Recently in Electric vehicles Category

Chevrolet's gasoline-electric hybrid vehicle, the Volt, attracted dozens of articles and blog posts Tuesday marveling at its stated city mileage of 230 miles per gallon. A smashing figure. Even more intriguing, though, was General Motors' statement that the sticker may also carry another measure: 25 kilowatt-hours per 100 city miles.

If that happens, the vehicle would be the first to express its fuel economy in electrical terms, and it feels like a milestone: KWh on a sticker price.

In tune with the new Washington administration, the PJM Interconnection has its hands in the electric vehicle arena. It is a member of and has been working with Magicc to develop communication protocols that will enable plug-in EVs to receive information from the power system and react to changes in electricity demand, i.e., to become a real part of the wholesale grid. Magicc is the Mid-Atlantic Grid Interactive Car Consortium.

PJM could not find a more enthusiastic champion than its very own regulator, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, whose new chairman, Jon Wellinghoff, has been a vocal advocate for the plug-in electric vehicle cause. He participated in a summit not long ago with PJM, the Electric Power Research Institute and Magicc, where he said a PEV could nearly pay for itself over 10 years by selling the power during the day that it had stored at night.

A thousand-mile transmission line, taking wind power from the plains to the city, and the wind stops blowing? We have an answer, and perhaps there can be an earmark in the stimulus for us, for our little idea.

Ack, sorry, no earmarks. We forgot.

The decision by MidAmerican Holdings, owned by Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway, to invest $230 million in a Chinese battery manufacturer as the global financial system melted down in September looked all the wiser Monday.

BYD, a Shenzhen-based battery company turned auto maker, this morning rolled out the first hybrid electric vehicle for sale in China's retail market, beating both US and Japanese car companies to the punch.