Mike McQuary on the "Moving America" show on Fox Business

September 7, 2010

Wheego CEO Mike McQuary was interviewed live on Fox Business. Watch the interview here.

Jim Ellis Autos donated the use of a Wheego to UGA’s Athletic Department. WNEG-TV’s Rachel Garrett covered the event:

The movement to make Hawaii’s roads greener passed a milestone yesterday.

The first high-voltage electric car that supports the 240-volt international charging standard J-1772, the Wheego, and its dedicated charging station were unveiled at the Green Energy Outlet’s location in Kakaako. The cars were available for test drives and pre-orders.

The low-speed version of the Wheego, called the Whip, can go up to 35 mph and as far as 40 miles on a charge. The Whip and its full-speed counterpart, LiFe, are front-wheel-drive cars with power locks, remote-control doors, power windows and air bags for both the driver and single passenger.

“They didn’t sacrifice anything,” said Ron Hansen of Wheego Hawaii. “It has all the amenities you expect out of a vehicle.”

The Whip retails for $18,995.

The Wheego LiFe looks the same as the Whip, but differs in performance. It is a crash-tested car approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation for highway driving that can go up to 65 mph with its 115-volt lithium battery.

Hawaii will be among the first in the nation to receive the LiFe when it ships in September. It retails for $32,995.

Coulomb Technologies developed the charging station for the cars, the ChargePoint, which offers three levels of charging the electric vehicle.

A full charge on the Wheego takes about eight hours on level 1, which accommodates a standard AC plug at 120 volts and 20 amps. Level 2 is the triple-phase alternating current at 240 volts and 80 amps and would fully charge the Wheego in two hours.

The fastest, level 3, delivers electricity at 300 to 500 volts and 100 amps and can charge the Wheego in 30 minutes.

Michael Leone, president of Green Global Communities, said it is essential to have charging stations available before selling electric vehicles to the public.

“The cars were out there, but people were hesitant to buy them because there was nowhere to charge them,” he said. “What a dream it would be to have all electric cars.”

He said he hopes to have 5,000 charging stations installed in homes and businesses islandwide within the next year.

ChargePoint also offers an application for smartphones to see locations of unoccupied stations and will send charging status notifications via text messages. The ChargePoint application is free from the iTunes app store.

“We can’t continue to live on petroleum anymore,” said Mark Piscioneri, energy vehicle consultant for Pacific Energy Vehicles. “Oil gets harder to find and more dangerous to get.”

“When we get into the Wheego — we go everywhere,” he said. “Well, there’s one place we don’t go, a gas station.”

The Wheego vehicles are assembled in Ontario, Calif.

Wheego Electric Cars is a small company with a big, green vision. Wheego hopes to be the first car company in the U.S. to offer an affordable, all-electric car across the country. President Obama has committed to buying the first 100 cars off the assembly line from any company who can accomplish that goal, and Wheego is determined to bring that prize home to Georgia.  Wheego is headquartered in Atlanta, just west of the Georgia Tech campus. CEO Mike McQuary was previously the president of Georgia-born Internet company MindSpring Enterprises.

Wheego’s home state is a great place to introduce Electric Vehicles. Georgia has some of the most progressive tax credits in the country for EV drivers: in addition to the $7,500 Federal tax credit, Georgia residents are entitled to up to $5,000 in State Tax Credits for a full-speed electric vehicle, and can drive alone in the HOV lane in their all-electric car. The problem is, up until this summer the only all-electric car widely available in the U.S. that qualified (fully crash tested and highway-ready) was the Tesla, at a hefty $100,000+ price tag. I haven’t seen one of those in the HOV lane of I-75 yet! That all changes this summer, as Wheego rolls out its highway-ready all-electric car in September, followed by the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Volt later this year. So while the tax credits have been available for years in Georgia, this will be the first time anyone has actually used the deduction. Why is this important? Well, a “theoretical” tax credit doesn’t actually take any money out of the state coffers. Oklahoma offered a whopping 50% State Tax Credit on electric vehicles in 2009, and were caught off guard by the number of drivers who took advantage of the credit – in Oklahoma, some electric golf carts qualified. The state budget took a huge hit, and the tax credit was discontinued, just as the cars it was meant to encourage are ready to hit the road. Now that Georgia residents will start taking that $5,000 deduction, we need to make sure our state legislators are prepared and supportive of the “green” investment the state is making.

