The Future Role of Electric Land Transportation in The United States

Electrification of land transportation, primarily automobiles, will be important to conserve petroleum before the year 2000. Even with existing battery technology, electric cars would be adequate for significant urban use as second cars, and with advanced batteries they could do much more, bringing about large petroleum savings in cities relying on coal or nuclear electric power, plus modest improvement of air quality. Overall costs of auto operation would be increased, however, and availability of some battery materials is limited.