AutoblogGreen

I would think the letter could have been a little more impressive. How about a petition signed by The People, names of individuals from all of the orgs and celebs? How about carbon copying all of the news outlets? How about calling on everyone to write/ call/ fax the Terminator and CARB? Geeze, with CalCars I'd expect a little more than a paragraph about Nora.

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I meant plug-in America, not Calcars.

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It might make more sense for California to focus on grid-connected EVs a.k.a. railways:

- integration of various privately owned rail corridors into a single network, incl. the service time tables

- phased elimination of level crossings in densely populated areas, addition of noise abatement measures where required

- construction of biomass-fired power plants in the central valley, with CO2 recycling in greenhouses

- overhead electrification of existing rail corridors, with generous stationary energy buffers (superflywheels or ultracaps) serving each segment

- construction of a new statewide high-speed rail network, intended to boost future economic & population growth in the central valley and, to avoid even worse congestion at airports and on the freeways in the Bay Area, LA Basin and San Diego.

- transport of additional electricity from the central valley to stationary users in the Bay Area, LA basin and San Diego via the rail system

- geographic extension of existing regional rail services like BART, especially directly to airports

- secured rolling stock added to selected trains: external doors do not open except at airport station platforms, which are divided into regular and secure sections

- boarding pass kiosk for all airlines serving passengers with electronic tickets, located in secured rolling stock

- security inspection on the train, permitting cleared passengers and their baggage to cross from the regular to the secured rolling stock

- dedication of traffic lanes on selected roads between railway stations and major residential or commercial areas to selected low pollution road vehicles: buses with DPF + urea injection, alt fuel buses, true EVs, electric bicycles etc.

It's this last point that will drive volume demand for true EVs, especially from fleet, taxi and sharecab operators. They can generate sufficient revenue to afford vehicles with adequate power and range and, the associated recharge infrastructure.

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Requiring a certain number of ZEVs be built won't do much good if they are not sold.

I propose an alternative: Require all new car dealers in the state to offer at least one ZEV model for sale to their customers. That way, demand will drive production, rather than government quotas. If the success of Tesla is any indication, the result would be a lot more ZEV cars on the road than a quota would get.

The auto manufacturers could decide if they wanted to produce ZEVs, or get ZEVs from another manufacturer, or let their dealers get their own ZEVs for resale.

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Buy stock in PG&E, they will make a killing on EV's.

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