By Joseph Szczesny
Of The Oakland Press

Critics of electric vehicles maintain the technology is too expensive and too limited to ever make EVs as practical as vehicles using petroleum products for fuel.

Up to a point, the critics are correct. And the oil industry, with loyal allies in the news, media has artfully played on the concerns about alternative energy. But the huge and unchecked spill of oil in the Gulf of Mexico by British Petroleum underscores “Drill Baby Drill” was certainly a clever slogan, but never a practical solution to the U.S. energy woes, starting with the overwhelming dependence on imported oil.

The idea the oil industry, which is heavily subsidized by the U.S. government through tax breaks and cheap mineral leases, could find enough petroleum in our own backyard to meet everyday needs is limited by technology and cost. The oil barons also have been able to use their enormous political clout to push for special benefits — or bailouts — whenever they have needed them in the past.

Nevertheless,  disaster in the Gulf is bound to drive up the cost of recovering oil under the weight of tighter state and federal regulations, as well as significantly higher insurance costs.

Battery electric vehicles also face technical and cost challenges. But while government subsidies for oil are going up, the subsidies for batteries are destined to fall.

Everyone in the car business understands vehicles need batteries with more range.

The technology behind battery and plug-in electric vehicles is in better shape than the science and engineering behind drilling for oil on the ocean floor on which the “Drill Baby Drill” idea rested. In fact, the steady work of automotive engineers, including many based right here in Detroit, has led to tremendous advances in developing the technology required to make electric and hybrid vehicles viable.

 Over the last decade, I’ve driven dozens of different electric and hybrid vehicles, and the progress has been considerable. By and large, electric vehicles can do anything a vehicle fueled with gasoline can do, and then some.

For example, I recently drove the all-electric Tesla, which produced great power and performance and was actually faster from zero than sports cars with a gasoline engine.

The idea that electric cars are somehow pokey little upgrades of the standard golf carts simply isn’t true, regardless of what people might claim on talk radio.

Automotive engineers have spent 20 years patiently improving the technology required to make electric vehicles possible and their work is just now beginning to pay dividends.

Cost remains an issue, but the perspective is beginning to shift as electric vehicles are proving more durable and easier to maintain as they enter commercial fleets of companies such as Federal Express.

Not that there aren’t skeptics. Executives at Honda recently said they have some serious doubts about the business case for electric vehicles. However, much of the skepticism about EVs inside the automobile business is dying away as manufacturers maneuver to make sure they are not left behind  by what experts have described as the largest technological change in the car business since Henry Ford installed the first moving assembly line.

“Petroleum has been the primary fuel for the automotive industry for more than 100 years. However, there are some big challenges to its continued predominance. Globally, more than 35 percent of today’s energy needs are met with petroleum. Meanwhile, overall energy demand is steadily increasing by about 2 percent per year. As a result, oil consumption is rapidly outstripping supply — largely because 96 percent of today’s vehicles remain dependent on petroleum,” General Motors Corp. noted recently on its media website.

“For the automotive industry, this means there is still not a sustainable energy model. The industry requires a solution for reducing greenhouse gases and its dependence on oil,” it said.

“GM recognizes these issues and is working to dramatically improve the efficiency of conventional internal combustion engines and transmissions while ultimately reducing tailpipe emissions to zero. But that’s not enough. GM also recognizes the need to displace petroleum by diversifying energy sources used to fuel vehicles,”  the website noted.

Contact staff writer Joseph Szczesny at 248-745-4650 or joe.szczesny@oakpress.com.

www.theoaklandpress.com/