Time Magazine: Utilities Scramble to Meet Power Needs of Electric Cars

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1910444,00.html

Utilities Scramble to Meet Power Needs of Electric Cars

By Robert Chew Thursday, Jul. 16, 2009

Dave Kaufmann likes people yelling at him as he drives through La Cañada, Calif., the wealthy suburb north of Los Angeles where he lives. What they're shouting about is his battery-powered electric vehicle, one of up to 30,000 estimated to hit the streets of Southern California in the next 36 months, the biggest expected e-car surge in the country.

"They all want to know, 'What's that? Where can I get one?' " says Kaufmann, a home contractor and self-taught electric vehicle, or EV, enthusiast.

By some accounts, the next 10 years will see as many as 1.6 million electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles zipping around the state, in what is shaping up to be the nation's e-car proving ground. But in the 1990s a similar optimism hit here too, only to fizzle as gas prices plummeted and gas-guzzling SUVs took over the auto market with a vengeance.

That was then; this is now. Strong government incentives and regulations, car and battery-maker innovations and the public's genuine concern for global warming are all contributing to the EV enthusiasm. But utilities are working feverishly to put infrastructure standards in place; the prospect of managing rapid EV growth has utility executives both amped up over the opportunity and queasy about unplanned snafus.

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[FreakinDJ]

1. Some salesman will get it right - EV and Photovoltaic combo

If they really wanted to sell EVs they would market them as "Fuel Free" combined with a home photovoltaic system