PG&E asks customers to support electric car petition

By Lara Moscrip, Bay City News Service

September 4, 2006

Pacific Gas and Electric Co. is asking its 5.1 million customers to sign an online petition asking automakers to make plug-in hybrid electric vehicles available for mass sale.

The vehicles, dubbed PHEVs or plug-ins, are currently part of PG&E's company fleet. The electric vehicles can be charged overnight by being plugged into a 120-volt standard socket and can operate without any gasoline.

The technology for these cars is here today, but automakers aren't convinced there are enough buyers for them, said Bob Howard, PG&E vice president of gas transmission and distribution.

That's why customers are being asked to go online to log their interest in the cars. A notice included in September's bill directs customers to the site, Howard said.

"The petition basically says, 'If you build it, we will buy it,'" he said.

According to a study commissioned by the California Electric Transportation Coalition, if automakers began making plug-ins within the next few years, 2.5 million of the cars could be on the road by the year 2020.

That's the equivalent of taking as many as 5 million of today's vehicles off the road, according to the report. The addition of the cars would also save 1.14 billion gallons of gasoline each year, the report found.

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