charging station. Their costs and use will likely vary from location to location. Moreover, added charging infrastructure is an important step to a plug-in ready city, but it is not a panacea.

Consumer demand is capable of changing swiftly. Visible charging infrastructure could send an important message to consumers that EVs are on the way. But if those charge points are poorly selected, idle and unused stations could send an equally negative message.

For more information, please refer to our Stakeholder Investment Guide for Public Electric-Vehicle Charging Infrastructure. Also, please see our page on Houston’s real costs of installation.

For additional information, see CalCar’s Felix Kramer response. The Electrification Coalition also issued a response of their own.

The piece closes by stating the importance of a educated decision making, linking to PGR’s Total Cost of Ownership Calculator.

The pledge focuses on the following:

• Infrastructure: Utilities will help ensure there are no system impacts from fueling large numbers of plug-in vehicles from the power grid. They also will help develop comprehensive local charging infrastructure plans.
• Customer Support: Utilities will ensure that PEV customers receive excellent customer care on questions ranging from charging mechanics to rates.
• Customer and Stakeholder Education: Utilities will collaborate with state and local officials, automakers and other stakeholders to provide comprehensive education outreach to customers on all aspects of PEVs.
• Vehicle and Infrastructure Incentives: Utilities will work closely with federal and local stakeholders to encourage PEV penetration, including purchase incentives, tax rebates, off-peak charging rates and subsidized parking.
• Utility fleets: Utilities will take significant steps to accelerate the introduction of PEVs into their utility fleet operations.

More information on these commitments can be found in our resources page, where we have added EEI’s full list of “Industry-Wide Plug-In Electric Vehicle Market Readiness Initiatives.”

For more information on the city’s efforts, check out our recent Gas 2.0 blog, Portland Oregon Works to Develop Best Practices for Electric Vehicle Adoption.

It’s an important point to make and one that pertains to all forms of transportation. Consumers can save money and energy by using the right tool for the right job.

Read More: Mitsubishi Launches Smart Chargers for Apartments

Get the details here.

Check it out!

Read more here.

Want to emblazon your ride with Ontario’s new “environmentally friendly vehicles” license plate? There are two hurdles you’ll have to jump. First, wait until next year when the plate actually becomes available on July 1. Second, you’ll need to get a car with a plug. According to the Toronto Star, the new green vehicle plates are for plug-in hybrids and battery-powered cars only.

Like the Clean Access stickers that were so popular in California, the special plates will allow the cars to drive in high occupancy vehicle highway lanes through 2015 no matter how many people are in the car. Drivers will also get to pull up to recharging facilities at GO Transit and some government-operated parking lots, and will be allowed to park in special spots at some Wal-Marts and at the University of Toronto. The provincial government is offering the benefits as a way to reach Ontario’s Electric Vehicle initiative goal of getting EVs to make up five percent of the fleet mix in Ontario by 2020.

Calculator runs cost numbers for plug-in vehicles

Automakers this week are showing off all manner of fuel-efficient concept cars at the Frankfurt auto show in Germany. But, in general, the majority of people are reluctant to pay a big premium for the last green auto technology.

Think tank the Rocky Mountain Institute has launched an online calculator to figure what higher up-front cost brings you in terms of savings and environmental benefits. It’s part of the group’s Project Get Ready to prepare communities for plug-in electric vehicles.

The price premium of greener cars is an important issue as the auto industry readies many plug-ins designed for everyday use. These first-generation cars, such as the all-electric Nissan Leaf or Chevy Volt, will have a bigger price tag because they will carry a bigger–and pricier–battery than today’s hybrids. But owning an electric car “fueled” by electricity is typically going to be cheaper per mile than gasoline.

The calculator is structured so that you can compare the lifetime costs of two cars, giving you the ability to input a number of variables, such as cost of gas, lease versus buy, and how many miles you drive. It lets you take your best guess at gas prices–today it’s at $2.61 per gallon–and assumes electricity costs of 9 cents per kilowatt-hour, though these days that price is more like 11 cents per kilowatt-hour, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Six years is the default number of years to own a car because it’s a national average.

Project GetReady’s calculator lets people configure variables and compare total cost of ownership for upcoming plug-in electric and hybrid vehicles.

