A Million Electric Vehicles on the Road by 2015? Austin Workshop to Examine the Challenges and Opportunities

WASHINGTON (26 January 2011) -- In last night's 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 4 March, 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.

Argonne is the nation's lead research center "for the simulation, validation and laboratory evaluation" of PEVs and "the advanced technologies required for these vehicles."

The new Chevy Volt is scheduled to be at the event, along with personal transportation devices such as electric scooters and bicycles.

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.

Exhibit and sponsorship opportunities are available by contacting Colonel Mason at colonel@prfirm1.com or 214-329-4949. You can follow previews of the workshop on the ScienceNews Radio Network (http://www.promiseoftomorrow.biz/).

IEEE-USA advances the public good and promotes the careers and public policy interests of more than 210,000 engineering, computing and technology professionals who are U.S. members of IEEE. http://www.ieeeusa.org