Electric Vehicles

Area electric car owners will have more opportunities to keep their vehicles charged as a result of a new state initiative. The state Department of Energy Resources on July 22 announced it was awarding a combined 94 electric vehicle charging stations to 25 communities, including Chelmsford, Lowell, Salem, and Tyngsborough. "We're pleased," Chelmsford Town Manager Paul E. Cohen said of his town's selection to receive two charging stations, one of which will be located at the Adams Library, and the other at the north fire station.

The US auto-safety regulator said it will hold a forum on lithium-ion batteries in electric cars next month, almost a year after a General Motors Co. Chevrolet Volt caught fire following crash-testing. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced a meeting May 18 in Washington to convene government officials and auto and battery-industry representatives to talk about "safety considerations" for cars powered by lithium-ion batteries. The meeting was announced in a posting on the Federal Register's website.

The US auto-safety regulator said it will hold a forum on lithium-ion batteries in electric cars next month, almost a year after a General Motors Co. Chevrolet Volt caught fire following crash-testing. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced a meeting May 18 in Washington to convene government officials and auto and battery-industry representatives to talk about "safety considerations" for cars powered by lithium-ion batteries. The meeting was announced in a posting on the Federal Register's website.

Shortly after Chelmsford's first electric vehicle charging station was installed on a Thursday in January, Gary Persichetti, public facilities director, and his staff had themselves a little laugh. How long would it be, they wondered, until someone actually used the thing? "And it was kind of funny," Persichetti recalled recently. "One of my guys went out for coffee on [that following] Sunday morning and called me to tell me that there was one charging already. " That inaugural charge may have quelled some of those chuckles in Chelmsford, but skepticism about...

WASHINGTON — The federal government would provide grants to help cities build the infrastructure needed to support electric vehicles and to offer new tax credits for buyers of those cars under legislation introduced yesterday in Congress. The bills in the House and Senate are designed to smooth the way for the electric vehicles expected to start showing up at car dealerships in large numbers this fall. Supporters hope to add 700,000 vehicles to the road that are powered largely by electricity in the next several years.

Vermont motorists who drive electric cars now have a fueling station where they will be able to charge their vehicles at no cost. On Wednesday, Green Mountain Power and Healthy Living Market unveiled the charging station on Dorset Street in South Burlington that will be free for the first year. GMP President Mary Powell says making it possible for motorists to charge electric vehicles is critical to the adoption of the growing technology. This charging station is compatible with all electric vehicles on the market today.

IN HIS Feb. 25 editorial cartoon showing an electric car hooked up to a coal-fired power plant, Mike Ramirez perpetuates a misleading myth. Yes, there are emissions associated with the charging of electric vehicles, and we need to clean up our power sources. However, according to a range of studies, when you compare electric and conventional gas-powered cars, electrics are cleaner in every part of the country, regardless of the power grid. Here in New England, an electric vehicle on average emits about 69 percent less carbon dioxide than an average gas-powered vehicle.

TOKYO — Toyota and three other Japanese automakers together with a power company have set up a group to promote electric vehicles by standardizing recharging machines and marketing the technology abroad. Representatives of Toyota Motor Corp., Nissan Motor Co., Mitsubishi Motors Corp., Fuji Heavy Industries, and Tokyo Electric Power Co. gathered at a Tokyo hotel yesterday to announce the association, which includes about 160 businesses, some of them foreign, and government organizations.

FRANKFURT - European auto companies and parts makers estimate that electric vehicles will emerge from niche status and become mass-market products by about 2022, according to an Ernst & Young study. The greatest hurdle is the perception the cars' range is too limited, the consulting firm said in the 2011 European Automotive Survey of 307 managers. "A breakthrough would be when there are at least 100,000 electric vehicles on the road in Germany, which is when you'd really notice them," said Peter Fuss of Ernst & Young.

General Motors Co. and Korean battery maker LG Group said Thursday they will jointly design and engineer electric vehicles under a new agreement. LG already supplies lithium-ion batteries for the Chevrolet Volt and Opel Ampera, which are electric cars with small backup gas engines. LG also supplied the batteries for a test fleet of electric Chevrolet Cruze small cars. Under the new agreement, engineers from both companies will work together on parts as well as vehicle structures and designs.