(Credit: Screen capture by Martin LaMonica/CNET)

Running through a few examples shows upcoming electric cars are indeed cheaper to own, but more expensive upfront. Keep in mind that the calculator includes both available models as well as a number of cars, notably plug-in electrics, that are not yet available.

For example, the driver of a Chevy Volt, which runs on an electric motor and has a gasoline engine for distances longer than 40 miles, will spend almost $2,500 less on fuel than a hybrid Honda Insight over six years. Does that justify a sticker price that’s higher by more than $13,000 in your mind? Now you can decide.

The all-electric cars, such as the Nissan Leaf or the BYD e6, come off as most competitive when it comes to total cost of ownership. On the other hand, you’re limited in range to about 80 or 100 miles for these first-generation battery electric cars.

After 10 years, the driver of a Leaf saves $7,684 on fuel compared to a Nissan Altima, offsetting the $7,000 more you need to pay to purchase a Leaf. Play around with the calculator a little more and you see that $4 per gallon gas means that $7,000 premium is offset in a bit over 5 years.

It’s useful for comparing hybrids versus gasoline-only cars as well. The hybrid version of the Honda Civic saves you $1,616 over six years but costs $6,752 more. It’s cheaper to own right out of the gate when gas prices are around $6 per gallon, according to the calculator.

If you’re thinking about converting a Prius to a plug-in version, you’re going to pay for it. The calculator estimates it will cost $19,165 more and save just over $2,011 in fuel over 6 years. Meanwhile, a plug-in Ford Escape is cheaper to own than a hybrid Ford Escape after 10 years with today’s gas prices, and after 7 years if gas costs $3.50.

Cost isn’t everything to everybody, of course. With millions of hybrids sold already, people are clearly willing to pay more for better mileage for environmental or energy security reasons. This calculator has additional metrics on amounts of oil used and carbon dioxide equivalent emissions between two cars, which is handy.

On the whole, the calculator shows that a number of variables play into the buying equation–beyond things like brand, status, and a car’s looks. Even though many of the cars listed aren’t yet available and there are more comprehensive comparison sites, it’s a useful place to look.

The industry hasn’t decided on the best way to compare emerging technology to today’s gasoline cars–will it be miles per gallon equivalent, range, or cost per mile? As electric vehicles of various guises come to market, consumers will need to grapple with mileage claims that, most likely, will be tricky to sort through.

From Green Car Congress on 9/8/09.

Pike Survey: 48% of US Consumers Interested in Purchasing a PHEV40

8 September 2009

Expressed interest in PHEV40 purchases. Click to enlarge.

According to a new survey from Pike Research, 48% of prospective US consumers would be “extremely” or “very” interested in purchasing a PHEV with a 40-mile range on a single charge (PHEV40), given electricity cost equivalent of $0.75 per gallon, home re-charging, additional charging stations being available around town, and assuming the price and other vehicle features were right.

Of those interested in purchasing a PHEV40, almost half (49%) said they would be willing to pay 5 or 10% more for a PHEV compared to the price of a standard gasoline vehicle; 17% expressed a willingness to pay between 20 and 50% more; just over one-third (34%) said they would not pay a premium at all—a PHEV would have to be the same price as a gasoline vehicle, or they would not purchase one.

Willingness to pay a premium for PHEV40s among those interested. Click to enlarge.

Among respondents willing to pay a premium price, the weighted average of that premium was 12% more than the cost of a standard vehicle.

Pike also asked those expressing lack of interest in a PHEV40 their reasons (multiple responses were accepted. The most common reason (45%) was that consumers wanted to wait until the technology is more proven in a few years; 33% said the 40-mile range was insufficient; 29% said they didn’t like the idea of plugging in and that it seemed like it would be too expensive; 28% questioned PHEV reliability; 25% questioned the quality of an electric vehicle.

