Electric Vehicles

Ladies and gentlemen, prepare to charge your engines. The state is giving a $1 million jump-start to the fledgling electric vehicle industry, as the Maryland Energy Administration awarded grants Thursday to build at least 64 charging stations in Baltimore and the rest of the state to support a hoped-for influx of battery-powered cars and trucks in the near future. Using federal stimulus funds, the state energy agency awarded a pair of grants to install charging stations at parking garages in Baltimore and at other sites in Maryland, particularly along Interstate 95. A third grant will go toward wiring truck stops in Baltimore, Elkton and Jessup, so truckers won't have to run their diesel engines as much to provide electricity while parked.

Workers peered through safety goggles as they fitted together parts of the electric motors they were building on a General Motors assembly line in White Marsh. For now, the parts are made in a factory in Mexico and then shipped to Baltimore County for assembly. But not for long. By the end of the year, motors for cutting-edge electric vehicles will be built from scratch in a sprawling $244 million plant under construction next to GM's factory, now called General Motors Baltimore Operations.

Baltimore's first public electric-vehicle charging stations debuted Thursday in a Mount Royal parking garage, as places begin to pop up across the Baltimore-Washington area to plug in the new battery-powered cars trickling off automakers' assembly lines. The developers of the Fitzgerald, a recently opened apartment building on Mount Royal Avenue, installed two charging stations in the adjoining 1,245-space parking garage, which is available to the public as well as residents. The University of Baltimore and Lyric Opera House are nearby.

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.

The Chesapeake Consortium -- a business group made up of the local Westinghouse unit, Chrysler Corp., Baltimore Gas & Electric Co. and the state of Maryland -- has been selected to receive a $4 million federal grant for continued work on the development of an electric vehicle.The funding from the U.S. Transportation Department was part of a $10.3 million grant approved yesterday for distribution to three consortia. A business group in California is in line for $4 million; the remaining $2.3 million is earmarked for a New York group.

Toyota and Honda, Japan's No. 1 and No. 3 automakers, said yesterday they will begin marketing electric passenger vehicles in California next year, becoming the first importers to challenge General Motors Corp.'s EV1 coupe unveiled in January.Both the Toyota and Honda vehicles will present stiff competition to the two-seat EV1 because they will be the first mass-produced vehicles to use advanced nickel-metal hydride batteries, which have twice the power of the traditional lead-acid batteries that will power GM's EV1."

Workers peered through safety goggles as they fitted together parts of the electric motors they were building on a General Motors assembly line in White Marsh. For now, the parts are made in a factory in Mexico and then shipped to Baltimore County for assembly. But not for long. By the end of the year, motors for cutting-edge electric vehicles will be built from scratch in a sprawling $244 million plant under construction next to GM's factory, now called General Motors Baltimore Operations.

From zero to 60 in less than 15 seconds.That's the goal that the engineers at the Westinghouse Electronics Systems Group in Linthicum have set for themselves as they seek to boost the performance of electric vehicles and make them commercially viable by the late 1990s.As part of a joint venture announced yesterday with Chrysler Corp., Westinghouse is seeking to put more zip in the performance of electric vehicles, which they hope can reach speeds up to 75 mph. They also want to boost the cars' range to 200 miles between battery charges, about double what today's technology allows.

Chrysler Corp. and the local Westinghouse Electric Corp. division have two new partners -- Baltimore Gas and Electric Co. and the state of Maryland -- in their previously announced plan to develop a commercially viable electric car.The four partners said yesterday that they have joined to form the Chesapeake Consortium to coordinate research, resources and technology to design and develop electric vehicles.The consortium has applied for a $4 million federal grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

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.

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.

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.

An Annapolis company has received an order to produce 1,500 electric-vehicle charging stations to serve the small but growing number and variety of plug-in, battery-powered cars on America's roads. SemaConnect Inc. said Tuesday it would be supplying charging stations to 350Green, a California-based developer of electric vehicle-charging networks that's planning a coast-to-coast rollout of charging stations. "Conveniently located charging stations will play a critical part in the adoption of EVs," SemaConnect founder and president Mahi Reddy said in a statement.

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.

Baltimore's first public electric-vehicle charging stations debuted Thursday in a Mount Royal parking garage, as places begin to pop up across the Baltimore-Washington area to plug in the new battery-powered cars trickling off automakers' assembly lines. The developers of the Fitzgerald, a recently opened apartment building on Mount Royal Avenue, installed two charging stations in the adjoining 1,245-space parking garage, which is available to the public as well as residents. The University of Baltimore and Lyric Opera House are nearby.

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.

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.

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.

Elaine and Bill Phillips already own seven cars, but they may be in the market for another. The Millersville couple came to the 2011 Motor Trend International Auto Show at the Baltimore Convention Center on Saturday to get a look at the Chevrolet Volt, the plug-in electric vehicle recently introduced by General Motors. "We're car people," said Elaine Phillips, adding that she and her husband visit the show every winter and liked what they saw this time. "It's more exciting this year because of all the hybrids and the electric car," she said.