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Altogether, 46 companies, state and local governments, federal agencies and universities have entered into cost-sharing arrangements with the Department of Energy for the demonstration of electric vehicles. DOE, which will dole out $40 million for its EV program this year, is aiming for 10,000 demonstrators by 1986. So far only 500 have been put on the road under the plan.
The number of electric cars could increase dramatically if Detroit's carmakers ever decide to start building them. Closest is General Motors, which has produced a prototype, the Electro Vette (a Chevette with lead-acid batteries). Last winter GM set up an electric car "project center," where it is working on an advanced zinc-nickel oxide battery with a range of 100 miles. GM EVs could be rolling off assembly lines as soon as the fall of 1983. Ford Motor Co. is working on a sodium-sulfur battery scheduled for lab tests in 1982.
The biggest stimulus for Detroit, oddly enough, may come from a little-known rider attached to the Chrysler financial bailout bill passed by Congress last December. The measure, sponsored by Idaho Republican Senator James A. McClure, allows carmakers to include electrics in meeting their federally mandated 1985 corporate average fuel-efficiency rating of 27.5 rn.p.g. Since the electrics use no gasoline, Detroit, to the extent its output includes EVs, will be able to turn out larger, less efficient—and thus more profitable—gasoline-powered cars. That was a clever political end run, yet no one is complaining. Says Paul Brown, who heads the EV program at DOE: "It was just good, practical politics."
Meanwhile, like electrons to a cathode, a raft of smaller companies and entrepreneurs are being attracted to the EV market. Sir Jon Samuel, a transplanted Briton, has set up Electric Auto Corp. in Troy, Mich., to produce the Silver Volt, scheduled for production next year at a cost to buyers of $16,000 each. The car runs on fast-charge, lead-acid batteries, but has a small rotary gasoline engine to boost power for passing and to rescue drivers from battery failure. Jet Industries of Austin, Texas, takes Ford, Chrysler and Fuji cars and trucks from the factory, installs lead-acid batteries and resells the vehicles to fleet owners for $10,000 to $14,000 each.
Will people buy electric cars? They should, according to U.S. Department of Transportation statistics. Ninety percent of all car trips in America are for 20 miles or less, and 99% are for 100 miles or less. Thus, at least in theory, the electric car's short range should not be a drawback. But Americans do not see their cars in such practical, unromantic terms. They tend to buy autos for peak use, for that annual trip to visit a distant relative. They want fast acceleration and a lot of miles between stops. To change all that, as Analyst Keller says with considerable understatement, "will require some adjustment in terms of how people think of their vehicle."