CRI听力:Charge My Electric Car

"This is uh, just like any other car, you operate the throttle....VRROOOOM!!"

This is not exactly like any other car. It's a race car with an electric - not petroleum - powered engine.

Charlie Greenhaus is the project engineer for the Elextric Vehicle Sports Racer

"We've been racing for two years, All of our races have been participating in other people's events. All the vehicles we are racing against are gas powered. They don't even know we're electric.

That is, until it's time to fuel up their car - which needs a special port and a special charging station.

And just as electric vehicles are making a splash in the racing world, more Americans are buying electric vehicles for everyday driving. U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz

"Our latest count is that we have surpassed 400,000 EVs deployed in this country, making us certainly the world's largest market for these cars."

And yet there are more than 253 million gasoline powered cars and trucks on the road in America... And each requires just a few minutes to put petroleum in the tank.

According to Tesla's website - it takes 75 minutes to fully power it's popular luxury cars at one its 591 super charger stations.

The Chevy Volt by General Motors - takes up to 16 hours to fully charge it's battery on a standard 120 volt outlet - common to the American home - or four hours if a special 240 volt charging station is installed.

And the Volt can only go 38 miles on it's electric battery - but the car has a gasoline motor as well.

Pamela Fletcher is an executive vice president for engineering with General Motors. She says installing special charging stations isn't too difficult.

"So the 240 charger is similar to most electric dryers in homes today, so, bringing infrastructure that's already common in residences is really the infrastructure that we recommend."

There are fewer than 12,000 charging stations for electic vehicles around the United States.

In comparison there are around 115,000 gasoline stations - with an average of 8 pumps to fuel up 8 cars at a time.

U.S. Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz says, his agency is looking into ways to expand the numbers for electric charging stations.

"So the idea of how the electric vehicles and the grid can in the future work together as a system is another very very important part of our research."

At the Washington Auto show, electric vehicles of all types - passenger cars to sport utility vehicles - were plugged in all over the convention floor, demonstrating the arrival of the electric-powered vehicle.

General Motors is debuting the BOLT - it's first all electric car. Pamela Fletcher is an executive vice president for engineering with GM:

"Public infrastructure is helpful, but ultimately, getting charging where customers and the cars spend most of their time is where we started that focus."

But the U.S. government also notes,while charging stations are still in short supply,electric vehicles have the advantage of using power that is often renewable - including solar, wind and hydro electric - something that's not true of petroleum from crude oil.

For China Radio International, I'm Priscilla Huff in Washington.