All Electric Cars - Solution or Fad?

Mitsubishi, Nissan and Suburu are rolling out all-electrics cars which are currently being tested in Japan. Not much more than “boxes with a battery” these cars are going to cost about US $48,000 and run for about a penny mile vs gas powered vehicles which cost about 10 cents a mile.

Think cost is going to hold sales back? Think again, there is a waiting list in Japan as auto companies ramp up production. Government incentives and mass production will drive the cost down over time and it will not be long before you will be considering a all electric car for your city commute.

This move to electric cars augurs well for electrical power companies and distributors. I suspect that  a remake and upgrade of the ageing electrical grid across North America and around he world is going to offer some interesting investment opportunities.

Here in British Columbia and next door province of Alberta it is estimated that it will cost 4-6 billion dollars in terms up electrical grid upgrading to meet demand over the next 10 to 15 years. All-electric cars will only accelerate this demand for electricity. Until more nuclear power plants come online coal and natural gas are the inputs of choice for power generation.

Stocks of interest in Canada include Atco, Canadian Utilities, Fortis and Transalta and in the USA Florida Light and Power along with AES Inc.

See full article on all-electric cars in this weeks Time Magazine.

This entry was posted on 6. June 2009 at 15:13 and is filed under Economics. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site.