Georgia also offers a tax credit to businesses for buying (or leasing) and installing a charging station: 10% of the cost of the charging station, up to $2,500. This is important because it opens the EV ownership door to city dwellers who don’t have a garage. The Wheego LiFe electric car is a 2-seater with a range of 100 miles per charge, perfect for commuting to and from work. Most drivers will plug the car into the charging port in their garage at night and be good to go for another 100 miles the next morning. But a huge, young, and enthusiastically green slice of Atlanta’s population live in areas that are perfect for an EV – within a 50-mile commute of work – but don’t have a garage. Apartment and condo dwellers, and residents of older intown neighborhoods are perfect candidates for an at-work charging station. They’ll drive their car to work, charge it while they work, and be good to go for another 100 miles. Over the next few years, we’ll see more employers offer charging stations as part of a benefits package, and we’ll see additional charging stations pop up as retailers embrace this new way to attract consumers to stay longer. Anywhere that currently offers wi-fi is a good candidate for a charging station, since the theory is the same: offer a service that brings the consumer in, make them comfortable and hopefully they’ll drink more coffee, stay at the same hotel next time, buy more books. The charging technology is evolving.  When “rapid-charge” stations are the norm and you can fully charge your car in 20 minutes, retailers will jump on this chance to offer a valuable service to their shoppers. You’ll be able to charge while you’re in the grocery store, getting a haircut or watching a movie … not just sleeping or working

What has to happen for all of this to become a reality? You’d be surprised how far the technology has come. Coulomb Technologies is making a charging station that companies or municipalities can purchase and install on a stand, like a parking meter. As an EV owner, you join the “club,” and get a credit card that can be swiped at the charging station. The charge port door pops open, you plug your car in, and you (or your company) are billed for the charge.  A web page and an I-phone app will help you find an available charge station.

Major cities in five states (Arizona, California, Oregon, Tennessee, and Washington) are part of the federally-funded EV Project. The Department of Energy is spending $100m to build out the charging infrastructure in targeted cities in these five states. In order to get a free charging station installed in their home, EV drivers agree to provide data on their driving habits and EV usage. The information gleaned from this 3-year project will help the rest of the country prepare for widespread use of EVs. It’s coming!  A community’s rewards for encouraging EV use are great: no emissions, less noise pollution, less dependence on foreign (or domestic!) oil.  As a Georgia resident, you can be an active participant in your community’s EV planning, encourage your employer to install a charging station, and let local businesses know you’d support their initiatives to offer EV charging. Encourage Georgia lawmakers to push for our state’s inclusion if and when the EV Project expands.

It’s time to evaluate your driving habits and see whether an EV would work for you. On average, do you drive fewer than 100 miles each day? Do you have an enclosed garage to charge your car? If you routinely pile five people in your car and drive 500 miles, the Wheego LiFe would not be a candidate for your only car. But if you use your car primarily for commuting each day, Wheego could be a great fit. To learn more about Wheego and reserve your LiFe, visit www.wheego.net.

While customers can already test drive the low-speed Wheego Whip at the Jim Ellis Saab Atlanta location at 5862 Peachtree Industrial Blvd, Jim Ellis Automotive Group is taking greater strides to provide low-emission, fuel efficient vehicles to the greater Atlanta area.

As the sole dealer of the Wheego Electric Cars, when the Wheego LiFe rolls out in September, Jim Ellis will be the first dealer in Atlanta to offer fully certified highway-speed fully electric vehicles for commercial and retail consumers.

“We want to become the auto dealer expert in this emerging technology,” says Jimmy Ellis, Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of the Jim Ellis Automotive Group. “Jim Ellis is proud to have been chosen as the exclusive dealer in Atlanta GA for the Wheego car line of electric vehicles. This is an exciting development in our green initiative – promoting sustainable energy options while providing stylish, cutting-edge vehicles for our customers.”

