Electric Car

Electric wagons powered by heavy batteries quietly zipped through the streets of Baltimore, carrying beer, milk, fruit and other goods from wholesalers to shops and homes. Some delivery companies installed their own charging stations or used a downtown garage maintained by the local utility to charge their wagons overnight. This experimental period in transportation wasn't during the gasoline price shocks of the early 1970s. Try 1911. Electric vehicles would grow to account for about one-quarter of the automobiles in the United States by the 1920s, historians estimate.

Genovation Cars Inc., a Rockville-based company, wants to do what many in the auto industry have failed to do — build a fully electric, battery-powered vehicle that the public embraces. On Thursday, company executives were at the Glenn L. Martin Wind Tunnel on the University of Maryland, College Park campus to show off the aerodynamic properties of the G2, as the car is called, and talk up their project. Genovation has won a $135,000 product development grant from the Maryland Industrial Partnerships, a university program.

Imagine making fewer — or zero — stops at the gas station. Instead, you simply drive home and plug your car into your house to charge up overnight. On top of that, your car emits no air pollution. Within the next decade, such fueling ease could be commonplace. New technology is just breaking into our markets and communities: plug-in electric vehicles. Currently, drivers have two plug-in choices: plug-in hybrids with small gasoline engines to assist the battery, and fully electric vehicles.

William Magruder Waters, a retired Johns Hopkins and Navy electrical engineer and inventor who built his own car and held patents related to radar imaging, died of congestive heart failure Dec. 17 at Renaissance Gardens at Oak Crest Village. He was 86. The son of Methodist missionaries, he was born in Kobe, Japan. He came to the U.S. when his father accepted a ministerial assignment in Roanoke, Va. He later lived in Gambrills, Harmans and Goldsboro, and was a 1943 graduate of Beall High School in Frostburg.

Genovation Cars Inc., a Rockville-based company, wants to do what many in the auto industry have failed to do — build a fully electric, battery-powered vehicle that the public embraces. On Thursday, company executives were at the Glenn L. Martin Wind Tunnel on the University of Maryland, College Park campus to show off the aerodynamic properties of the G2, as the car is called, and talk up their project. Genovation has won a $135,000 product development grant from the Maryland Industrial Partnerships, a university program.

DETROIT -- General Motors Corp. said yesterday that it was reviewing its electric-car development program to determine whether to push ahead with commercial production during the next few years.The GM statement, issued by a spokesman with little elaboration, suggested that the No. 1 automaker, pressed by huge financial losses, could either delay or scale back the project, or seek a partner to help bear the costs.GM would not say whether the subject had been scheduled for discussion at the company's board meeting, which was held yesterday.

Electric car history: 1900: First electric wagon built in Baltimore by the Schaum Automobile and Manufacturing Co. 1906: Baltimore Bargain House, a dry-goods wholesaler, bought an electric truck, the first of its kind used for heavy hauling in the city. It could carry 10,000 pounds with a top speed of 5 mph, and could go 40 miles before needing to be recharged. 1911: Baltimore Gas & Electric Co.'s predecessor bought 10 electric wagons for its use and became a vendor and servicer of electric vehicles.

Maryland's role in the development of an electric car received a push from the General Assembly's approval of $1.25 million in funding to help state defense contractors convert to commercial markets.In addition to pumping $500,000 into a program to develop an electric car, the state budget includes $500,000 for the development of a computerized police car and $250,000 to help leverage federal money used to assist defense contractors in converting to commercial markets.The $250,000 was only a fourth of the $1 million requested by Gov. William Donald Schaefer to help defense contractors cope with a sharply declining military budget.

EVEN PUTTING aside the problem of extension cords, I don't see the new electric car catching on.I know, GM's new EV1 (Eveready 1?) doesn't actually require an electrical outlet. It's battery powered -- like the Energizer bunny or those annoying Duracell battery people of TV commercial fame.But I wonder if that's an improvement.It's hard enough to buy a car as it is. Now, we're looking at a time when, as you're ready to leave the showroom, certain you've been slickered out of everything but your Baltimore Browns boxer shorts, your final question to the salesperson will be: Are batteries included?

In what would be an extraordinary collaboration by Detroit's automakers, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler are discussing jointly building an electric car to meet the requirements of the clean-air law first enacted in California and recently adopted by several Northeastern states, including Maryland.Officials of the companies said yesterday that they were considering the project because of impending deadlines.The state laws require that by the 1998 model year, 2 percent of every auto company's sales be "zero-emission vehicles," presumably electric cars.

