THE ELECTRIC CAR UNPLUGGED

By Joe Duarte, Autonet.ca - During the Vancouver Olympics, General Motors took the time to schedule groups to test drive its Chevrolet Volt extended-range electric car, cycling thousands of people from high-school students to special-interest-group representatives through the car, one hour at a time.

Then came the announcement in the Toronto area that the Atmospheric Fund's Fleetwise program was launching a 300-electric-vehicle fleet in the GTA. There are probably more electric vehicles ready for the road than most people might know and more are driving into the stream every day - we already have the Mitsubishi, iMiEV, Mini E, Smart and Zenn, with the Prius Plug-in, Nissan Leaf and Volt not too far away. And I won't even touch on all the electric versions of European and Japanese cars that have been available for years.

Yet it will still be years, if not decades, before we see the widespread use of electric cars, despite what "visionaries" such as Al Gore, David Suzuki and Carlos Ghosn would have us believe.

The problem is not the vehicles - those can be built and distributed quite quickly and effectively, probably in the standard auto-industry six-week cycle.

The problem is the infrastructure. We just don't have anybody stepping up to build enough charging stations for electric vehicles to replace the internal combustion engine, mainly because nobody knows what the charge for electricity at the retail level.

Think about it - if you had a source of gasoline at home whereby you could top up your car whenever you needed it, at a fraction of the cost at the retail pump, would you still visit Esso or Petrocan? So what would lead service stations to believe it would be a viable business venture to install quick-chargers that would require consumers to pay considerably more than they would by plugging in at home overnight?

And even the trickle-charge capabilities of parking venues that are becoming popular in Germany and Israel are meeting with apathy here.

There are too many questions left unanswered for the viability of electric vehicles in Canada, primarily when it comes to wintry climates - nobody really knows what impact the cold temperatures and necessary accessories will have on the electric car.

Even GM's Bob Lutz, a big supporter of the Chevy Volt, admits that in the dead of winter in the prairies, Volt will likely be no more economical than a compact car with a 1.4-litre engine ... and frankly, we have a lot of those already at a cost far more reasonable than any electric variation.