If Detroit can't make electric real, why not enlist Uncle Sam?

Last time I checked the wires, Congress was still deciding terms and conditions for a prospective $15 billion rescue plan to supply emergency loans to General Motors and Chrysler. The funds are supposed to keep them from running out of money before the year ends, and it's anybody's guess if we're about to throw good money after bad.

GM: Waiting for the Volt

(Credit: Martin LaMonica/CNET Networks)

I'll leave that debate to the economists and auto experts. But one aspect of the bailout intrigued me: the concept of a so-called car czar appointed by the president to oversee the bailout and set guidelines. This is the direct antithesis of the capitalist credo. One of the complaints that I've read drew a parallel with the guided capitalism practiced by Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry.

But MITI's involvement in Japan's domestic auto market has also forced carmakers to work on developing next-generation automobiles and fuels far earlier than their U.S. counterparts. Now it's that country's Ministry of Environment getting involved in a feasibility study to test a network of electric charging stations, some supplied by Better Place, the auto start-up run by SAP's former No. 2, Shai Agassi.

As my colleague Martin LaMonica explained:

The electric vehicle feasibility study will give local governments access to 50 electric cars for several months. Cars included are Mitsubishi Motors' iMieve, the Plug-in Stella from Subaru, the Honda Clarify fuel-cell vehicle, and the Erezo electric motorbike under development.

Better Place will install battery exchange stations in the trial. The deal in Japan is similar to those made recently with several countries, the city of San Francisco, and the state of Hawaii that have signed on with Better Place, which has developed a system to accelerate electric car use through battery leasing and automated swapping.

The trial is part of Japan's national goal of having electric cars make up half of all new vehicle sales by 2020. The program will also include a facility for rapid car battery charging.

It's too early to tell whether Better Place has the right idea, but it's worth a close look. Crude oil prices have come down in the last half year, but don't bet on that for the long term.

Agassi's start-up offers an intriguing use of technology to try to solve a pressing transportation problem, and Japan's car companies are taking notice--even if it came with a big nudge from the government. With Detroit's car companies so close to bankruptcy, pay attention to that example--especially since we seem to be on the verge of the partial nationalization of our domestic auto industry.

[dbargen]

The electric car, while a nostalgic notion of futrism (how's that for a workable oxymoron?) has two main problems. Firstly, we don't have fuel cells that can store enough power for anywhere near comparable crusing distances comapred to good 'ol petrol. Second, if the idea here is to reduce the use of fossil fuels for transportation on the basis of the THEORY that emissions can effect our climate, then how do you propose we generate that electricity?

Right now our main source for generating electric power is coal, followed far behind by nuclear. As useful as solar and wind power might be a vast minority of places around the world, they would be intermitent at best and can't run a constant power grid in the majority of the US. We don't have the means to store peak amounts of energy that those sources generate. And besides, the US has the larges amounts of coal in the world within its borders- enough to power (at the current escalting draw) the nation for hundreds of years. If you haven't noticed yet, that's a fossil fuel, something the growingly domineering federal government shakes their collective finger at.

The nuclear option, as being one of the cleanest energy electricity producing methods (you don't have to flood valleys as you would for hydroelectric plants) is far safer than those with "China Syndrome" would lead you to believe, but is also poo-pooed by incoming feds and greens, so "change" auntie samuel won't be hot on this viable option.

No, the feds with their egregious track record for managing money and marketing (how many trillions in debt? how effective are social programs at eliminating their cited issues?) is probably the last entity that would be able to sell cars that people want to buy, or can afford to buy for that matter. It was their CAFE standards that have been a large contributing factor to sales drops in America- Don't forget that GM is doing great outside the US with cars that don't meet these standards. And how unamerican is making an at least close-to-offical tile "Car Czar"? Seriously, are we being lead be the genuinely insane? *cough* Pel- *cough* -osi *cough*

I can't think of a worse or more fallible notion.

[mrwater]

Glad you got it figured out, big guy. And how about that THEORY of gravity? I mean, we can all see those stars just hanging there above us, and they aren't falling. You could be a great inspiration to clueless cowards like me by jumping off a cliff. I'm just too scared to do it - or to keep polluting the air.

[ecotopian--2008]

Man oh man, some people just don't get it, and probably never will. There is a world beyond your antiquated, stinking, violent ideas; a peaceful, plentiful, fun world where nobody is in a hurry to make a killing. That world isn't coming next year, but it is coming, in spite of everything you %#()&@$%@$ Flintstones are doing to stop it. Abba dadda doo, baby.

[MSSlayer]

If you think nuclear power is safe, I cordially invite you to move next the the Hanford Nuclear reservation.

What, you don't want to?

How odd, given you believe nuclear is safe.

[Grumpypaul]

I see somewhat of a conspiracy theorist notion here, but I also feel there is a need to point out that while the US industry is scraping by at best with alternative fuels and electric vehicles, no other nation has been able to devise an alternative either. Yes, there are few Asian hybrids that are quite viable, but even with the benefits of their governmental support they haven't made a "gotcha" vehicle. The hybrids are really not cost effective, just "green" effective. Those who buy them do so because of a perception of being green. The reality is that we haven't had to deal with the disposal and replacement of the batteries in the cars yet.

