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John Thomas graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry with honors and a minor in mathematics from the University of California at Los Angeles (U.C.L.A.) in 1974. He moved to Tokyo, Japan where he was employed by a medium-sized Japanese securities house. Thomas became fluent in... More
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  • How Will We Charge Up All of Those Electric Cars? 0 comments
    Oct 30, 2009 09:32 AM | about stocks: TM
    That unappreciated source of great investment ideas, National Geographic magazine, has a short piece on the infrastructure that will be needed to support the coming electric car boom in its November issue (click here for the full story at ngm.nationalgeographic.com/). Dozens of different plug-in hybrid and  electric cars are about to hit the market, most of which run out of juice in 40 miles, needing a vast recharging network which doesn’t yet exist. If the main fuse on my house blows whenever my daughter uses her hairdryer, how am I supposed to top up my plug-in Toyota Prius, which will need an eight hour charge? California always lives perilously close to brown outs. What happens when you throw a million electric cars into the mix? The answer will be unique to each family, depending on their own personal transportation needs. Those driving cars from Better Place in the San Francisco area from next year will simply drive though a car wash type facility, where a new battery is swapped while the driver is sipping a fresh latte. Home “smart meters” will take advantage of variable electricity pricing that will charge cars only at night when power is cheaper. The 240 volt outlet that you already have to run your dryer or hot tub will halve the charging time. Gas stations along major interstates will soon start offering hefty 480 volt “quick charge” plugs where a recharge can be had in as little as 20 minutes. Alternative energy naysayers rightly complain that electric car enthusiasts are blind to these complex realities. But in 1908 you had to go to a drug store to buy a one gallon tin of gasoline to power your model T, yet 17 years later there were 25,000 gas stations across the US, and that’s when most had to be built using a horse and wagon.
    Stocks: TM
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