GM’s Electric Vehicle

* General Motors thinks electric vehicles should not be a future option for California drivers due to the electricity crisis [“Power Crisis Is Weapon in Electric Car Debate,” Jan. 19]. Sorry GM, but even if electricity prices double, an EV is cheaper to drive than a standard car.

How do I know this? I checked General Motors’ own Web site, and I recommend Dennis Minano, GM’s vice president for energy and environmental affairs, do the same.

At https://www.gmev.com/faq/faq-main.htm you can find GM’s data on its own EV, the groundbreaking EV1.

Here’s a quote: “How much does it cost to charge the EV1? . . . Assuming your electricity costs 10 cents per kilowatt-hour, and with a 100-mile trip, energy cost for the lead-acid EV1 is 2.6 cents per mile. Therefore, a 100-mile trip in the EV1 would cost $2.60. In comparison, a gasoline-powered vehicle that gets 22 miles per gallon has an energy cost of 6.82 cents per mile (assuming gasoline costs $1.50 per gallon). For a 100-mile trip in the gasoline-powered vehicle, the energy cost would be $6.82. Using this example, the gasoline-powered vehicle has an energy cost that is nearly three times higher than the EV1.”

My last Edison electric bill shows I’m paying 11.3 cents per kilowatt-hour, and gasoline is a little more than $1.50 per gallon. You can do the math and see that EVs still make a lot of sense.

JIM HOWARD

Cypress

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* Taking a lesson from the utilities, General Motors is trying to pull the wool over California’s eyes by arguing that zero-emission vehicles would unduly tax the state’s power grid.

They ignore the truth about these cars, which recharge at night when demand is low and will be phased in over several years.

They ignore the high cost of gasoline, getting higher with OPEC’s recent 5% production cut.

They ignore the stable and affordable power that major car market Los Angeles enjoys from producing its own power.

They ignore the increasing rates of childhood asthma in places such as San Francisco and Sacramento.

And they ignore their shareholders, who are being left behind as GM competitors Honda and Toyota surge ahead with major research investments in this technology.

DAN ROSAN

Berkeley

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* If the automobile industry had genuine heartfelt concerns about electricity rather than its own profit-mongering interests in mind, it would shift its attention to using alternative energy sources.

Instead, auto companies are just using the energy crisis as a sorry excuse to inch their way out of a mandate intended to benefit the greater good, our planet. How convenient for them.

MONA HANOUNI

Anaheim