Fuel cell development is possibly going to remain a "within the next 10 years" concept rather than a reality. What happened to the superconductors? Practicality always wins out over reality. Battery technology has improved tremendously in the last decade or so, driven by our penchant for portable electronics, but it still hasn't been translated into a practical alternative for transportation. Limited use vehicles could be on the horizon, but their limits will be just that LIMITS.

Propane has been bantered around for decades. It is a great option and is clean running but when the the last time you pulled into your local Shell station and saw "Propane" next to the 87 octane pump? Distribution and the costs related remain, regardless of the country or their governmental involvement and support.

[ferretboy88]

Do you really want the Democrats running GM and Ford? They are pro union and instead of $78 per hour the worker will get $100. They can't even run local govts well and you want them to run a large business.

[MSSlayer]

If you are going to try to be taken seriously, you might want to find out how that $78 figure is total BS.

[eBob1]

While I agree that the auto companies' current management is made up of incompetent geezers, the idea that the government is going to run the auto companies is absurd beyond comparison. The government can't even manage itself! What these people need to do is step aside and retire and allow the new generation a chance to make the changes that are so desperately needed.

[ehfla]

Toyota loses an estimated $17,000 per Prius sold. Now, you want to the US government to force nearly bankrupt auto companies into developing cars that would run up even more losses. Can you provide specific numbers as to how you think this would work? Obviously, you have put some thought into this if you are making a recommendation. Let's see your numbers.

[willdryden]

Who told you that lie? Toyota paid for their entire R&D on the Prius from the profit of the first 50,000 cars.

[ikramerica--2008]

Typical socialist proposal: prop up a failing industry with government intervention, because the government can do it better.

Why not just look at history instead. The "Big 3" will likely lose influence as OTHER companies come in with the right technology. Why must "Detroit" be the answer? Because there are democrat voting jobs there?

Where is the same diehard devotion to the jobs of those who mine and process coal? Are overpaid auto workers who design and build low quality cars with poor fit and finish compared to rivals from Japan, Sweden, Germany and Korea more important than underpaid workers who bring one of our most important and abundant resources to market? After all, that coal's going to be damn important to powering the electric dream, no matter if Detroit, Silicon Valley or Munich makes it a reality.

Ultimately the electric car will never, ever be popular using the technology of today or even the next 15-20 years because it limits freedom. The whole point of a car is it provides infinite freedom. But an electric car has a limited range, and then you must stop. So it limits freedom. To some degree, it can control the masses, but limited their ability to freely move around the nation. And this side effect is attractive to socialist/communist/control freaks.

The real solution is the newer generation of plug in hybrid. Currently hybrids use electric power to boost the performance of a gasoline engine. But the future is and has been a reversal of that paradigm, where the electric car exists, but is powered by a smaller gasoline (or Diesel or fuel cell if that works out) engine running at peak efficiency as a power generation plant, then turning itself completely off when not needed. Combined with Li-Ion batteries that store much more charge and a plug in feature for overnight, and you end up with a vehicle with unlimited range like today, but 2-3 times the efficiency. This has been the goal for a long time but the battery technology and the ability to provide enough electricity for peak demand has been the limiting factor. That is changing.

[willdryden]

The only reason electric cars will not be popular is because people do not understand how they drive. I have one NEV for driving around town and one hybrid for trips that are out of range for the NEV. I wish the NEV was an EV-1, but GM crushed them.

[bdaughtry]

Somebody tell Charlie to lose the webcam interviews. They suck and I refuse to watch them. So, every time a "Daily Debrief" interviewee shows up on one, I immediately exit stage left. Pathetic!

[TV James]

The Congressional Response to Automakers' Problems act of 2008 is the worst of every world.

It's full of problems and pork, is vehemently derided by influential members of both parties and is sure to simply delay the inevitable. Problem isn't simply the unions, it's everything about this oversized car manufacturers and the oversized cars they manufacture. Boring, stupid, ugly and boring cars, no less.

I liked Cringely's suggestions in his article "What if Steve Jobs Were To Run GM":
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/2008/pulpit_20081207_005508.html

Trim the product line, make the products new and exciting, don't try to be everything to all people, outsource the manufacturing. It might be simplistic and my summary might be even more so, but it calls for bold actions. Selling the corporate jets is not a bold action and the fact that it took this for them to get to that point suggests they're just going to blow through the $15 billion and be no better off.

[Maarek Stele]

This is stupid. GM should just suck it up, stop waiting for a miracle and just release the damn car. If they want to be the top car maker than they need to CHANGE their line.

[geekbooks]

Video from Capitol Hill ...
The Chevy Volt rolling under its own power and a quick ride in the Dodge EV.
http://www.mpgomatic.com/2008/12/05/chevy-volt-dodge-ev-friends-on-capitol-hill/