EDTA's Brian Wynne: "We don't do well with bans on choices"

Filed under: EV/Plug-in, AutoblogGreen Exclusive, Legislation and Policy, EDTA Conference, USA

EDTA Chief rejects Euro-style interventions for EV market growth

President Obama looks at a Chevy Volt and electric Ford Focus, July 15, 2010

In an exclusive discussion with AutoblogGreen at the 2011 Electric Drive Transportation Association's (EDTA) annual conference this week in Washington, D.C., EDTA president Brian Wynne rejected EV-only mandates as a way to drive the industry forward in the United States. While recognizing that some cities, regions and even the EU community are utilizing both 'carrot' and 'stick' incentives to buy and use electric vehicles (EVs), Wynne rejects measures which would ban fossil fuel vehicle usage in any way.

Wynne believes the EV industry needs to work much harder to expand awareness, and even though he believes the industry is at a transition point, there's a lot of work to be done:

We've got our work cut out to expand awareness and understanding of EVs. It takes so many impressions to get the message through. I don't assume the U.S. public is aware of electric drive, and we're going to need to be at this for a long time. It's going to take years to really get our message through. And although it might work elsewhere, we're not going to see any bans on certain type of vehicles. We just don't do well with bans on choices here.

And it's not just consumers that are slow to get the EV message. The process for permitting and installing Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment (EVSE) is also too slow across many parts of the country according to Wynne. He also believes that although some electric utilities are actively leading the charge, many of the thousands of utilities that operate across the U.S. are apparently happy to fall behind:

Of those 3,000+ utilities, not all of them are at the forefront. Some of the tail-enders appear to be focused just on the business of keeping the lights on.

Continue reading EDTA's Brian Wynne: "We don't do well with bans on choices"...

[Image: AFP/Getty Images - Saul Loeb]

Continue reading EDTA's Brian Wynne: "We don't do well with bans on choices"

EDTA's Brian Wynne: "We don't do well with bans on choices" originally appeared on Autoblog Green on Mon, 25 Apr 2011 10:56:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://green.autoblog.com/2011/04/25/edtas-brian-wynne-we-dont-do-well-with-bans-on-choices/

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