GM, utilities study electric cars’ impact

Published: July 22, 2008, 8:11 pm

General Motors Corp. has joined with more than 30 utility companies across the U.S. to help work out electricity issues that will crop up when it rolls out new electric vehicles in a little more than two years.The Detroit automaker said the partnership, which includes the Electric Power Research Institute and large utilities such as Southern California Edison and Duke Energy, will deal with issues from tax incentives for the vehicles to where and when they can be plugged in for recharging.GM is working to bring the Chevrolet Volt rechargeable car to showrooms in late 2010. It’s being designed to run on an electric motor powered by lithium-ion batteries. When fully charged, it will be able to go 40 miles on battery power. For longer trips, a small internal combustion engine will recharge the batteries to keep the Volt moving.“This vehicle is real. It’s coming into production,” GM engineer Britta Gross said.The consortium will work on everything from policy

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