IN HIS Feb. 25 editorial cartoon showing an electric car hooked up to a coal-fired power plant, Mike Ramirez perpetuates a misleading myth. Yes, there are emissions associated with the charging of electric vehicles, and we need to clean up our power sources. However, according to a range of studies, when you compare electric and conventional gas-powered cars, electrics are cleaner in every part of the country, regardless of the power grid. Here in New England, an electric vehicle on average emits about 69 percent less carbon dioxide than an average gas-powered vehicle.

WASHINGTON - A Chevrolet Volt that caught fire three weeks after its lithium-ion battery was damaged in a government crash test has regulators taking a harder look at the safety of electric car batteries, federal officials said yesterday. But based on testing so far, regulators believe the batteries are safe and don't pose a greater fire risk than gasoline-powered engines, a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration official told the Associated Press. The official requested anonymity in order to speak freely.

NEW YORK - Bob Beaumont, who thought every home should have an affordable electric vehicle in its driveway and sold more than 2,000 of them - the tiny, trapezoidal creation known as the CitiCar - decades before General Motors and Nissan came up with their own versions, died yesterday at his home in Columbia, Md. He was 79. The cause was emphysema, said his daughter, Dina. In the 1960s, Mr. Beaumont was so inspired by the battery-powered lunar rover and so appalled by the nation's insatiable appetite for oil that he sold...

Vermont motorists who drive electric cars now have a fueling station where they will be able to charge their vehicles at no cost. On Wednesday, Green Mountain Power and Healthy Living Market unveiled the charging station on Dorset Street in South Burlington that will be free for the first year. GMP President Mary Powell says making it possible for motorists to charge electric vehicles is critical to the adoption of the growing technology. This charging station is compatible with all electric vehicles on the market today.

If you build it - a state network of electric vehicle charging stations, that is - will the new battery-propelled electric vehicles come rolling in for a fill-up? The state's Department of Energy Resources is behind an effort to address what officials call a "chicken or egg" problem by installing almost 150 electric vehicle charging stations in public places such as shopping malls, MBTA stations, Logan Express bus stops, and library parking lots. Since drivers are reluctant to buy cars that rely on electricity rather than gasoline if charging facilities are not available, new charging stations are being awarded, free of...

General Electric and General Motors Co. agreed Thursday on a pilot installation of electric vehicle charging stations in Shanghai, the latest step in the automaker's plan to develop infrastructure in China to support sales of its Chevrolet Volt electric car. As part of the agreement, GE also agreed to buy the extended range electric cars for use at its corporate campus in Shanghai. GM plans to launch the Volt in December in China, where it has made electric vehicles a core part of its strategy for expansion despite doubts Chinese consumers will snap up such...

General Electric and General Motors Co. agreed Thursday on a pilot installation of electric vehicle charging stations in Shanghai, the latest step in the automaker's plan to develop infrastructure in China to support sales of its Chevrolet Volt electric car. As part of the agreement, GE also agreed to buy the extended range electric cars for use at its corporate campus in Shanghai. GM plans to launch the Volt in December in China, where it has made electric vehicles a core part of its strategy for expansion despite doubts Chinese consumers will snap up such cars.

Honda North America spent $607,429 in the second quarter to lobby Congress on proposed legislation aimed at promoting electric vehicles and other issues. That's up slightly from the $592,338 it spent in the second quarter of 2010 and more than the $452,147 it spent in the first quarter of this year. Honda also lobbied the federal government on legislation involving natural gas vehicle tax incentives, alternate fuel vehicles, climate change vehicle repair laws, ethanol tax subsidies and general corporate business taxes, according to the report filed in July.

FRANKFURT - European auto companies and parts makers estimate that electric vehicles will emerge from niche status and become mass-market products by about 2022, according to an Ernst & Young study. The greatest hurdle is the perception the cars' range is too limited, the consulting firm said in the 2011 European Automotive Survey of 307 managers. "A breakthrough would be when there are at least 100,000 electric vehicles on the road in Germany, which is when you'd really notice them," said Peter Fuss of Ernst & Young.

General Motors Co. and Korean battery maker LG Group said Thursday they will jointly design and engineer electric vehicles under a new agreement. LG already supplies lithium-ion batteries for the Chevrolet Volt and Opel Ampera, which are electric cars with small backup gas engines. LG also supplied the batteries for a test fleet of electric Chevrolet Cruze small cars. Under the new agreement, engineers from both companies will work together on parts as well as vehicle structures and designs.