The Unforced Error of Plugin Vehicles

 Bill Buckner played major league baseball for 21 years. He was successful on many fronts, widely regarded as a workhorse, and set several records. But in Game 6, of the 1986 World Series, one play forever marked his career. Buckner was unable to stop an easy groundball hit by Mookie Wilson and lost the game. In my opinion, the good intentions of the Electric Vehicle Deployment Act (EVDA), threaten an unforced error for all work previously accomplished by plugin vehicle advocates.

The EVDA was introduced in both houses May 27th and has bi-partisan support. The bills differ but provide roughly $10 billion dollars over four to six years. It offers a cash prize for the development of long-range battery and correctly expands and extends tax credits. But depending on which bill passes, the EVDA proposes to spend much of the funding in just 4 - 15 cities or deployment communities. Is it really smart to concentrate all of our plugin vehicle resources into San Francisco, Portland, and a handful of other areas?

EVDA creates deployment communities because it's supporters believe electric vehicles will fail in unprepared, uneducated, areas. It is thought that communities, each competing for $800 million dollars, will create the most fertile environments for electric cars to succeed. As a plugin vehicle activist since 2006, I too support meaningful investment. Plug In Carolina is deploying public charging as a means to encourage and support electric vehicle deployment. But the extent of emphasis placed on public charging, to a few areas, will be a huge mistake for the following reasons:

1. Public charging is helpful but does not determine plugin vehicle success. Plugin vehicles offer the most benefit when they are charged at home during off-peak hours. This type of charging meets the needs of extended range electric vehicles, like the Chevy Volt. When their batteries deplete, they have a gasoline engine on board to charge them when needed. Even all-electric vehicles, like the Nissan Leaf, have a range that exceeds four times the average American commute. In other words, they make a great second car. The point is that public charging should not be seen as a necessity to deploy plugin vehicles. Rather, they are tools of convenience, which will become less and less important when technology improves quick charging and battery range.

2. Other, less costlier, methods are available. The EVDA touts its program as a learning experiment. California already has a wealth of information after the first attempt of vehicle electrification. Auto companies have detailed demographics and modeling from ten years of hybrid sales. To think we need to spend $800 million dollars per deployment community to learn about charging station deployment is very inefficient. If we are pushing plugin vehicles because they are sustainable, how is $800 million dollars needed for every community sustainable?

3. Community deployment will create a backlash against the movement itself. Today, hybrid vehicles often drift toward the most promising markets. This is market driven and acceptable. However, the EVDA offers special, federal, tax credits to select areas while denying to others. Not only will this make electric vehicles vanish from most markets, it will codify privilege, pitting parts of the country against each other. What is more troubling is for areas right next to deployment communities. Imagine purchasing a Chevy Volt and the salesperson asks for your zip code. To your surprise, you find your neighbor, who lives in a deployment community, can get a Chevy Volt with an additional, special, federal, tax break, ($2,500). A tax break of which you are not entitled. The Automaker Alliance themselves are opposed because they fear this will create the electric vehicle as a niche or boutique industry. How do you think the US taxpayer will feel?

I support immediate, meaningful, investment for electric vehicle deployment. Our nation spends $70 billion dollars each year to keep six maritime straits open for oil passage. And if the Gulf spill isn't a wake up call for change, I don't know what is. But advocating investment does not accept wasteful spending. Here are four suggestions to improve the EVDA:

1. Invest government spending where there is a known return on investment. One such area is the US Postal Service. The USPS has the nation's largest fleet (200,000) with an average commute of 16 miles. Electricity and maintenance costs are a fraction of traditional vehicles and their operation benefit from off-peak charging. Cycling electric vehicles into the USPS fleet is one of the smartest ways to move forward with electric vehicles. The environmental, economic, and national security benefits will be immediate and measurable. More importantly, don't study this or create a program. We know where the vehicle routes are. Buy, baby, buy!

2. Appoint a task force with a different focus than proposed in the EVDA. This task force will study and recommend the best ways of deployment without an emphasis on public charging to limited areas. The emphasis will remain with off-peak charging at consumers' homes. Efforts to blanket any area with public charging should be replaced with deployment across the nation. This dispersed approach will let battery advancements, quick charging, and grid intelligence develop. It will not wait for a four or five year government program.

3. Shift funding focus to fair, nationwide, tax incentives. Ensure any federal, electric vehicle, tax incentive, will be available to all Americans.

4. Offer tax incentives and get out of the way of the market. We are on the eve of plugin vehicle deployment. In my opinion, we are beyond an academic, learning exercise or a government program as proposed in the EVDA. $10 billion can create the right economics for electric vehicles to become sustainable. They are faster, quieter, cleaner, and offer a smoother ride. Treating them as another social program to engineer is a mistake that will leave the cause with a black eye.

Lastly, as someone who supports most of the EVDA, wait until those who don't. The oil companies, gas retailers, and others with big pockets will be like Mookie hitting the baseball to Bill. The advocacy of plugin vehicles will be portrayed as elitist, wasteful, and divisive. We will be much wiser to either make the suggested changes to the EVDA or scrap it for better legislation.