However, the Ellis group has been quietly moving toward greener, more sustainable brands and vehicles for some time. Of course, the group began as a single Volkswagen dealership on Peachtree Industrial Boulevard in 1971, and VW has long been known for their clean diesel TDI brand. The high-demand Volkswagen Jetta TDI has been named the “Green car of the Year” for several years running.

The luxury Audi TDIs also win accolades for being fuel efficient, low-emmision cars and SUVs. Jim Ellis Audi Atlanta has been promoting the TDI’s sustainability via partnerships with other environmentally-conscious brands, such as the LEED certified Philps Arena and the Loews Hotel in Midtown.

With the addition of their new Buick GMC dealership in Buford, Georgia, the Jim Ellis dealerships have a total of three General Motors sales and service points. General Motors is already offering Hybrid and Flex fuel options of many of their trucks and SUVs, including models of the Chevrolet Tahoe, Silverado, the GMC Sierra and Yukon models. Of course, General Motors is also working on the much-anticipated Chevy Volt electric vehicle, too!

Earlier in 2010, the Ellis group opened a Mitsubishi dealership at their 1141 Cobb Parkway location in anticipation of the i-MiEV and other innovations coming from the manufacturer such as the 2013 Evolution IV, a hybrid model of the sporty Mitsubishi Lancer.

The Porsche Cayenne Hybrid will be available later this year, and other automotive manufacturers are also gearing up to produce and sell eco-friendly vehicle options.

In the weeks to come, the Jim Ellis Green initiative will be fully launched, including a searchable green inventory that isolates only the lower-emission, higher-mileage and alternative fuel options from among the inventories of all of the Jim Ellis dealerships.

About Jim Ellis Automotive Dealerships: The Jim Ellis Auto Dealerships are a family-owned and operated business with dealerships located in Atlanta and Marietta, Georgia. The Jim Ellis dealerships sell new cars from Audi, Chevrolet, Buick, GMC, Hyundai, Mazda, Mitsubishi, Porsche, Saab, Wheego Electric Vehicles and Volkswagen, as well as a wide selection of used cars. To learn more, or to browse a complete inventory online, please visit the Jim Ellis Family website (http://www.jimellis.com).

We all remember parental warnings about mixing electricity and water. Those cautions are reinforced, at least in my case, by watching entirely too many accidental or homicidal death scenes on television that involve a small electric appliance and a bath, or in high-end settings, a hot tub.

Cars and water don’t mix well. I’ve managed to avoid driving through high floodwaters in both New Orleans and Nashville, but I’ve seen the results for those less fortunate. Inundated with cool water, hot engine blocks crack. The 12-volt electrical systems freak out. People get injured or killed – but by the water, not the electricity. And the carpet and upholstery never, ever recover.

PHOTO CREDIT: SOLAR HOME & BUSINESS JOURNAL
The battery pack shown in a cutaway diorama of the Chevrolet Volt. Any loss of isolation within the electrical system shuts it down.

The 2010 hurricane and flood season is upon us. The U.S. rollout of some high-profile EVs is nigh. And a question nags at me: What about the water?

An electric vehicle is not a toaster. Toasters, at least the ones we use at our house, do not have sophisticated automatic shut-off and safety systems, and EVs hitting the U.S. market later this year will. Keith Schultz, GM’s senior manager of Global Vehicle High Voltage Electric & Battery Safety, and Mark Perry, director of product planning for Nissan Americas, talked to me about electric power systems in the Volt and the Leaf, respectively.

The high-voltage wiring is under the car and not within the passenger cabin. In general, an impact automatically shuts down the high-voltage system that powers the car. Air bag deployment shuts it down. The battery pack itself is completely sealed. Any loss of isolation within the electrical system shuts it down. A manual shut-off exists for first responders who may worry that the juice is still flowing.

Both General Motors and Nissan are providing information and training to emergency personnel in their EV target markets. The Volt training begins next month in Chicago during the International Association of Fire Chiefs Fire-Rescue International Conference.