Other key findings of the survey are as follows:

• 82% of respondents drive 40 miles or less per day, with an average daily driving distance of 27 miles.
• 85% of consumers stated that improved fuel efficiency would be an important factor when choosing their next vehicle.
• Approximately two-thirds of survey respondents expressed a willingness to pay a premium price for a PHEV, over and above the price of a standard gasoline vehicle. The average premium these consumers were willing to pay was 12% higher than a standard vehicle. The remaining one-third would only purchase a PHEV if it was the same price as a standard gasoline vehicle.
• Levels of interest in PHEVs were not dramatically different between demographic categories such as age, gender, income, and level of education. That said, younger consumers are somewhat more likely to demonstrate interest in PHEVs, as are people with higher levels of education.
• The “green consumer” behavioral group was significantly more interested in PHEVs than the average respondent in the survey. This group includes self-identified environmentalists and those who regularly purchase organic and environmentally-friendly consumer products.
• Among consumers interested in purchasing a PHEV, respondent interest levels were quite strong for upgrading to a residential fast charging outlet which would utilize the same amount of electricity but reduce charging times from five hours to one hour. However, willingness to pay for such fast charging outlets was limited. The great majority of respondents interested in fast charging were willing to pay $250 or less for this upgrade. Pike Research analysis indicates that the first generation of residential fast charging outlets will cost between $500 and $800.
• Access to workplace, private, and public electrical charging stations is an important priority for consumers interested in PHEVs. Workplace charging was the most important of these categories, with 79% of survey respondents stating that access at their place of employment would be a priority.

Pike Research’s report, “Electric Vehicle Consumer Survey”, analyzes results from a web-based survey of 1,041 US consumers. The report includes an analysis of consumer demand and willingness to pay for PHEVs and their associated vehicle charging infrastructure. Segmentation analysis includes an examination of demand within different demographic and behavioral groups.

Separately, Pike Research forecasts that PHEV programs will initially focus on the small car segment (80% of sales in 2015), followed closely by the small SUV segment (10% of sales by 2015). By 2015, Pike expects the United States to be the largest market for HEVs and PHEVs, selling 435,484 and 204,110 vehicles, respectively, followed closely by China with 371,198 and 190,125 vehicles.

Pike says that PHEVs are expected to be a subset of the HEV market. Consequently, Pike projects that it is probable that PHEVs will follow a similar sales curve initially, with worldwide sales exceeding half a million vehicles by 2015. Pike Research forecasts that there will be 1.7 million total PHEVs on the roads globally by 2015.

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The Volt may get 230 miles per gallon, and GM says it will cost only 40 cents to charge up the car from a regular household outlet. But guess what…it still might not be worth it to buy one.  The problem: You might not save enough on fuel costs to compensate for the likely higher sticker price.      (More at Volt vs Prius on CNN)

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How do other plug in vehicles compare with today’s most popular models with regard to cost, oil consumption, and emissions given your driving profile?  Test your own potential purchase on PGR’s Vehicle Cost Comparison Calculator

Charging Infrastructure in Short Supply

The Department of Energy is awarding billions of dollars to companies developing next-generation batteries that can power cars. But one crucial element is in short supply: stations where electric vehicles can recharge.

Though the Energy Department is spending $2.4 billion on developing technology for electric vehicles, very little is for the infrastructure needed to recharge vehicles once they are on the road.

Despite the government money, the industry’s chicken-and-the-egg dilemma remains: Demand for electric cars isn’t likely to take off unless there are convenient ways to recharge batteries. But utilities and service-station operators aren’t likely to spend money on such infrastructure until there are enough cars on the road to make the investment profitable.

“We need domestic supply of cars and batteries. That’s important,” said Ed Kjaer, director of electric transportation for Southern California Edison, a unit of Edison International in Rosemead, Calif. “But we also need to get the markets ready for these cars by creating the infrastructure. It’s not ready now and it’s a big concern.”

It isn’t clear what form recharging stations will take. People with garages will likely have it easiest, able to simply plug into a wall outlet. But apartment dwellers and people who park on the street will need extension cords or public recharging kiosks to obtain electricity. Utilities in California are offering discount rates for overnight recharging, but most customers lack the meters or other hardware needed to tell if electricity is going into a car or an appliance.

The biggest infrastructure grant, of $99.8 million, was awarded to Electric Transportation Engineering Corp., which will work with Nissan Corp. to develop 12,500 240-volt charging stations and 250 480-volt charging stations, the latter offering a fast-charge capability. As part of that demonstration project, 5,000 Nissan electric vehicles will be tested.

