Electric cars and trucks are the signature of the green movement. They will be the savior of the construction industry! These dandy vehicles are the culmination in the transformation from gasoline only to hybrid gas/electric to full electric transportation. No more noxious fumes from exhaust pipes! These vehicles will fulfill all of our transportation needs – until they need to be recharged. And this is the salvation of the construction industry!
It was recently reported in the Wall Street Journal that the electric cars being tested are not meeting the EPA generated mileage statements (go figure that one!). The actual miles being driven before a recharge are about one-third less that stated by the EPA. In the tests the electric cars were supposed to go 156 miles before needing a recharge. They only went 100 miles in the “real world” driving conditions. Some reports indicate that at highway speeds the range of the electric car is only 60 to 70 miles. Even without this reduction can you imagine the need for the infrastructure to support our new found green?
Imagine just one part of our interstate highway system. Interstate 80, from New York to San Francisco, via Omaha of course, is about 2,900 miles. There would need to be a minimum of 290 recharging stations on this highway. There will be more than this but that is another discussion.
These recharging stations could not be like our modern rest stops with short term parking for cars and trucks and, which by the way, are being closed due to budget constraints. These rest stops will need to become miniature cities. Why? It is because of the recharging needs and the recharge rates on the electric cars.
The electric power required to recharge the cars will require new power plants. If they are to be green they should be nuclear. The new power plants will require a distribution system. This means there will be new transmission lines, substations and recharging stations. These facilities will be a boon to power companies, contractors, subcontractors and suppliers.
The recharging stations must be sized to accommodate the demand from car and truck traffic. In high traffic areas it is not uncommon to have 10,000+ vehicles per hour. In lower traffic areas of this highway 2,000 vehicles per hour would be more reasonable.
If the vehicles use battery packs that can be swapped out, there must be a high number of work bays for cars, trucks and the other vehicles that use the interstate system just to keep the waiting time to a minimum. If a battery swap takes 15 minutes per vehicle then one bay can only accommodate 4 per hour. On the low traffic portions of the interstate this means there must be 500 bays for the minimal turn around time. If a recharge takes 60 minutes per vehicle there will be more than 2,000 bays or recharging stations. Imagine how many will be required on the high traffic areas!
These counts are for each of the 290 recharging stations on the 2,900 miles from New York to San Francisco, not the entire interstate system of 46,900 miles. This will require a large number of employees, tooling and buildings for all weather operations. It is likely this will not be a self service operation because of the electrical shock hazard. This will benefit the unemployed and firms that will specialize in providing these services. As a bare minimum the economy will need more vocational and technical schools to train the large number of people required just for battery changing or charging at each station. This will require more instructors too. Just this part of the interstate system would create 435,000 battery changing/charging jobs (290 stations x 500 bays x 1 person per bay x 3 shifts = 435,000). Think about their support staff too! It could easily be double to triple this number for the total staff at each recharging station. This is a win, win for educational institutions and the entire construction supply chain.
There will be a need for infrastructure development and maintenance of each site. There will be new buildings constructed employee and traveler housing and relaxation. There must be storage and disposal facilities constructed for new and old batteries. The smaller recharging stations could easily require 300 to 500 acres of land just to handle the traffic flows. This will keep attorneys busy for years in eminent domain proceedings! Home builders can benefit with all of the new housing required in close proximity to each recharging station. This will benefit several segments of the construction industry for the balance of the facilities.
So far this only takes into account the service side of being green. What about the user side? Take a typical family of four on the trip from New York to California. Every 100 miles they get to stop, rest, and get refreshed. No more long hours between gas stations with fidgeting kids needing to use the bathroom. They can now stop once an hour with a guaranteed stop time of 15 to 60 minutes, not the 10 minutes every 3 to 4 hours with a gas or diesel engine.
While the vehicle is being serviced the family is not likely to be staying in it, just for safety reasons alone. In the summer it would be too hot and the winter too cold. No more eating of fast food in the car as they drive along. They can relax at the roadside recharging stations restaurant or have a picnic! They can play the license plate game at every station as vehicles are being recharged. Stress levels will go down. Trips will no longer be a marathon to get across the country in 4 or 5 days. It will be a leisurely 10 to 12 day jaunt.
By some accounts travel on the interstate highway system is about one-third of the travel in the USA. Extrapolate the 2,900 miles here (6% of the system) to all of the roads and highways. It is staggering to calculate the resources required to develop and support the electric vehicle. Why not fuel cells? Why not remain with hydro-carbon based power for vehicles and convert all fossil fired power plants to nuclear?
Oh, By the Way… You can make more evaluations and comparison on costs between gas and electric powered vehicles. The information is out there. All you have to do is look. Then you decide if you are being sold a bill of goods or not on electric powered cars and trucks.