Although the Volt has a small internal combustion engine that keeps the battery charged longer, both it and the Leaf incorporate high-voltage power that is engineered differently than the familiar vehicle 12-volt batteries that power the lights, stereo and other auxiliary systems.

A jolt from a 12-volt can give you a bad buzz. An electric shock from a damaged high-voltage EV can kill, or can ignite stray gasoline. A regular car battery produces shocks because it is not a closed system and is grounded in the vehicle structure itself. In an EV, the electrical system is isolated and self-contained in its own circuit. “Any loss of isolation, the battery sucks down and the control system will open the main contactors and contain the energy in the battery pack,” Mr. Schultz says. “If there is a crash, sensors also instruct the computer to open main contactors.”

These cars also have manual electric system shut-offs. In the Volt, a module attached to the battery pack is pulled out and separated. Access to a similar manual disconnect in the Leaf is through a panel in the floor, under a piece of carpet.

Mr. Perry of Nissan describes it as “three-layer protection.” The charging port has similar safeguards. “If damage to the port, then no power,” he says. And all major EV manufacturers have agreed to use a standard plug port.

High-voltage wiring also looks different. It is orange. This is not an arbitrary designer choice. Because electric vehicles are, well, electric, they must conform to electrical industry standards for wiring, and those rules dictate orange wrapping for the high-voltage stuff.

Gas-electric hybrids already follow these rules and carry some mighty powerful battery packs, ranging from about 150 to more than 300 volts of direct current. The danger zone for DC power can be as low as 55 to 60 volts, compared to 110 volts for alternating current.

EVs will face the same federal standards for crash testing, and the manufacturers have put the battery packs through some special ordeals to test their integrity. At Nissan, for example, engineers have dumped the battery pack into swimming pools, frozen it and hit it with high-pressure hoses, Mr. Perry says.

Safety is not a frivolous concern, and countering consumer misperceptions and wariness about new EV technology is part of the industry’s challenge. “A lot of myths out there we are trying to dispel up front so we can get ahead of it,” Mr. Schultz says.

So the bad news is that floodwaters still can quickly consume a vehicle and its occupants. The medium news is that it doesn’t much matter how the vehicle is powered. The good news is that the weight and location of battery packs may give EVs an edge because they create a lower (and heavier) center of gravity but also permit ground clearance that is higher than a typical sedan and closer to that of an SUV.

And honestly, we drive around now in vehicles with internal combustion engines, which get really, really hot, and many gallons of highly flammable liquid. Cue up any episode of “Burn Notice” or the James Bond theme music, please.

Odds and Ends

Wherever Wheego. Wheego started taking orders for the full-speed Wheego LiFe on June 14 and the first cars will ship to U.S. customers in September. This generation of Wheego will be highway-ready and last about 100 miles on a charge; the Wheego Whip LSV is limited to roads with posted speed limits of 35 mph.

Wheego, based in Atlanta, took eight Whip LSVs to Bonnaroo in early June for the festival staff to use behind the scenes transporting themselves and the artists. With temperatures hitting 100 degrees in Manchester, Tenn., for this year’s party, the Whip’s air conditioning proved quite popular. And unlike golf carts, the Whip has a lock.

The General Services Administration in late June approved the Whip LSV for government contracts, allowing the company to sell the cars to federal agencies and U.S. military installations, where, as it happens, posted speed limits are 35 mph or less.

New digs, new states. It is no surprise that ECOtality Inc., the charging infrastructure folks, located its new headquarters in San Francisco. The Bay Area is an EV epicenter and California is expected to be the largest electric vehicle market in the U.S. The company’s offices for Innergy Power and the ECOtality Store will stay in their San Diego locations, and the offices in Seattle, Portland, Los Angeles, and Tennessee will stay put. ECOtality North America will continue in Phoenix.

On Thursday, the company added Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston to the EV Project, bringing the total to 16 cities in six states: Washington, Oregon, California, Arizona, Tennessee and Texas, plus the District of Columbia. Overall, The EV Project will include the manufacture and installation of more than 15,000 chargers in residential and public locations throughout the United States.