But Southern California Edison, a utility focused on electric transportation for decades, was disappointed that some programs proposed by Ford Motor Co. weren’t funded. That included a plan to establish charging stations in 15 urban markets, including about $10 million that would have enabled Edison to modernize about 3,000 charging stations it built in the 1990s but that became moribund when the first wave of electric cars faltered.

General Motors Co. and Ford received $30.5 million and $30 million, respectively, to develop, demonstrate and analyze hundreds of electric cars with help from utilities. Utilities and auto makers have been working for years on hardware and control systems to deftly handle recharging and billing. Both want sufficient charging stations to meet the initial demand and, later, they want systems in place to control battery charging so it makes the electric grid stronger, not weaker.

DTE Energy Inc., which owns Detroit Edison, is working with auto makers on systems to recharge batteries at night, after other big energy users shut down, freeing up electric capacity. What they don’t want is batteries that begin sucking up power when demand still is high.

Ideally, charging would ramp up as energy from wind turbines increases, a nighttime phenomenon in many regions. Detroit Edison, for example, plans to add 1,200 megawatts of renewable energy to its portfolio by 2015, and it is expected to consist mostly of wind turbines that would reach peak productivity overnight.

“It would be great if we could use wind power to recharge batteries,” said Haukur “Hawk” Asgeirsson, manager of power-systems technologies for DTE Energy.

Some DOE grant money also will help trucks run on electricity. Cascade Sierra Solutions is getting $22.2 million so it can develop 50 electricity-fueling stations for heavy-duty trucks, allowing them to turn off their engines and run on electricity while at rest stops. Thousands of trucks will get rebates of up to $6,250 to install the necessary conversion equipment.

Sandor Lau, development director for the clean-transportation-focused nonprofit group in Coburg, Ore., said his organization estimates the stations will save 35 million gallons of diesel fuel in 10 years. California has enacted rules prohibiting idling by trucks for periods longer than five minutes and other states are following.

Mr. Lau said the stations would charge about $1 an hour for electricity, saving truck drivers $2 to $3 an hour through fuel savings because idling trucks burn a gallon of fuel or more per hour.

Write to Rebecca Smith at rebecca.smith@wsj.com

Want to Plug In Your Hybrid? Join Project Get Ready!

Project Get Ready is a new initiative seeking to help the nation (and Canada!) make the shift away from fossil fuels. Under the project, coalitions in six cities are working with the Colorado-based Rocky Mountain Institute to develop plug-in vehicle infrastructure. What does that mean? It means government, industry, and citizen activists have teamed up to plan for charging stations, increase the availability and affordability of plug-in vehicles, and figure out the less-obvious details, like permits, necessary for the cars to be operable and practical in each city.

Indianapolis, Raleigh, and Portland were the first to sign on to the project, which has expanded to three other cities that came to RMI ready and willing to work. The idea is to expand beyond communities already concerned with the environment, and to make alternative fuel vehicles more practical for and accessible to the general population. As RMI’s Matt Mattila said, “We don’t want to be educating treehuggers.” Ok, fine, so Portland’s on the list. Predictable. But take heart: so is Indianapolis, Raleigh, Toronto, Denver—and Houston. Yes, the oil capital of the United States is helping its residents wean themselves off oil.

Project Get Ready in Your City?

RMI wants to expand the program to other cities, and will help out any municipality ready to put in the effort. The first step is to form a coalition, and then to design a five-year plan that maps out a city’s goals and how to achieve them. One member of the team should be willing to dedicate a full day once a week, and to take part in monthly strategy phone calls with RMI. Together, the coalition members and RMI figure out how the city can best address the major elements of Project Get Ready (PGR): vehicle acquisition, infrastructure planning, project structure and consumer adoption.

The project is not proprietary; all cities taking part agree to share their plans—successes and failures—with each other. As a city gets started, it can learn what challenges to expect and how other cities have managed to overcome them—such as how to plan for smart charging and create an appropriate framework for time of use in order to avoid maxing out the city’s power supply. Or, it can look to other cities to predict what obstacles it might face that would be unique to their city—finding a different model for public education, because people in Portland, for example, might be more willing than in other cities to go out of their way to participate in such a program.

