Two things are needed if natural gas as a vehicle fuel is going to succeed: a) large companies need to convert their fleets; and, b) a natural gas refueling corridor has to be established.
UPS is about to do that. All the way from Los Angeles to Las Vegas to Salt Lake City.
If they have the cash, this could be accomplished in less than a year. All they have to do is put in a natural gas pump at designated service stations already along the route.
But this is what I find most interesting: it was a publicly traded corporation that did this, not the government.
Instead, the administration is still pushing "pie in the sky" high speed rail which will never happen in this country.
Wouldn't it have been an eye-opener had the administration directed that Department of Transportation begin a similar nationwide natural gas refueling initiative along the entire US interstate system? A visionary would have called the nationwide trucking and logistic companies, such as Wal-Mart, into the Oval Office and discussed a grand partnering scheme. But such out-of-the-box thinking cannot occur when one partner is so anti-business. Nor can it be done when one partner is so anti-big oil.
Good for UPS. This should work. Before it's all over, UPS might just get into the energy business. It wouldn't be the first time a corporation has transformed itself.
If UPS follows through on this, this is huge.
Thinking about this, I ran across some articles discussing the impaired performance of batteries in cold climates, while CNG functions well in all climates.
ReplyDeleteIn the development of electric vehicles, I really haven't heard about the problems posed by cold weather. Have I missed something? Considering the size of the population living in cold weather climate, this doesn't seem like a minor issue.
As you can infer from my comments on this blog, the problem I have with all-electric vehicles, is that the "complete" story is not being told.
ReplyDeleteIf overnight, the American consumer wants only electric vehicles, and that's all we build that's fine with me, but consumers are not being made aware of all the issues:
1. Foremost -- coal is still number 1 fuel in this country. 44 percent of electricity comes from coal.
2. Natural gas could replace coal but there seems to be resistance; I'm not sure why. Natural gas is plentiful and cheap.
3. All batteries are less efficient at extreme temperatures. NissanLEAF (http://nissan-leaf.net/2011/01/28/can-electric-vehicles-hold-up-in-cold-weather/) admits as such. In south Texas my battery does not last as long as it did in cooler, coastal southern California. In fact, I think my batteries have had more problems in south Texas than what I experienced in North Dakota, but that's anecdotal.
4. How long does a battery retain its charging capacity after a few years? Replacing your 12-volt battery for a gasoline engine takes minutes. Replacing an all-electric vehicle battery -- has anyone even discussed that. Time and cost? The battery in the EV is an integral part of the chassis to save room. The battery in the EV is a $7,000 line item.
5. Has anyone talked about where batteries will be dumped when cars are at the end of their useful life; wrecked; etc.
6. If everyone in your neighborhood has an EV, the entire electric infrastructure has to be upgrades. Those wires and transformers cannot handle the heat that would be generated by all those vehicles recharging between dusk and dawn.
7. The inconvenience of recharging while on a cross-country trip.
8. Resale vale for an EV with a 3-year-old battery?
The list goes on and on. Again, engineers will work out many of these problems; folks will adjust to some problems that cannot be solved.
The point is that Americans have not been told the basic concerns about EV -- for me, the most interesting that folks do not realize electricity comes from fossil fuel (natural gas and coal) or nuclear.
This is very similar to asking folks who have lived in the center of NYC all their lives where milk comes from.