The Opportunity in Autos

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The program doesn't stop with the cars. An electric fleet shifts the burden of power generation from gasoline to the electricity grid. Much of this power could be made available for free—provided cars are charged at off-peak times when power is otherwise simply grounded and wasted. The grid should evolve to take on solar, wind and other clean methods of generation. Even dirty generation is easier to cleanup centrally than in millions of individual vehicles. Liquid hydrogen and fuel cells might be developed for future vehicles.

How exactly do we translate money into viable product innovation? There's the Stick, the Carrot and the Seed. Seeds include ventures to create innovation. Rather than assembling the nation's best scientists under government command, a la the Manhattan project, it would be better to invest a sliver of the bailout money—no more than a few percent—in venture-capital-like fashion to fund research into batteries and alterative-vehicles technology.

Carrots can be legislated to help bootstrap these new technologies. For example, Washington could mandate that the federal fleet of cars becomes electric or sustainable. A tax subsidy for purchasers, both individuals and fleet buyers, of new sustainable U.S. vehicles is another possibility.

Sticks are tough in a poor economy but nonetheless often effective. They should include stringent emissions standards and other regulations to encourage alternative vehicles; taxes on gasoline and fossil vehicles; reduction and perhaps elimination of petroleum subsidies and depletion allowances, which presently subsidize otherwise uneconomic extraction of our remaining precious natural resources.

We are already very close. In the mid-1990s, when GM experimented with its EV1 electric car, Californians loved them. Alas, GM wasted that opportunity. Now, the United States is prepared to spend $100 billion on a grand technology enterprise. Wisely used, a bailout could be a golden opportunity.

Addison Fischer is founder of Verisign Inc. He is on the board of the Jane Goodall Institute, is co-owner of Duquesne Capital Management and is chairman of Planet Heritage Foundation.

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Posted By: memo2 @ 05/19/2009 8:27:48 AM

There is no right thing this is just another part to make the greed keep on business they think I willing to give-up my car for these junk's I don't think so, let me ask you were you see any new places were these cars will be repaired or the new technicians will be only be the dealer ? when do we know people are learning to promote a new car like this,or just put them at the dilership and buy it just like that ? do you know the safety on these small cars ? and other thing all the same pretty nice I do believe the only dilership will survive in this economy will be Ford Motors and I never buy any Ford in my life on the past I have Mersedes and the repair cost you big time as BMW, and others like that good cars good cuality but the thechnicians pretty expensive so be the one to buy one of these cars and when you get on the highway you see , just try !.....
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Posted By: tired and old @ 05/18/2009 9:31:44 PM

Puting the bailout money into producing an electric car makes sense; so why would congress suddenly do the right thing ?

Government waste is what congress represents.

Doing the wrong thing at tax payer expense is the congressional way of life.
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Posted By: tdn0024 @ 05/13/2009 2:54:29 PM

Changing stations? It better work like Nascar. With instant pit stops at traffic lights.

GM is spending $10k per car for it's 40 mile battery. People won't want to change batteries every 10 miles, or even everyday. So they are going to have to have $10k of batteries.

Battery improvement? Come on. Industry has had huge incentives to make tighter batteries for cell phones and computers. Even the genius's at Sony burnt their fingers on this when theír battery efforts blew up on some computer owners.

Ya know, gold is just one proton away from lead. Alchemy has been tried for 2,000 years, but nature won't yield. Anyone who's ever watched lighteing race across the sky has got to wonder just how much electric power will fit in a fixed space. In a battery.

This article is horrible. They get liberal arts majors at Time or the NYT to write this stuff, as if it were a human interest story. This is the kind of stuff that gets laughed at 20 years later, when on big change has occurred.

It is an invitation for Obama to fail as Carter did. Better start thinking about how to get around, or at least minimize, the battery. And that is doable. Then electric cars can work. Full blown, big cars, running electric. If you count on the battery for more than about 5 miles, your out of luck on cost. And no innovation is likely to change that.