The PGR teams have been working with all the big auto manufacturers, but also, excitingly, with new car companies as well, such as Bright Automotive and Tesla Motors, to improve the availability of cars on the market—that are practical and use electricity efficiently, and that are also affordable. (To learn more about how a hybrid plug-in works, watch John Lithgow explain them here.)

Visit the PGR website to learn more about planting the seeds for your city to enable and encourage the use of hybrid plug-in cars; there’s even tips for how to find funding. What city will be next? Get ready, get working, and it could be yours.

Helping cities prepare for electric cars

BOULDER, Colo.–When President Obama said that he wanted to put 1 million plug-in hybrid vehicles on the road by 2015, it sounded good to many people worried about the effects of fossil fuels.

But when you consider that there are currently about 230 million vehicles on the road in the United States alone, you realize that Obama’s goal amounts to less than one half of 1 percent–hardly what’s going to move the U.S. into a post-gas future.

Project Get Ready, an initiative of the Rocky Mountain Institute, is trying to help cities get ready for an electric-car future.

(Credit: Project Get Ready)

Still, to the people at Project Get Ready, an initiative of the Rocky Mountain Institute, anything that can jump-start a culture trajectory away from fossil fuels is a good thing. And that’s why Project Get Ready is starting to work with cities around the country to prepare them, their communities, utilities and merchants for a day when the electric car is not only a viable option but a significant piece of the transportation puzzle.

On Road Trip 2009, I stopped in Boulder to talk with Matt Mattila, one of the leaders of Project Get Ready. I wanted to hear whether he and his team really think that electric cars can become a dominant fixture on our roads and in our cities.

The answer? Not anytime soon, but if we all work together to prepare, it may well happen in the not too, too distant future. But it will take serious thought, cooperation among various constituencies, and a willingness to think long term.

Don’t make Chevy Volt a disaster
One of the most important goals has to be, Mattila argued, that electric-car ventures currently under way not fail before they can even get off the ground. That means that by the time a car like the much-heralded Chevy Volt starts to roll off production lines in a year or two, that there be enough of an infrastructure in place to handle them.

To Mattila, one major consideration is the thinking that’s going to go on in the board rooms of companies like General Motors and other car makers, which are going to look at the market and the cultural environment and say: We’re getting these new cars ready, so make sure there’s enough charging stations, easy-to-get permits, consumer education and fleet buy-in. The point? So that, “when Chevy hands its billion-dollar Volt off, it’s not going to be a big disaster because there’s nowhere to plug it in,” Mattila said.

That’s where Project Get Ready comes into play, he said. The idea is to work on spreading awareness of what it takes to have an infrastructure for electric cars so that enough cities around the country feel like it’s worth the effort to prepare for that future.

As well, it’s important to address the chicken-and-egg problem: If consumers don’t feel they have places to plug in their new electric cars, they won’t buy them. And if people won’t buy them, car makers won’t make them.

“These few years are critical,” Mattila said, “so focus on making (the coming launches) great, so that early adopters evangelize” electric cars and the experience of driving and maintaining them.

But, of course, there’s nowhere in the United States that is ready for this yet. So Project Get Ready considers its major task to try to identify the gap that exists in understanding what it takes, and bringing all the various players to the table: city planners, local coalitions, nonprofits and, last, but not least, big utilities.

“They have to be part of the (solution),” Mattila said of the utilities. “If thousands of cars are going to be plugged into their grid, they need to know who’s going to be plugged in, and at what rate.”

Most will plug in at home
One thing that the electric car has going for it, according to Mattila, is that 80 percent of the charging up that will be done will be done at home or at the office. Many people who own such cars will install a charging station at home, taking some of the burden off the public infrastructure.

“But what can we do to make people see that there are public charging stations” as well, said Mattila. “It’s getting people comfortable with seeing them out there” in public.

That’s not going to be possible, of course, unless cities, large merchants, and/or utility companies feel there is an economic incentive to make the substantial investment in widespread charging stations.