Volt ramps up. General Motors estimates annual production of 10,000 Volts in 2011, and 30,000 Volts in 2012. The company says Volts will be available in all 50 states 12 to 18 months after the initial retail launch. The first Volts will be sold in California; Washington, D.C.; Austin, Texas; and the New York City metropolitan area later in 2010. Dealerships in Michigan, New Jersey and Connecticut, plus the remaining Texas and New York markets, will be next up in the first quarter of 2011.

Chevy also announced on Wednesday it will warranty the Volt battery for eight years or 100,000 miles.

Blame it on gas. With relatively low summer gas prices, U.S. sales of hybrid cars fell by 17.5 percent in June, compared to June 2009. Overall car sales, however, increased 14 percent. The numbers, from hybridcars.com, suggest 2010 will be the third consecutive year of declining hybrid sales.

Pamela Coyle, a freelance writer and editor based in Nashville, Tenn., was an assistant city editor at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina and a member of the newspaper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Katrina coverage team. Most recently, Ms. Coyle was an assistant city editor at The Tennessean in Nashville. She has a master’s degree in the study of law from Yale University and is a regular contributor to EnergyBiz magazine. Contact her at pcoyle@sunpluggers.com

Wheego All Electric Car - Atlanta USA

NEWS RELEASE

ATLANTA (July 15,  2010) – WHEEGO ELECTRIC CARS, manufacturer of all-electric vehicles, today announced it has appointed Jim Ellis Auto Dealerships as its dealer throughout the Greater Atlanta, Georgia area.

“We are headquartered here in Atlanta,” said Wheego President Jeff Boyd, “so we are very familiar with the reputation of the local dealerships. In Atlanta, the Jim Ellis name is synonymous with excellent business practices and top-notch customer service. We are very pleased that Jim Ellis has chosen Wheego Electric Cars as part of their portfolio as they launch Georgia’s preeminent Electric Vehicle dealership.

“Wheego Electric Cars is about to beat all the major auto manufacturers to market with an affordable all-electric car,” said Jim Ellis Auto’s COO, Jimmy Ellis. “We will launch our EV initiative with the Wheego Whip LSV, a low-speed all-electric car that is particularly suitable to neighborhood driving and fleet usage. Customers can take the low-speed car for a test drive at our dealership in July and get a sense of the engineering, styling and overall quality of the Wheego brand… and, they can also reserve the first highway speed, crash tested, all electric car on the Wheego website for delivery beginning in September. When Wheego rolls out the highway version, called the LiFe, we’ll also have the car available at our dealership for our Atlanta area customers to test drive. It’s a great fit for anyone who commutes under 50 miles each way because you can drive the car 100 miles on a charge; and, then, just as easy as a cell phone, you can plug it in every night to recharge. You’ll zip right by the gas station every day. Plus, you can drive this car in the HOV lane in Georgia by yourself.”

The highway-ready Wheego LiFe goes approximately 100 miles on a charge, and retails for $32,995. The Wheego LiFe qualifies for a $7,500 Federal tax credit, and a $5,000 Georgia state tax credit, dropping the effective net price in Georgia to under $21,000. In addition, Georgia drivers will be able to drive the Wheego LiFe in the HOV lane (with no additional passenger in the car) by obtaining an alternate fuel vehicle license plate.

The Wheego LiFe comes fully-equipped with driver and passenger airbags, anti-lock brakes, air conditioning, and power windows and locks. The 115V lithium battery pack can be charged from a standard 120V outlet, a 240V outlet or any of the J1772 standard charging stations being installed in public locations throughout the US. It is available in red, white, blue, black, silver, and green. The Wheego Whip LiFe is a two-seat subcompact car with fit, finish and features that compete with any other subcompact car on the market. 

Atlanta drivers can reserve a Wheego LiFe by visiting www.wheego.net and making a fully refundable $100 deposit. The highway-ready LiFe will be available through Jim Ellis Auto Dealerships beginning in September. For more information or to locate a Jim Ellis dealership, visit http://www.jimelliswheeego.com.

