Range Anxiety…

PT”s Astrid Ambroziak coined the phrase in this months number. Check it out.

This post is about three issues. First the term “Range Anxiety” that was coined on the pages of PT was picked up by non other than the august Wall Street Journal in this article, to wit:

Jonathan Read, chief executive of ECOtality Inc., a maker of charging equipment, recently suffered “range anxiety” while running errands in Phoenix in his new Leaf. The car warned him he had six miles of charge left; he was 12 miles from home.

Second, Matt Feagins, a wag who writes periodically for PT and a consultant at WP Moore,  takes us to task for using a “Volt” in the article as our example rather than a Leaf.  The Volt has a gas engine so “range anxiety’ isn’t as much of a problem, however the “Leaf” is the culprit. I suggest that after all 20 models are on line in a couple of years, the “Leaf” won’t be alone.  Bad Editor, Bad Editor. (I’ve been training Suki the wonder dog)

Third, this little missif — which I have been railing about for months:

Charging equipment is popping up largely because of subsidies. As part of a $5 billion federal program to subsidize development of electric vehicles and battery technology, the U.S. Energy Department over the past two years provided about $130 million for two pilot projects that help pay for chargers at homes, offices and public locations.

A 480-volt “fast” charger, capable of recharging a vehicle in 30 minutes or less, typically costs $40,000, plus installation. The more common commercial 240-volt chargers, like Mr. Wolf’s, can cost $2,000 to $3,000 and take almost eight hours to fully charge a Nissan Leaf, though they offer a meaningful boost in shorter periods.

As the Journal points out.  The market is being led by your tax dollars. Will it catch up? The government says yes, private industry doubts it.

Congrats to Astrid and Kudos to Matt for having and eagle eye.

JVH