Guide names mass e-car adoption potholes

Leccy Tech A US-based pro leccy vehicle organisation has recommended that 25 per cent of the country’s new car sales be for battery-electric or plug-in hybrid cars by the year 2020.

The Electrification Coalition – described as a not-for-profit body “committed to promoting policies and actions that will facilitate the deployment of electric vehicles on a mass scale” – also wants leccy cars to account for 90 per cent of all car sales in North America by the year 2030.

Seventy five per cent of all vehicle miles travelled in the US should then be electrically powered by the year 2040, the Electrification Coalition added.

Members of the Coalition include Nissan’s Chairman - Carlos Ghosn, who last week launched the Leaf e-car Stateside. Kevin Czinger of Coda Automotive, FedEx Chairman Frederick Smith and David Vieau of battery manufacturer A123 Systems each also count themselves as Coalition members.

To help achieve its targets, the Electrification Coalition has released an “Electrification Roadmap” that considers many of the challenges facing mass electric vehicle adoption.

Potential potholes supposedly include battery development, the global lithium supply and infrastructure development, the roadmap –which treats all challenges as surmountable, of course - states.

One area the roadmap doesn't touch on, though, is the issue of carbon dioxide emissions – the inevitable result of generating all that electricity used to power expanding numbers of leccy cars.

The Electrification Coalition’s roadmap can be read in full online. ®