Obama’s point man on rechargeable cars helps craft policy

WASHINGTON – David Sandalow starts his five-mile commute each day by unplugging an orange extension cord connecting his Toyota Prius hybrid to an outlet in his brick carport.

His Prius, which was converted two years ago to allow him to recharge the battery from an electric outlet, gets more than 80 miles per gallon and lets him drive 30 miles on a single charge. He fills up his car with gasoline about once every month or two, an oddity in a transportation sector long dominated by the internal combustion engine.

“If you’re thirsty, you can get a Diet Coke or orange juice or water. If you’re hungry you can get a hamburger or hot dog or a fruit plate. If you want to drive someplace, you only have one choice: You can use gasoline or petroleum-based products,” says Sandalow, the Energy Department’s assistant secretary for policy and international affairs. “That doesn’t seem strange to us … but it’s odd. It’s strange that we are utterly dependent on this one fuel source for mobility.”

If American consumers begin to shift to electric cars this decade, Sandalow will be one of the government’s driving forces behind the change. Crafting policy from the vantage point of an electric car driver himself, the former Brookings Institution scholar has helped shape the Obama administration’s ambitious plan to pump billions of dollars into partnerships aimed at developing cars running on electric power, creating an advanced battery industry and helping communities prepare for the transition.

President Barack Obama has pledged to bring 1 million plug-in hybrid electric vehicles to U.S. highways by 2015, and turned to the nascent battery industry as one of the hallmarks of his economic recovery plan. Electric vehicles built by General Motors and Nissan are arriving in showrooms later this year and every major auto manufacturer is working on an electric strategy, encouraged by federal funding and tax incentives.

Plenty of obstacles remain: the lithium-ion batteries expected to power electric vehicles are extremely expensive, even when the costs are reduced by a $7,500-per-vehicle federal tax credit. The government recently estimated that a battery with a 100-mile range costs about $33,000, although federal stimulus funds could bring the costs down to $10,000 by the end of 2015. Other concerns remain about the durability and longevity of the batteries.

Obama pushed a $2.4 billion grant program to develop next-generation batteries, which could lead to 500,000 batteries a year by late 2014. A 2007 energy law, meanwhile, has led to billions in loans for automakers to retool their plants for fuel-efficient vehicles, including electric cars.

Sandalow, 53, served in the State Department and at the National Security Council during the Clinton administration. He was tapped for the Energy Department’s top policy job after studying oil dependence, electric vehicles and climate change at the Brookings Institute.

Sandalow has helped the administration speed the development of electric cars and offer incentives for consumers and communities to begin taking steps to transition off conventional vehicles.

His plug-in Prius differs from the standard Prius hybrid, which is powered by a gasoline engine and an electric motor and typically offers drivers better mileage in slow-speed and stop-and-go driving. Standard hybrids do not allow motorists to recharge a battery by plugging into a standard electrical outlet.

“My children are teenagers. They can scarcely imagine growing up in a world without personal computers, cell phones or GPS devices,” Sandalow said. “I predict that someday one of my children will have one of their children look at them and say, ‘You mean you couldn’t plug in cars when you were young? That’s so weird.’ ”