Electric Cars, Electric Companies

General Motors announced today that in a few months its much talked about electric car, the Volt will be in dealer lots. The car is set to cost about $41,000 to start, but according to a clip from National Public Radio , a fully loaded Volt will set a person back about $45,000. While it's not clear how many of the Chevy dealers in Virginia will carry the Volt, but the Washington, DC-area which includes Northern Virginia is expected to have inventory.

The Volt is the American electric car, but the Japanese manufacturer, Nissan, also has

an electric car, the Leaf.

I don't know which name is sillier, the Volt or the Leaf. Both are attempts by marketing types to describe their cars, but neither has me singing their praises.

That said, both cars and the ones that hopefully will follow are a big step toward the greenhouse gas emissions from cars. Or is it. Demonstration cars are being delivered to area power companies, Dominion and Pepco, according to a GM press release.

Remember, the Leaf and the Volt run on electricity and most of the electricity from Dominion or Pepco is created from the burning of fossil fuels, especially coal.

While the experts are saying that owners of electric cars are likely to recharge during the night when power costs are cheapest, electric utilities in the long run will do pretty well if the electric car catches on.

In fact, electric utilities are doing pretty well right now, according to an article in Forbes. The overall stock market has been either in the tank or down for most of 2010, yet utilities have done remarkably well.

Here are some of the earnings numbers for our local power companies.

Dominion Power won't release earnings for a couple of days if their schedule holds, but in the first quarter ended March 31, the company earned $174 million, or 96 cents per share, higher than what the smart Wall Street analysts had anticipated.

American Electric Power also won't release earning for a few days. It's first quarter results were $365 million or 76 cents per share. American had some MBA-type issues in the period, and thus had lower earnings, although its revenue was higher.