Our Maryland state government subsidizes buyers of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles $360 each, on top of the federal subsidy of about $6,000. The customers for this product are mainly the well-to-do. The alleged purpose of this redistribution of wealth is to conserve fuel and reduce harmful emissions. To provide a comparable benefit, at far less expense, to working and middle class Marylanders who cannot, even with subsidies, justify the expense of the exotic vehicles for which the state is investing money developing plug-in power stations at various locations, why not look into free compressed air for all those under-inflated tires?

Howard County unveiled its first electric vehicle charging station last week, a free public plug-in site in Columbia, and officials are considering sites for more. The five-plug charging station, near the county's Thomas Dorset Building, adds Howard County to the growing list of areas across the state where charging stations are popping up. "We chose our location because that's where our building inspectors are. People will be able to use them," said County Executive Ken Ulman.

I am concerned not to have heard or read any discussion of the impact the introduction of electric cars will have on revenues raised from gasoline taxes. How will we be able to meet our commitment to first-class roads whose upkeep depends on revenues raised from taxes on gasoline? Within 10 years there may be a sizable number of electric cars on the road, and they won't be paying taxes on gasoline. Are there any plans to address to this loss of revenue? Electrically powered cars will be using our roads, but they won't be paying for the privilege.

One could think of the two electric vehicle charging stations on the Catonsville campus of the Community College of Baltimore County as points in a widening state-, region- and nation-wide grid. But tucked away in a fenced-in storage lot behind the school's automotive department, they don't get much use. Though available to the public, their presence has not been widely advertised. Most of their use comes in charging a low-speed car and a high-speed car owned by the college and used to train future technicians on electric vehicles.

One could think of the electric vehicle charging station at Westminster's College Square shopping center as a single point in a widening state-, region- and nation-wide grid. The two plug-in devices, installed in January, have had very little use so far - literally just a few charges. But advocates of the electric vehicle market believe that will change. "The (two) charging stations are part of our overall sustainability and efficiency initiative," said Garrett Giusti, of Owings Mills-based Black Oak Associates, which owns and developed College Square.

Shoppers in Baltimore County have another choice for organic food. MOM’s Organic Market, a chain of stores specializing in locally-raised meat and 100 percent organic produce, opened a 14,000-square-foot store last weekend in the Yorkridge Shopping Center on W. Ridgley Road in Timonium. It will be the the grocer's largest store in Maryland and the first in the Baltimore area. MOM's carries organically grown fruit and vegetables, antibiotic and hormone-free meat, sustainable seafood and fresh bread.

DETROIT -- Nissan Motor Corp. said yesterday that it had developed an electric car that can be fully recharged in 15 minutes, a significant improvement over electric car batteries announced to date.But industry experts say the Japanese automaker's latest entry in the race to develop electric cars faces numerous technical hurdles before the battery in the vehicle could be sold widely.Nissan's FEV, or Future Electric Vehicle, would be powered by a nickel-cadmium battery that could be 40 percent recharged in six minutes, but recharging would require a special, high-energy power source, not a normal electric outlet.

WASHINGTON -- The Energy Department and an engineering firm plan to announce today that they have produced electricity from gasoline through a method that yields twice as much useful energy per gallon as a car engine does, and with pollution 90 percent lower.The development raises the prospect of an electric car, still quiet, swift and clean, but without the problem of heavy batteries that must be recharged often.Instead, such a car would be refilled with energy in minutes from the pump at the corner gasoline station and get twice the gas mileage of a comparable car with an internal combustion engine.

Cheryl Jensen's article ("Electric cars: Are we there yet?" April 19) paints a good picture of the electric car revolution, but unfortunately, like most other reviewers, she is looking through oil-soaked glasses. Many of the article's comparisons seem to make sense, but are skewed from the gas car legacy perspective. Comparing an electric vehicle (EV) to a gas car is often an apples to oranges proposition. For example, the JD Power and Associates spokesman laments that there are only 1,000 public charging stations compared to 160,000 gas stations across the country.

Electric car history: 1900: First electric wagon built in Baltimore by the Schaum Automobile and Manufacturing Co. 1906: Baltimore Bargain House, a dry-goods wholesaler, bought an electric truck, the first of its kind used for heavy hauling in the city. It could carry 10,000 pounds with a top speed of 5 mph, and could go 40 miles before needing to be recharged. 1911: Baltimore Gas & Electric Co.'s predecessor bought 10 electric wagons for its use and became a vendor and servicer of electric vehicles.