Jun 24 - McClatchy-Tribune Regional News - Bob Cox Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas



Electric vehicles are coming to Texas soon, and along with them a vastly different experience in buying, owning and driving a new car.

With two automakers preparing to roll out the first mass-market, plug-in electric autos this year, the auto industry, retail electricity providers and government agencies are moving to make it easier for consumers to embrace the environmentally friendly technology.

Speakers at an electric-vehicle conference here said the looming introductions of the Chevrolet Volt and Nissan Leaf, which their manufacturers say will be delivered this year, are the vanguard of a movement that has enormous promise for Texas drivers living in pollution-plagued urban areas.

The basic technology to make electric vehicles practical "is already here today," and Texas is the perfect market for it, said Robert Nelms, director of the Institute for Intelligent Energy Systems at the University of Texas at Dallas.

 Chevrolet says it will begin delivering the Volt, an electric car with a backup gasoline-powered generator, to buyers around December. Nissan plans to begin deliveries of its all-electric, 100-mile-range hatchback to the first U.S. buyers by year's end.

"We could see a significant [market] penetration of all-electric vehicles over the next decade," especially as the technology improves and consumers learn about it and become comfortable with the concepts, Nelms said.

The state is well-suited for electric cars, speakers said, because of its enormous wind-power capacity that primarily generates power at night when most people would be recharging their cars.

Nissan has a lengthy list of people who have paid $99 to reserve a place in line to order the Leaf, said Keiichi Kitahara, Nissan's senior manager of corporate planning. "We'll tell them at the end of the month when they can order a vehicle and when sales will begin."

Kitahara said the automaker will initially be able to produce only about 50,000 Leafs a year in Japan for the first couple of years, until it can build and ramp up production at other locations, including its plant in Smyrna, Tenn.

But buying such a vehicle won't be as simple as going to the dealership and writing a check. The cars are going to come with battery charging systems. Nelms and others said they expect the bulk of charging to be done at home, requiring further investment by consumers and planning by electricity providers.

The Volt, the Leaf and other electric vehicles in the planning stages will require a dedicated 220-volt line connected to a power inverter that converts household alternate current to direct current for the battery charging systems, Kitahara said.

Nissan's Leaf has a starting price tag of $32,780, plus $2,200 for the power inverter system. Then there will be the cost to buyers of adding an electric line to the house or garage for the charging system.

The Leaf and Volt will qualify for a $7,500 federal tax credit, and the charging system can be offset by an additional $2,000 tax credit.

While the overall electric grid in Texas shouldn't be overtaxed by car charging, especially if it's done at night as most experts expect, there could be "cul de sac" problems if several households in the same area rapidly adopt electric vehicles.

In Houston, NRG Energy, parent of retail provider Reliant Energy, is working with Nissan to address the delivery issues.

Mike Harrigan, NRG's vice president of electric vehicle services, said the company wants to create a one-stop solution where a consumer can buy an electric car and secure long-term contracts for electricity at fixed prices, home electric system upgrades and even access to public charging stations.

"We're trying to integrate the three pieces of the puzzle that we don't see together right now," Harrigan said.

Retail electric providers would notify their transmission operators, such as Oncor, of new electric vehicle buyers so they could upgrade wiring and transformers when necessary.

Brian Tulloh, vice president of public affairs for TXU Energy, said the company is planning a similar approach. "We know the customers will want it to be simple."

BOB COX, 817-390-7723

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