Study Says: EV Drivers Coddled, Flex Fuel Cars Discriminated Against

Bertel Schmitt
by Bertel Schmitt

So what is all this talk about flex fuel being shoved down our the throats of our cars, and EVs driving up Xanax sales due to rampant range anxiety? Bloomberg brings us astounding news:

“Public charging stations for electric autos outnumber outlets for alternative motor fuels by almost two to one, even though there are hundreds of times more flex- fuel vehicles than plug-in cars on U.S. roads. “

Bloomies says that the approximately 16,500 highway-worthy electric vehicles in the U.S. have a choice of 4,448 public charging stations, not counting the ones at home or at work. Bloomberg bases this on U.S. Energy Department data.

STATEB20CNGE85ELEC*HYLNGLPGTotalsAlaska01000089Alabama61120401106148Arkansas562011004991Arizona143032411167186California4622458126223342271874Colorado142983301052209Connecticut314039211675Dist. of Columbia2233500042Delaware31100038Florida1514612560071417Georgia251751330057183Hawaii8015010363Iowa30163210021208Idaho98819002973Illinois8262191521071477Indiana4915390051226Kansas6440130038101Kentucky41280004275Louisiana29212002247Massachusetts720445102198Maryland76201480017198Maine310000711Michigan16161213364065558Minnesota32363630038469Missouri49105341068221Mississippi3126003951Montana6220005363North Carolina14221281220063376North Dakota22680101891Nebraska23690001993New Hampshire54015001236New Jersey3224700010109New Mexico610116005386Nevada51123192041101New York24103822149034466Ohio211575351065212Oklahoma6631500056140Oregon261293120032391Pennsylvania82934262069168Rhode Island250200615South Carolina305100822027246South Dakota1010200017120Tennessee446451220074291Texas14355729715490899Utah5724110129122Virginia121114771056171Vermont130810518Washington3215193650067498Wisconsin117141400048247West Virginia013610920Wyoming13850002248Totals By Fuel:631936246844485643256311145

Doing the math, Bloomberg comes to the conclusion that this is one station per 3.7 electric cars. The 7.6 million alcoholic cars, the ones that can run on E85, get a raw deal. They have only 2,468 places to fill up if they want to fulfill their ethanol cravings. If they don’t find a station that serves booze, they have to go on the wagon and drink traditional gasoline.

Nevertheless, says Bloomberg, the Obama administration is pushing for even more charging stations, and puts $230 million of support from the Energy Department and private investment. behind it:

“Ecototality received funds under the federal program to install 14,000 chargers in 18 metropolitan areas in six states and the District of Columbia.”

A flex fuel car will be on the pump for 5 minutes max, but even a quick charge to “top off” an electric car can take two to three hours, leading most drivers to charge at home or work, claims Brett Smith, co-director of manufacturing, engineering and technology at the Center for Automotive Research (CAR). He thinks those public charging stations might get lonely.

Brian Wynne, president of the Electric Drive Transportation Association, on the other hand calls the number of charging stations available today “a good start.”


Bertel Schmitt
Bertel Schmitt

Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.

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  • Fred schumacher Fred schumacher on Dec 12, 2011

    Re: "So it doesn’t take any energy to produce ethanol? Does it wash up on the shores or rain from the sky? It takes 18 gallons of water to produce a gallon of ethanol ..." Actually, it does "rain down from the sky" as sunlight and rain, which the corn plant uses through its efficient C4 photosynthesis process to manufacture carbohydrates, lipids and proteins from atmospheric carbon. It takes about 9 gallons of diesel to till, plant, and harvest an acre, which on average produces 170 bushels of corn, which can be converted into about 500 gallons of ethanol. Modern ethanol plants only use about 3 gallons of water to make a gallon of ethanol. (Corn, at 15% moisture content contains almost a gallon of water within the dry matter.) Much of the water is recycled. The Casselton, North Dakota ethanol plant uses Fargo's treated sewer water for its production, a process that benefits both parties: Fargo gets paid for effluent and Casselton doesn't have to increase the capacity of its city water service. The high protein distillers grains remaining after ethanol processing are fed to livestock and provide 40% of the nutritive value of the original unprocessed corn. Sugarcane is also a C4 photosynthesis pathway grass, like corn. The most basic compound plants make is glucose, the sugar used by our bodies at the cellular level. Plants concatinate glucose into cellulose, a long-chain carbohydrate polymer. Sugarcane, a perennial cousin of big bluestem, a common native prairie grass, stores carbohydrate reserves in its stem as sucrose and fructose, short-chain polymers of glucose. This takes less effort than forming a seed head by an annual plant, like corn. That, combined with the long, tropical, frost-free growing season where sugarcane is able to grow, makes sugarcane a more efficient feedstock for ethanol production than corn. The most efficient way to produce ethanol feedstock with the lowest inputs is, of course, to go the cellulosic route and access the glucose tied up in the vegetative parts of a perennial plant. Field trials at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign have shown that Miscanthus giganteus, an introduced sterile, natural hybrid, can produce four times as much biomass as corn grain, with no fertilizer, tillage, or water input, while at the same time sequestering 4 tons of carbon per acre per year. In biomass production, sterility is a great advantage. One of the advantages of native switchgrass is that phenological sterility can be induced by taking a southern cultivar and moving it north.

    • Fred schumacher Fred schumacher on Dec 12, 2011

      Note: that's one gallon of water contained in one bushel of corn at equilibrium 15% moisture content.

  • Daveainchina Daveainchina on Dec 12, 2011

    @schumacher If what I'm reading about what your saying is right, that would agree with some things I've read. That bio-ethanols at the moment are an inefficient means of producing fuel. That's not to say they will continue to do so, but right now as the system exists, it's not a great method. My understanding is that the industry right now only exists because of government subsidies and isn't viable for greater production yet. Now I could be misinformed on this subject, I'm no expert and I'm not claiming to be one. But I think pushing for EV's at the moment isn't necessarily a bad idea, the Chinese are pushing HARD on this subject. I think one people fail to realize is that the Chinese have probably close to a billion rolling test labs in EV technology. All you have to do is see all the electric bicycles and scooters that exist here. Saw a show in Chinese about the difference in bike EV technology. The battery was about 20% lighter, could go about 15% further and about 5% faster. This was the change from one model year to the next. You don't need cars to develop this technology, you need real world testing and you need proof of engineering concepts and the electric bicycle market in China is providing that in spades. At a very cheap price. One electric bicycle here can be had for less than $400 easily. We as a country need to be pushing harder, we do not have the real world testing trial and error on a massive scale to find problems and solutions. We're going to be behind soon if we aren't careful here.

    • Fred schumacher Fred schumacher on Dec 13, 2011

      The subsidies that farmers presently get for production of "program" crops, such as corn, wheat, and soybeans, are not coupled to final use. Whether that corn goes into a cow, an ethanol plant, a bottle of Coke, or a box of cereal is irrelevant to the base subsidy, which is quite small. The subsidy that ethanol gets goes to the blender, not the farmer. That is, the subsidy targets the fuel distribution, not production, system. Most ethanol plants here in Minnesota are farmer-owned co-operatives. Dividends revert to the farmer owners. Ethanol is value added processing that takes place close to the production area and provides valuable jobs and increased rural income. The industry began without subsidies and is able to continue without subsidies. Subsidy is not what drives the decision making process, as so many urban people believe. The major problem that I see is a lack of systematics in planning for an oil-less future. Development work is taking place all over the map with no coordination and with everyone looking for the magic bullet that will solve all problems. It doesn't exist. Meanwhile, there are people, including many powerful politicians who believe no problem exists and we can continue indefinitely on our present course.

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