Battery Buggies Are Back

During the early days of automotion, battery-powered cars were the rage: in 1900, fully a third of the autos in New York City, Boston and Chicago ran on electricity. Now, in the era of the oil crisis, the electric auto has started to return, on drawing boards and occasionally on the road, moving slowly but polluting not at all. The Postal Service operates 380 electric Jeeps, and at least ten U.S. firms produce electrics for adventuresome customers. But electric cars are a long way from mass production. Who wants a car that cannot go far?

Plenty of Americans might, figures the Department of Energy. This week Secretary James Schlesinger plans to start a program designed to move some electric cars out into the marketplace.

The department will select ten to 15 firms, probably auto-repair services, and subsidize their purchase of electric cars. Over the next three years, these companies will buy 2,500 electrics and possibly some hybrids (which switch over to gasoline engines for high-speed, long-distance driving). The cars should cost from $3,000 to $7,000, of which the Government will pay perhaps $1,000. The selected firms--there are already 49 applicants --will sell or lease the cars to the public at discount prices. Drivers will register their impressions with the dealers, who will service the cars and report to DOE. The cars will have to meet several specifications: 1) a maximum speed of 55 m.p.h.; 2) acceleration to 31 m.p.h. within twelve seconds; 3) a 31-mile range (125 miles for hybrids) on a single battery charge; 4) compliance with all federal safety standards for cars.

Beyond that, the Government has stepped up its annual research budget for electrics from $200,000 in the early 1970s to $35 million proposed for fiscal 1979, mostly to search for low-cost, lightweight, long-range batteries. All DOE will predict is that "there will be a significant number" of electrics around by the year 2000. Fill 'er up, sir? Naw, plug it again, Sam.

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