Here’s some data that will—forgive us—shock you. The battery-powered CODA travels up to 120 miles¹ between charges, but research shows that you may seldom go that far. Many of us frequently drive significantly fewer miles at a stretch, which means if you were driving an electric vehicle, you might be hard pressed to notice what you’re paying at the plug. And you’d soon forget all about spending a lot of money for oil.

Studies show that nearly half of all Americans drive 20 miles or less per weekday, and over two-thirds of us drive 20 miles or less on weekend days. A CODA driver trying to figure out those minimal demands on an electricity bill—as we have in the chart below—would come to the conclusion that driving an EV can be nearly as inexpensive as turning on the lights.

Electricity rate based on national average of 11.3 cents per kilowatt hour (2008).

———-

Destination: Work

Distance (roundtrip): 20 miles

Electricity required to recharge CODA: 7.5 kilowatt hours (kWh)

Cost: $0.85

Household equivalent:

Less than the sum of powering your kitchen appliances on a typical day: Refrigerator 5.8 kWh; microwave 1.1 kWh; dishwasher 2.4 kWh (9.3 kWh total)

———-

Destination: Work

Distance (roundtrip): 10 miles

Electricity required to recharge CODA: 3.75 kWh

Cost: $0.42

Household equivalent:

Watching your plasma TV every night for a couple weeks (.336 kWh/day x 14 days = 4.704 kWh)

———-

Destination: Shopping

Distance (roundtrip): 14 miles

Electricity required to recharge CODA: 5.25 kWh

Cost: $0.59

Household equivalent:

Drying one big load of laundry (5kWh)

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Destination: Taking your kids to school

Distance (roundtrip): 12 miles

Electricity required to recharge CODA: 4.5 kWh

Cost: $0.51

Household equivalent:

Working on your computer at home for nearly a week (1.18 kWh/day x 4 days = 4.72 kWh)

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Destination: Friend’s house

Distance (roundtrip): 22 miles

Electricity required to recharge CODA: 8.27 kWh

Cost: $0.93

Household equivalent:

Cooling your house with  an air conditioner for one warm day: :  7.73 kWh

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SOURCES:

—America consuming nearly 19 million barrels daily

http://tonto.eia.doe.gov/country/country_energy_data.cfm?fips=US

—Approximately $3,600 spent annually on gasoline: p. 9, “Electrification Roadmap,” available from the Electrification Coalition:

www.electrificationcoalition.org/

—Statistics indicating that nearly half of all Americans drive 20 miles or less per weekday/nearly three-quarters of us drive 20 miles or less on weekend days: p. 123, “Electrification Roadmap,” available from the Electrification Coalition:

www.electrificationcoalition.org/

—2008 national average electricity rate:

www.eia.doe.gov/energyexplained/index.cfm?page=electricity_factors_affecting_prices

—Destinations and distances based loosely on National Household Travel Survey Summary of Travel Trends (2001); p. 15/table 5:

http://nhts.ornl.gov/2001/pub/STT.pdf

—“Household equivalent” figures: http://www.energysavers.gov/your_home/appliances/index.cfm/mytopic=10040 and www.hardcoreware.net/reviews/review-356-2.htm (for personal computer). Air conditioner data from www.eia.doe.gov/emeu/recs/recs2001/enduse2001/enduse2001.html–although Update: The 2005 stat on average A/C usage in the U.S.: 2,822 kWh/year, or 7.73 kWh/day.

—Other supporting sources:

US Department of Transportation’s Bureau of Transportation Statistics, Omnibus Household Survey (2003): www.bts.gov/publications/omnistats/volume_03_issue_04/html/figure_02.html

Why wait for the perfect solution when a good solution with the room to grow into the perfect solution is already here?

The Reuters story quotes Jared Cohon, the chair of a National Research Council report dubbed “Hidden Costs of Energy: Unpriced Consequences of Energy Production and Use,” as saying, “For electric vehicles to become a major green alternative, the power fuel mix has to move away from coal, or cleaner coal technologies have to be developed.”

We don’t dispute that the use of cleaner technologies is better, but what is missing from Reuters’ assessment is the fact that this ball is already rolling.  In California, for instance, only about 18% of the total electricity system power comes from coal plants and nearly 82% comes from a combination of large hydro, natural gas, nuclear, and renewable sources.  Today, coal-fired plants contribute less than 50% of the Nation’s electric power.

Even if the fuel production process for a gas car versus an electric car (refinement of gasoline and production of electricity) are net neutral in terms of total carbon emissions produced, we think driving an electric car is still a better option.   The total greenhouse gases created from charging and driving a battery electric car are less than those created from fueling and driving a gas engine car because electric motors are inherently much more efficient than internal combustion engines.  You see, the CODA electric motor is about 95% efficient while the typical internal combustion engine is about 20% efficient.   With only 20% efficiency, most of the gasoline burned in an internal combustion engine vehicle is emitted from the tailpipe rather than used as propulsion energy.  Less efficiency means more pollution.

So, while there is room to improve the level of upstream greenhouse gas emissions created when generating electricity, electric vehicles are still the cleaner solution.

On a panel, Chairman of Edison Electric Institute Anthony Earley said, “The beauty of electricity is it’s already there … So we’ve kind of got a jump-start” – meaning it’s not a huge infrastructure overhaul to build charging stations.

But when asked about overloading the grid with too many EVs he said, “The last thing you want is millions of electric vehicles plugged in at 5 o’clock on a hot summer afternoon when the grid is already being taxed.

Mr. Earley may have missed the mark, slightly.  The beauty of electricity is not only that it’s already here, but also that it’s available 24 hours a day.  Electric cars can be charged at your home while you sleep using excess electricity in the grid.  While it’s true that electric cars could significantly tax the grid if many are charged within close proximity in the daytime during peak hours, we don’t think most people will do that.  Lower night time electricity rates will be a big incentive for consumers to charge during off-peak hours (between 11 pm and 4 am), and the development and installation of timed meters, like PG&E’s SmartMeter™ will make this convenient.

In fact, according to a 2007 study done by researchers at the DOE’s Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (which assumed all cars, trucks and SUVs were PHEVs across the country),  84% of the additional electricity demand created by plug-in vehicles could be met with the current grid’s off-peak generation, transmission and distribution capacity.