Today, however, there is a lot of public money available for such projects. Mattila said that as much as half of the costs of charging stations can be offset by government funding. As well, it’s a young market without a lot of competition, so some companies making charging stations are installing them for free to try to establish a market.

Others are following a cell phone business model and are installing the charging stations for free, but charging access fees for using them. And still others feel they will only make money by charging for the installation. The folks at Project Get Ready clearly see that merchants may have the most to gain by investing in the infrastructure.

“Our approach is to make a real business case,” Mattila said, “so that Gold’s Gym and UA Theaters (and such companies) have a real incentive to put them in on their own.”

The reason? So that cities don’t have to pay for everything.

At the same time, Mattila said that utility companies are looking at a huge windfall when it comes to electric cars and the power they will require. “There could be a huge opportunity for utilities,” he said, “to own the boxes and install them and say, ‘We can determine when you get energy…how much you get and how much you pay.”

The idea there, he added, is that the utilities can ensure that if people plug in during high-demand periods, they pay a premium.

Still, despite the potential economic advantages to utility companies, Mattila said that Project Get Ready’s research suggests that the most common models for electric-car infrastructure will be cities and large merchants paying for it.

“The Wal-Marts of the world (can do it to) fulfill the promise of being more green,” he said. To them, “it’s a drop in the bucket, so they view it as a loss leader to get people coming into the store to buy things.”

In that scenario, he added, you might someday see a charging station at every parking spot in a Wal-Mart lot.

More efficient and less expensive
When the Volt comes out, it is expected to be fairly expensive, along the lines of a standard-engine luxury vehicle. So to Mattila, the goal has to be to survive the early adopter stage and get to a point where not only are the second-generation Volts affordable for a larger consumer base, but where there are enough public charging stations available to handle future generations of less expensive electric cars with smaller batteries and shorter driving ranges.

Some people want the green car of tomorrow to be a hydrogen fuel vehicle, Mattila acknowledged, but added that there’s no existing hydrogen infrastructure. “The entire country’s wired,” he said, touting electric cars, “and we can plug in just about anywhere.”

Despite his full-time efforts on behalf of a world full of electric cars, Mattila is not entirely optimistic about what he sees.

He does say that he sees maturity in the market in 10 or 15 years and that by 2030 electric cars may well make up a significant percentage of cars on the road. But that’s a long time from now.

“I’d say I’m more on the skeptical side…at least when I attend conferences and preach to our choir,” he explained. “We try to rein in our people (and) look at the barriers and try to address them, rather than focus on what would be good if we had millions and millions of these things being sold.”

Still, Project Get Ready has started ongoing conversations with cities like Houston, Raleigh, N.C., Indianapolis, Portland, and Denver and is in unofficial talks with half a dozen more, all in an effort to inform decision-makers about what they have to do to prepare.

Ultimately, Mattila said, Project Get Ready’s five-year plan is to put the country on a trajectory to get off of fossil fuels.

“It’s hard to be motivated by something that the next generation is going to benefit from,” he explained, “but if we can demonstrate (the profit motivation) then maybe people will get on board. We don’t want it to be a sacrifice.”

The study also predicts:
•    A net gain of up to 350,000 new jobs by 2030 through electric vehicle adoption
•    Reduced emissions by as much as 62% from 2005 levels when electric vehicles are powered by clean sources of electricity, even over a scenario of improved fuel economy for gasoline-powered cars
•    Savings of up to $205 billion on healthcare costs associated with emissions from combustion engine vehicles
•    A decline in oil imports of up to 3.7 million barrels per day, equivalent to the amount currently imported daily from the Persian Gulf region and Venezuela

The study is availble here

To learn more about the SAE’s progress with regard to J1711 (Emissions and Fuel Economy Testing), J1772 (Conductive charging), J2464 (Battery Pack and Capacitor Pack Safety), J2836 (Vehicle-to-Charger Communication), J2894 (Charging Power Quality) standards, click here.

By joining Indianapolis, IN, Raleigh, NC, and Portland, OR, Denver will become a pioneer in the adoption of efficient vehicles.

