Kansas City gets ready for electric vehicles
The electric vehicle is powering out of the auto show "Car of the Future" display and onto American highways and driveways.
Against a backdrop of concerns about greenhouse gas emissions and petroleum supplies, automakers have sold gas-electric hybrid vehicles in greater numbers and now are poised to bring plug-in, all-electric cars and trucks to the masses, beginning later this year.
The two most-hyped products, the Nissan Leaf and the Chevrolet Volt, will go on sale in December in limited markets before going nationwide next year. Other offerings range from the whimsical — the Think City looks like Roger Rabbit will step out at any minute — to the drool-worthy — Tesla Motors’ Roadster has the curves, acceleration and price tag ($100,000-plus) of the best sports cars.
Yet, they don’t sip a drop of gasoline, getting all their energy from an electric cord plugged into an outlet.
If electric cars are to become mainstream, however, those plugs will have to become as readily available as gas stations today.
The Kansas City Plug-In Task Force, an ad hoc group of government leaders, utility representatives and transportation experts, is working on a plan, to be released in the fall, for establishing vehicle recharging stations throughout the metro area, a step they say is necessary to speed up the introduction of the vehicles at local dealerships and encourage the public to buy them.
The task force also wants to boost public knowledge of the potential environmental benefits of going gasless.
"Our main interest is how it may relate to some of the air quality work we’re doing," said task force member Ron Achelpohl, assistant director of transportation at the Mid-America Regional Council, which is doing work for the Environmental Protection Agency on ground-level ozone in the area. "There’s a direct link ... to emissions by looking at electric vehicles, which are just another alternative fuel vehicle for the region."
Read the full story in the Kansas City Business Journal.
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