A Million Electric Vehicles on the Road by 2015?

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." But talk is cheap.

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 4th, 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.

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.