When asked about Project Get Ready, Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper said, “Denver has a long history of developing innovative programs to address growing environmental challenges. Project Get Ready will help the city prepare for the coming influx of plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles and remain on the cutting edge of our country’s transition to a cleaner transportation infrastructure.”

Read the official press release.

Rocky Mountain Institute’s Project Get Ready prepares the nation for the electric vehicle transition with 20 pioneering cities.

Ready, Set, GO! RMI’s Mobility and Vehicle Efficiency Team (MOVE) to collaborate with cities and technical experts to create a prioritized menu of strategies that will encourage adoption of plug-in vehicles. Check out www.projectgetready.com for our menu and more information.

Snowmass CO, February 24, 2009 – Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) today announced the launch of Project Get Ready, an initiative that emerged from October’s Smart Garage Summit (see http://move.rmi.org/smart-garage.html for more) and aims to help communities prepare for and welcome plug-in vehicles including full battery electric, plug-in hybrid electric, and converted hybrid or internal combustion vehicles. Today they launch the initiative, including the website (www.projectgetready.com) and a “menu” listing the actions that communities must take to be truly ready for the plug-in transition.

Many communities are working to accelerate the adoption of plug-in vehicles. These pioneering communities do not yet have a way to share best practices and lessons learned. Moreover, automakers have no way to find all the places that are working to get ready for plug-in vehicles, and evaluate their progress and consumer interest. This missing connection has been cited by automakers as a critical barrier to committing to higher plug-in vehicle production.

Project Get Ready will collaborate with targeted communities that have started convening local players to develop and implement plug-in adoption plans, utilizing RMI’s universally recognized convening power, as well as detailed technical analysis.

Community members in Portland, Oregon; Indianapolis, Indiana; and Raleigh, North Carolina soon expanding to the Triangle region have already agreed to work with RMI’s Project Get Ready. Project manager and MOVE Consultant Laura Schewel says, “These pioneering communities represent widely different locations, demographics, economies and cultures, proving that plug-in vehicles will be an important transformation across the nation.”

Schewel continued, “plug-in vehicles are a revolution for the consumer and will transform the way we move from place to place, and the way we think about using energy. But each community is unique—they have different commuting patterns, parking concerns, demographics, local businesses, and cultures. Instead of battling this diversity, Project Get Ready welcomes it, allowing communities to get ready in their own way. I think this approach will lead to a faster and better arrival for plug-in vehicles and I am thrilled to have Portland, Indianapolis, and Raleigh in the conversation. With this project, we can help get the nation to President Obama’s goal of 1 million plug-ins by 2015…and maybe even beat it.”

Paul Mitchell, of the Central Indiana Corporate Partnership, highlighted the economic development opportunity xEV’s offer, saying, “We see the creation of an xEV ecosystem as an economic development opportunity. Not only can we deliver a more efficient transportation solution but our workforce can develop and manufacture the vehicle and smartgrid technologies needed to make the system work.”

Pete Barkey of General Motors highlighted the need for public-private partnership to introduce and promote plug-in vehicles, saying, “cars don’t necessarily sell themselves, especially with new, unfamiliar and often expensive technology.  Our best chance of successfully making the transition from gasoline-powered vehicles to electrically-driven vehicles is to work with communities to help them become plug-in vehicle friendly. Organizations like Rocky Mountain Institute are helping to create a roadmap for regions around the country to become “plug-in ready.”

Mayor Charles Meeker of the City of Raleigh said that, “The Triangle area is proud to be the leader on the East Coast in preparing for the plug-in electric and hybrid-electric revolution. We are delighted to be partnering with Progress Energy, Advanced Energy and Rocky Mountain Institute to make Project Get Ready happen here. Project Get Ready is in harmony with the City of Raleigh’s mission statement. It focuses on 21st century environmental, cultural, and economic sustainability.”

We think widespread adoption of electric vehicles can strengthen our industry, address climate change, and reduce our dependence on foreign oil,” said Joe Barra, director of customer energy resources for Portland General Electric. “PGE is teaming up with business customers, the state of Oregon, auto manufacturers, and local governments to help develop industry standards and install and test charging stations, and we’re enthusiastic about the work the Rocky Mountain Institute is doing to help utilities and cities around the country coordinate their efforts and learn from one another’s experience.”