About Jim Ellis Auto Dealerships

Jim Ellis is a family-owned business with twelve sales and service locations and almost 40 years’ experience in the Atlanta area. Jim Ellis was honored in 2008 as Time Magazine’s Dealer of the Year, and has won the Consumer’s Choice award for Business Excellence for the past six years. For more information about Jim Ellis Auto Dealerships, visit the company website at www.jimellis.com.

About Wheego Electric Cars

Wheego Electric Cars is an innovation-driven and environmentally-conscious manufacturer of Electric Vehicles (EVs).  Under the leadership of Mike McQuary, CEO and former MindSpring entrepreneur, Wheego Electric Cars has become a leader in the integration of advanced technology components.  Wheego Electric Cars is one of the first EV companies to deliver affordable fully capable, street legal all-electric cars for everyday consumer use. The Wheego line of electric vehicles is emission-free, making them an ideal choice for consumers and businesses who want to reduce their carbon footprint. Wheego is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The cars are assembled in Ontario, California.

For more information about Wheego, and to view the list of Wheego dealers, visit the company website at http://wheego.net

Go To Wheego Website

ATLANTA (July 15,  2010) –

“We are headquartered here in Atlanta,” said Wheego President Jeff Boyd, “so we are very familiar with the reputation of the local dealerships. In Atlanta, the Jim Ellis name is synonymous with excellent business practices and top-notch customer service. We are very pleased that Jim Ellis has chosen Wheego Electric Cars as part of their portfolio as they launch Georgia’s preeminent Electric Vehicle dealership.

“Wheego Electric Cars is about to beat all the major auto manufacturers to market with an affordable all-electric car,” said Jim Ellis Auto’s COO, Jimmy Ellis. “We will launch our EV initiative with the Wheego Whip LSV, a low-speed all-electric car that is particularly suitable to neighborhood driving and fleet usage. Customers can take the low-speed car for a test drive at our dealership in July and get a sense of the engineering, styling and overall quality of the Wheego brand… and, they can also reserve the first highway speed, crash tested, all electric car on the Wheego website for delivery beginning in September. When Wheego rolls out the highway version, called the LiFe, we’ll also have the car available at our dealership for our Atlanta area customers to test drive. It’s a great fit for anyone who commutes under 50 miles each way because you can drive the car 100 miles on a charge; and, then, just as easy as a cell phone, you can plug it in every night to recharge. You’ll zip right by the gas station every day. Plus, you can drive this car in the HOV lane in Georgia by yourself.”

The highway-ready Wheego LiFe goes approximately 100 miles on a charge, and retails for $32,995. The Wheego LiFe qualifies for a $7,500 Federal tax credit, and a $5,000 Georgia state tax credit, dropping the effective net price in Georgia to under $21,000. In addition, Georgia drivers will be able to drive the Wheego LiFe in the HOV lane (with no additional passenger in the car) by obtaining an alternate fuel vehicle license plate.

The Wheego LiFe comes fully-equipped with driver and passenger airbags, anti-lock brakes, air conditioning, and power windows and locks. The 115V lithium battery pack can be charged from a standard 120V outlet, a 240V outlet or any of the J1772 standard charging stations being installed in public locations throughout the US. It is available in red, white, blue, black, silver, and green. The Wheego Whip LiFe is a two-seat subcompact car with fit, finish and features that compete with any other subcompact car on the market. 

Atlanta drivers can reserve a Wheego LiFe by visiting www.wheego.net and making a fully refundable $100 deposit. The highway-ready LiFe will be available through Jim Ellis Auto Dealerships beginning in September. For more information or to locate a Jim Ellis dealership, visit http://www.jimelliswheeego.com.

About Jim Ellis Auto Dealerships

Jim Ellis is a family-owned business with twelve sales and service locations and almost 40 years’ experience in the Atlanta area. Jim Ellis was honored in 2008 as Time Magazine’s Dealer of the Year, and has won the Consumer’s Choice award for Business Excellence for the past six years. For more information about Jim Ellis Auto Dealerships, visit the company website at www.jimellis.com.

