At Washington Auto Show, carmakers say electricity is the future
By Peter Whoriskey
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Some automakers are using the Washington Auto Show, which opens Wednesday, to proclaim that the electrification of automobiles is just around the corner.
Nissan, meanwhile, is highlighting its Leaf, an electric car that the company says will break out of the tiny niche markets for such cars so far. It is expected to go on sale in December.
"We're serious when we say 'mass market,' " Tracy Woodard, director of Nissan's government affairs, said at one of the show's news conferences.
Inside the industry, it remains an open question whether electric car technology can soon meet consumer expectations of price and convenience. Neither the Volt nor the Leaf has been priced yet, but both cars are getting star treatment at the auto show.
Ford chief executive Alan R. Mulally, who gave a keynote speech at a show preview on Tuesday, said some central issues must be resolved before electrification of the U.S. market moves forward.
Ford is developing fuel-efficient gas engines and some hybrids, and its first fully electric vehicle, a work van known as the Transit Connect, will be available later this year.
When asked what must happen for electrification to proceed, Mulally listed a number of engineering challenges.
"Viable batteries for cars: The size has to come down, they have to work in hot and cold temperatures. We have to get the price down to get widespread use of hybrids or electrics," he said. "The second thing is, as we move to more electrification, what is the infrastructure that supports that?"
In a recent report, the Boston Consulting Group projected that even by 2020, all-electric vehicles such as the Nissan Leaf will make up less than 3 percent of the global market. Electric vehicles that have battery ranges supplemented by gas, such as the Chevy Volt, will also represent less than 3 percent of the market worldwide.
The report cited challenges similar to those noted by Mulally -- the cost of batteries and the requirements of building places where people can plug them in.
Automakers, suppliers, power companies and governments "will need to work together to establish the right conditions for a large, viable electric-vehicle market to emerge," the report said. "The stakes are very high."