For Project Get Ready, RMI is specifically:
•    TODAY, launching a dynamic “menu” of strategic actions that city and regional leaders can enact to be a plug-in pioneer, based on input from technical advisers and cities already engaged in implementing plug-ins. In this menu, RMI will analyze the “business case” for each action from the perspective of several key stakeholders (city gov’t, employers, consumers, etc.). The top 15 are listed at the end of this release.
•    TODAY, launching a web database of all national (and some international) plug-in readiness activities.
•    Work one-on-one with at least three cities on creating their readiness coalitions and charters. Portland, Indianapolis Area, and Raleigh/Triangle will be the first three.
•    Convene at least 20 cities as well as technical players regularly to discuss their lessons learned and best practices, and report these conversations on our website and materials. Some of our partner cities will have their own plans underway, others will be starting from the ground up.
•    Provide a benchmark that will allow cities/regions to “prove” that they are ready for mass adoption of PHEVs/EVs, and have taken meaningful steps to support this critical green technology (this may take the form of a seal of approval or certification like the LEED system that gauges readiness).
•    Document the progress made by participant cities in order to help quantify future demand and make it more transparent to industry (how much, where, and what type of support to expect) for PHEVs/EVs.

RMI’s MOVE team is currently in the process of selecting more participant cities that seek to lead the charge toward the electric revolution.  The project will be entirely open to the public, and can be followed by the initiative’s website at www.projectgetready.com

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About RMI

Rocky Mountain Institute is an independent, nonpartisan, entrepreneurial, nonprofit “think-and-do tank.” It fosters the efficient and restorative use of resources to make the world secure, just, profitable, and life-sustaining. For more information, visit www.move.rmi.org.

TOP 15 ACTIONS FOR COMMUNITY LEADERS—IN BUSINESS, GOVERNMENT, CIVIC GROUPS, EDUCATION, AND BEYOND—TO TAKE TO BE PLUG-IN READY
For more, visit projectgetready.com

15 “Must Have” Actions*
Suggested stretch target: 2% of registered vehicles by the end of 2015.

Barrier: Not enough cars in the pipeline, OEMs need proof of future consumer demand
1.    Corporate/city/state fleets commit to buy a certain number of plug-ins (RFPs for major purchases or conversions).
2.    Stakeholder group provides a place for interested consumers/fleets to register early, and put cash down to reserve plug-ins (cash used for readiness where possible).

Barrier: How can we manage this as a multi-sector, city-wide project?
3.    Create collaborative stakeholder group within the community to help regulatory, commercial, and community interests align. Sign on to a clear regional plan (based on this menu!). Plan should give equal consideration to conversions.
4.    Have one “champion” whose job it is to keep this group moving forward, who has authority

Barrier: How can we bring down upfront costs for consumers?
5.    Work with banks and dealers to offer low-interest loans for plug-ins, based on projected lower operating costs from gas savings.
6.    Bundle all key incentives at vehicle point of purchase (home charger vouchers, rebates, etc.)

Barrier: Consumer hesitation at diving into a new paradigm for mobility
7.    Perks: access to HOV lanes, free tolls/downtown parking, reserved airport parking.
8.    Create consumer, city government, local business and utility education plans including test drives and “quick lease” options to individual and fleet consumers as well as high profile drivers.
9.    Reduced (or free) electricity rates for charging.

Barrier: Red tape around infrastructure installation
10.    Fast-track permitting for charging stations.
11.    Ensure new and reconstruction/renovation building codes support the operation of plug-ins.

Barrier: What if these cars exacerbate my peak load?
12.    Tie provisions of free home and public charge spots, as well as free or cheaper electricity, to either utility override power or “no charge” times.

Barrier: Who will pay for infrastructure?
13.    Local employers/retailers provide some charge stations at parking decks.
14.    Install public charge spots in high-traffic zones and parking areas, either with public money (via utility or gov’t for the first 2% of vehicles) or private money that uses the stations to market.
15.    Provide affordable and available—or free—Level 2 home-charger/driveway circuit installation.

Press Release

http://move.rmi.org/files/smartgarage/ProjectGetReady_PressCall.wav

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