Utilities need upgrades for plug-in cars

Electric vehicle rollout accelerates as automakers unveil EVs, yet grid upgrades, neighborhood transformers, charging infrastructure, lithium-ion battery costs, and common standards remain hurdles, even as Chevrolet Volt and Ford Transit Connect arrive.

Preparing America’s neighborhoods to handle the additional power that electric vehicles are expected to require is among the challenges facing the utility and automotive industries as plug-in electric vehicles are introduced, DTE Energy Chairman Tony Earley said.

Almost every major automaker plans to introduce an electric car over the next three years, even though many questions about the technology remain.

Earley said the nation’s power plants and major power lines are capable of providing adequate electricity to meet the additional demand but the power lines in neighborhoods need to be upgraded.

With most plug-in electric vehicles expected to cost $40,000 or more, “We can pretty much guess what neighborhoods are going to buy these vehicles,” Earley said during a panel discussion on electric vehicles and consumer input in Detroit hosted by Inforum.

“You will see breakers trip and you will see transformers burn out,” Earley said.

In addition to those challenges, panelists from General Motors, Chrysler and Ford acknowledged there are many other issues facing electric cars, including the cost of the lithium-ion batteries and the need for common standards for a plug-in network among automakers.

Still, a consensus emerged that all of those problems can be solved. In fact, after automakers roll out plug-in concepts at recent shows, this year GM plans to introduce the extended-range Chevrolet Volt and Ford Motor plans to introduce an electric Transit Connect commercial van.

“This is an idea whose time has come and, with serious planning for plug-in cars underway, the technology is emerging to match it,” Earley said.

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