Andy Grove pushing conversion of EXISTING vehicles to plug-in hybrids -
This is the first time I have seen this in public print.
One possible conclusion I get from reading this - parts of the US policy establishment are close to pushing the panic button on the oil price issue.
physorg.com
"The most important thing I would like to do is light that almost half-assumed truth up in neon lights: Electricity in transportation has to be done. It is urgent. It is important that everything else is secondary," Grove said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.
"The drumbeat of the electrical transportation is accelerating like nothing I've ever seen in my life," he said.
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While car makers have been developing plug-ins, Grove says the nation should consider ways of retrofitting the 80 million low-mileage pickups, sport utility vehicles and vans on the road to make them capable of running on both gasoline and electric power.
Giving these vehicles "dual fuel" functions would be similar to changes made in other technologies. DVD players, for example, were often combined with VCR tape players when they were first introduced to help consumers make the transition.
To push the technology along, Grove suggests tax incentives to take the risk out of battery development and help offset the costs of conversion kits. Utilities, he says, could subsidize the early adopters of plug-ins by providing free electric power to the vehicles for the first year to 18 months.
"I think it is a legitimate place for the government to fund, to accelerate it," he said.
Automakers have urged the government to provide more consumer tax incentives and research aid to develop advanced batteries, but they have questioned efforts to retrofit the vehicles. |
