Alternatives to alternatives
Re “We need Voltswagens,” Opinion, Nov. 19
Sherry Boschert omitted the critical flaw of plug-in electric vehicles: The energy to charge the batteries must come from sources typically dirtier than burning gasoline in an internal combustion engine. Much electric power generated in this country comes from coal. Failure to consider the damage done by additional coal burning is naive. If we gain the additional energy by building nuclear power plants, the issue of nuclear waste must be addressed.
A better approach would be to replace gasoline engines with clean-burning and more efficient diesel power plants, and use a hybrid gas-electric system in every vehicle. That would dramatically reduce petroleum usage for transportation and make a positive impact on global warming and the U.S. balance of payments.
Thomas Oatway
Valencia
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As the driver of a production electric car, I am constantly approached by people who want to learn more about my car and where they can get one. When I respond, “You can’t,” they walk away shaking their heads. If the auto companies could respond to the California Air Resources Board with viable vehicles many years ago, why does the board resist them today? Because the board is willing to accept the almost-but-not-quite possibility of hydrogen over proven, available battery electric vehicles in its portfolio of solutions.
Kevin L.E. Landel
Cardiff
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Total turnover to alternative vehicles is not going to happen in the near future. If tomorrow all new cars were alternatively powered, the marketplace and people’s financial ability to purchase new vehicles would still dictate a time span of decades before the turnover is complete. Global warming, however, is not listening to the marketplace or finance; it is proceeding at its own steady pace, and will continue unless there are changes.
What is needed is a hybrid driving sensibility: Drive as little as possible and start taking mass transportation.
Matthew Hetz
Los Angeles
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Boschert’s diatribe against California’s visionary support of hydrogen fuel cells (refuelable batteries) mischaracterizes events to suit her conspiracy thesis. The most disingenuous example was to flatly say that fuel cell developer Ballard Power Systems “bailed out after pouring millions of dollars into fuel cell vehicles.” In fact, Ballard received value equivalent to $168 million cash and retains nearly 20% of the new company that will leverage the marketing and engineering expertise of Ford and Daimler. Ballard is infusing the joint venture with an additional $60 million and continues its own manufacturing to meet a strong and growing global demand for the larger public transit and stationary fuel cell engines it has developed. Boschert has fallen victim to her own delusional hype, and it now becomes difficult for the unwary to differentiate between her sophistry and her subject, making her article, as well as her book, “Plug-In Hybrids: The Cars that Will Recharge America,” puzzling footnotes in the real story of the ongoing development of the electric car.
Richard D. Masters
Independence, Calif.
