A Million Electric Vehicles On The Road By 2015?

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In the recent State of the Union address, President Barack Obama called for the United States to "... become the first country to have a million electric vehicles on the road by 2015." The IEEE-USA Electric Vehicles & Personal Transportation Workshop will explore the challenges and opportunities to make that vision a reality.

The all-day event, at the Renaissance Austin (Texas) Hotel on Friday, March 4, will feature eight panels and more than 20 technology, industry, academic, and policy experts.

Workshop focus areas include the electric vehicle market; charging infrastructure; plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs) and the electricity business; customer acceptance; managing PEV loads; electric vehicle policy issues; PEVs and the electric grid; and personal electric transportation.

The keynote speakers are David Strickland, Administrator, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the federal agency charged with electric vehicle implementation; and Karl Rabago, Vice President for Distributed Energy Services at Austin Energy.

Dr. John Goodenough, a Professor in the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering at the University of Texas, will lead a panel of battery researchers. He developed the cathode materials for the lithium-ion batteries that are used in electric and hybrid-electric vehicles.

Goodenough will be joined by Joe Redfield, Manager of the Advanced Vehicle Technology Section in the Engine, Emissions and Vehicle Research Division at Southwest Research Institute; and Dr. Don Hillebrand, Director of the Center for Transportation Research at Argonne National Laboratory.

The cost for the workshop, which includes a buffet breakfast, lunch, coffee breaks and a post-event reception, is $150 for IEEE members and $175 for nonmembers. For more information and to register, see http://www.ieeeusa.org/calendar/workshops/EVPT/default.asp.