By OGJ editors
HOUSTON, Nov. 19 -- A group of corporate chief executives has formed to promote cuts in US oil use through expansion of the electric-powered vehicle fleet.
The Electrification Coalition, Washington, DC, has published a plan to reduce oil consumption in the light-duty vehicle fleet to 2 million b/d in 2040 from 8.6 million b/d currently.
Its goal: that 75% of light-duty vehicle-miles traveled in that year be powered by electricity.
“So long as the cars and trucks that power our economy are dependent on a single fuel source, the majority of which is produced in hostile nations and unstable regions of the world and the price of which is increasingly volatile, our economy is at the mercy of events and actors largely beyond our control,” the report’s executive summary says.
At the center of the group’s strategy is “an ambitious federal initiative to establish electrification ecosystems in a number of American cities” to support deployment of grid-enabled vehicles (GEVs), which are hybrids or fully electric vehicles able to recharge directly from the power grid.
The group seeks deployment of 700,000 GEVs in six to eight cities during 2010-13 and 7 million GEVs in those and 20-25 other cities by 2018.
The 180-page report assumes a large role for the federal government. Among its policy recommendations are new or expanded tax breaks for electric-vehicle purchases, public charging equipment, and investments by utilities and power aggregators in information-technology upgrades.
Companies represented in the coalition are Aerovironment Inc., Gridpoint Inc., NRG Energy Inc., Coda Automotive, PG&E Corp., Rockwood Holdings Inc., Nissan Motor Co. Ltd., Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Coulomb Technologies Inc., Johnson Controls-SAFT and Johnson Controls Power Solutions, Bright Automotive Inc., Fedex Corp., and A123 Systems Inc.
File photo from PDVSA..
