Comments on: Shai Agassi Wants $100b of Your Taxes for EV Recharge Stations

By: doug

doug — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 18:17:51 +0000

I agree with the sentiments of Andy D and Jon Paul. I don’t think it makes sense to put a bunch of money in a nation wide charging infrastructure right now. Much of it would be sitting around until people have electric cars. I don’t think it’s a chicken and egg problem, though. The early adopters of EVs will be people that are able to charge at home and/or work. As we get more EVs on the road more business and cities will add charging stations to their parking. Might make sense to have a standard charging connector, though.

Of course, PBP is a different model than what I’ve outlined. Agassi’s plan involves leasing the battery pack to the car owners (since the battery is currently so expensive) and setting up this charging infrastructure as a way of effecting change more quickly. But right now, I think that only makes sense in smaller isolated places like Israel or Hawaii.

And if those mats recharge your EV in ten seconds, why do you need a car wash-style battery swap stations?

As usual RF is befuddled by the concept of charging. I think most people are able to understand that this video is a cartoon and that actual charging might take a few hours.

By: jkross22

jkross22 — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 16:06:27 +0000

This reminds me of the temerity sports team owners have of “asking” the citizens of host cities to pay for or subsidize new stadiums. I’d be all for it if those teams shared in the profit with the city and reduced taxes.

Instead, they argue that building new stadiums brings great jobs, like baristas, beer servers and hot dog warmers.

By: ra_pro

ra_pro — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:51:50 +0000

My take on it is that this sounds too good to be true. 100B in 13 trillion dollar economy spread over many years is not that much, in fact it’s probably a fraction of the actual cost.

By: joeaverage

joeaverage — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 14:42:47 +0000

Just let fuel prices continue to climb and thing swill sort themselves out. I want an EV and figure that after people have them we’ll see charge stations at shopping areas and office buildings. We’ll start seeing charge stations that look like parking meters which bill your credit card and charges while you work.

Only later will we see charge stations that function like gas stations. I have no interest traveling long distances in an EV right now. Give us EV commuter cars and let the tech mature a little.

Its a chicken vs the egg situation.

FWIW the highways went silent at night around our house back in June. Used to be that the trucks could be heard 6 nights week. Back in June it dropped to four nights a week. Now it is back up to about 5 nights a week. I like to think that this is b/c either spending at the big boxes has gone back up, exports are up, or trucking companies are finding new efficiencies. Anybody got some insight?

By: Robstar

Robstar — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:07:44 +0000

No more taxes! Chicago sales tax is OVER 10% now!

By: Jon Paul

Jon Paul — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 13:07:39 +0000

At this point, I think I would prefer that our government stop subsidizing the automobile and fix mass transit instead. We should be shipping far more goods via rail rather than truck, we should have high-speed passenger rail, and the ability to live in a large city without needing a car.

By: Andy D

Andy D — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:19:31 +0000

uhhmn, wabbout holding off until there are a few more plug ins running around? I dont think this is gonna be a “if you build it, they will come” scenario.

By: Frank Williams

Frank Williams — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:08:28 +0000

So building the infrastructure will create “American jobs?” What part of those billions will go to Chinese, Indian, Korean and Japanese companies for the technology and components to build it?

And once the infrastructure is constructed, what does he suggest all those thousands of people hired to build it do for jobs?

PLUS, how does he suggest we handle the unemployment that would be caused by shutting down the refineries and associated distribution infrastructure that would result from this massive switch to EVs? And how would he recommend we replace the revenue from various fuel taxes?

He really needs to temper his starry-eyed idealism with a healthy does of reality.