About Wheego Electric Cars

Wheego Electric Cars is an innovation-driven and environmentally-conscious manufacturer of Electric Vehicles (EVs).  Under the leadership of Mike McQuary, CEO and former MindSpring entrepreneur, Wheego Electric Cars has become a leader in the integration of advanced technology components.  Wheego Electric Cars is one of the first EV companies to deliver affordable fully capable, street legal all-electric cars for everyday consumer use. The Wheego line of electric vehicles is emission-free, making them an ideal choice for consumers and businesses who want to reduce their carbon footprint. Wheego is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The cars are assembled in Ontario, California.

For more information about Wheego, and to view the list of Wheego dealers, visit the company website at www.wheego.net.

Why should predictions be restricted to the end of the year? I make them all the time, and this is such an interesting crossroads for the auto industry that I’d like to offer some now for 2011, right here in the dog days of summer:

1. A Slow Start. Although Ford, Chevrolet, Tesla, Fisker, Coda, Nissan, Wheego, Think and many more are preparing new battery and plug-in hybrid cars for late this year and early next, a manufacturer that sells 10,000 of any of these cars should count itself lucky. EVs are a really new concept for people, and there will be a lot more tire-kicking than contract-signing.
2. Zip Code Rules. As I reported earlier this week, sales will be concentrated in California. But it’s more than that – early EVs for 2011 will be expensive, so they’ll be heavily represented in certain affluent zip codes on both coasts. Praveen Mandal, president of charging company Coulomb, calls this “clustering.” That is one of many challenges that utilities have to face as they try to figure out how to build out the grid to accommodate EVs. Scott Simons of the Detroit-area DTE Energy told me that his company is working with automakers to try and identify those neighborhoods and beef up infrastructure there with bigger substations and more.
3. Winners and Losers. The entry market strongly favors established players, and they’ll be the ones that will see the most action in 2011. Nissan, for example, has huge built-in advantages in promoting its Leaf battery car. These include a name recognition, a national dealer network and money to pay for TV advertising. Chevrolet has the same for the Volt “range extender,” and Ford for its electric version of the Focus. Newcomers like Think, Coda and Wheego will have credible cars, but they’ll really have to be clever about the guerrilla marketing and publicity to get their voices heard.
4. Subsidies Matter. Many states are now offering tax incentives for EVs, but California rules with a $5,000 cash rebate (that could run out quickly). By offsetting steep purchase prices, these credits will really make a difference. A Nissan Leaf for $20,000 instead of $32,000? Yes, but only in California. EV sales could take off past 10,000 per carmaker if the feds pass pending legislation called the Electric Vehicle Deployment Act of 2010, which has bipartisan support. In the wake of President Obama’s appearance at the Smith Electric Vehicle plant in Missouri this week, the Electrification Coalition’s Robbie Diamond pointed out that Obama has said he would sign it, but “now is the time to move that legislation forward.” The bill would give EV buyers in select “deployment communities” incentives worth up to $10,000.
5. “Range Anxiety” Will Fade. The fear that EVs will run out of juice halfway home will keep a lot of people from buying them in the first half of 2011, but such nail biting will evaporate in the third and fourth quarters. Few people really need more than 100 miles of range –- they just think they do. Good word of mouth from EV early adopters should clear that up.
6. Cities Will Lag in Setting up Charging Networks. I went searching for a Manhattan-based EV plug-in, but found only one. The bigger the city, the longer this will take, especially in the early days of 2011. Although EVs are really more city than suburban cars, charging them will be a headache in New York, Chicago and other cities where space is at a premium and most people live in apartments. Los Angeles? The city is already set up for cars, and so gung-ho about EVs they’ll find a way to get ‘em plugged in.

Jim Motavalli is the author of Forward Drive: The Race to Build Clean Cars for the Future, among other books. He has been covering the environmental side of the auto industry for more than a decade, and writes regularly on those topics for the New York Times.

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