Holden to launch electric vehicle

Car maker Holden has announced it’s preparing to launch a car that it says will revolutionise driving in Australia.

The company says its first electric car, the Holden Volt, is greener and an essential part of lowering the country’s carbon emissions.

But some critics have cast doubts on those claims, suggesting that electric cars are, in effect, coal powered and there are also some concerns about the safety of the car’s battery.

Timothy McDonald reports.

TIMOTHY MCDONALD: Holden’s chairman and managing director Mike Devereux says electric cars are the future and his company wants in.

MIKE DEVEREAUX: The Volt really does make driving much more economical and obviously much more environmentally friendly, but we think it’s going to fundamentally change the way people think about the Holden brand.

TIMOTHY MCDONALD: Many consumers baulk at buying an electric car because of the inconvenience of recharging it and concerns about the range.

Holden has tried to ease these worries by adding a petrol generator, which helps to recharge the car’s battery and extends the range to about 500 kilometres.

Consumers who are willing to pay the extra premium for an electric car hope it will be more environmentally friendly, but critics question whether or not the Volt is as green as the manufacturer says.

Clive Matthew-Wilson is the author of the Dog and Lemon Car Guide and an outspoken critic of electric cars.

CLIVE MATTHEW-WILSON: The Volt is not an electric car it’s a coal-powered car. The amount of pollution you produce burning coal to make electricity to power a car like the vault is worse than if you drove a ordinary petrol car and it’s also less energy efficient.

TIMOTHY MCDONALD: Holden itself says that when it does start to market the Volt there will be options for consumers to package the car with renewable energy sources. Does this go some way to solving the problem?

CLIVE MATTHEW-WILSON: No, not really because I mean you don’t go to a petrol station and say excuse me where did this oil come from? You go and you buy petrol and that’s exactly what the vast majority of consumers will do, they will simply buy the electricity from the cheapest source and the cheapest source is coal powered.

TIMOTHY MCDONALD: But Mike Devereux says that doesn’t have to be the case.

MIKE DEVEREAUX: There will be options that we package with the purchase of the Volt that will allow people the opportunity to choose very, very clean energy inputs to feel good about what they’re putting into the Volt.

TIMOTHY MCDONALD: Ross Blade is the CEO of Blade Electric Vehicles, which sells small electric hatchbacks.

He says at the moment, most of his customers buy electric because they’re concerned about the environment, and so most of them make sure they’re using renewables.

ROSS BLADE: One of the great things about having electric is that the consumer has a choice. With petrol and diesel, that’s all you can put in the vehicle. The thing about electric is you can choose to get green power and that’s great.

TIMOTHY MCDONALD: Would it be fair to say that it would be really a little bit pointless to buy an electric car unless you’re also going to go and get the green energy?

ROSS BLADE: I think it would be worse than pointless. Let’s face it, when you make an electric car, you’re still digging up the ground, you’re still burning 25 barrels of oil to make the jolly thing in the first place – the only benefit is that you can turn around and buy green energy.

If you don’t, you’re better off going out and getting a good quality diesel and running that.

TIMOTHY MCDONALD: In addition to the environmental arguments, there have also been some concerns raised in the US about the car’s battery.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, announced an investigation into why damage to the batteries and their compartments in crash-tested Volts led to at least two subsequent fires.

Mike Devereux says it really only becomes an issue after someone crashes a Volt.

MIKE DEVEREAUX: What is calls out is that the protocols for first responders, for tow trucks, in this new age of electrification – there’s going to need to be protocols that everybody learns in terms of how you deal after a catastrophic incident just like a gas tank.

TIMOTHY MCDONALD: Mike Devereux won’t say how much the Volt will cost. Holden hopes it will be on the market about this time next year.

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2011/s3387306.htm