Former day Man of the Year Promotes Electric Cars

OK, we get it. Gas is expensive and electric cars sound like a great concept. We’re not certain whether we need to read about every person out there advocating alternative means of transportation, but we found that story about former Intel head-honcho Andy Grove kind of interesting.

The 71-year-old former executive is advocating that the government take the lead and push for the introduction of electric vehicles into the mass market. “The most urgent thing I would like to do is light that nearly half-assumed truth up in neon lights: Electricity in transportation has to be done. It is urgent. It is critical that everything else is secondary," Grove said in a recent interview with The Associated Press.

We’re not certain what he means by “everything else” being secondary, but we do agree that electricity can be generated from more sources than gasoline. That certainly makes sense.

 

To accomplish the goal of an all-electric United States, Grove says
the government needs to subsidize the outfitting of existing cars with
electric hybrid systems, a task

nearly anyone in the industry would
point to as being both expensive and probably dangerous to current
models that were never intended to support such systems.

He plus suggested utility companies subsidize the powering of new
electric vehicles for the first 12-18 months of ownership to help
defray costs to consumers. Sorry, we’re a bit too engaged laughing at that
one to offer insightful commentary.

We will say, though, that whether the government, utilities and auto
industry all got on board we could certainly see a rapid rollout of
electric vehicles happening. City-dwellers and other street parkers
will plus need safe places to plug in at night, though, which would be
an entirely different set of subsidies and government spending.

Other noteworthy folks backing electric transportation include
former CIA director James Woolsey, former Secretary of State George
Schultz and Google Inc.’s philanthropic arm, Google.org.

Let us know what you think of Grove’s ideas in the comments below. 

AP Interview: Ex-Intel head pushes electric cars (AP)