Green Transportation: April 2010

I'm very excited today, as I am going on a research trip to MC Electric Vehicles in Seattle. My main goal today is to meet the people running the business, let them know about my blog, and of course test drive a few vehicles, and check out the build quality, warranty, cost of ownership, etc. In short gather as much data as possible to see if these vehicles are ready for prime-time now, or not.

Alright, so I went and this is what I found. My first impression is that the electric vehicles that I saw were definitely in what I would term the "pioneering" or "early adoption" phase. The most promising electric car I saw was the Wheego Whip [http://wheego.net/]. It is very similar on the outside to the Smart Car that we have all seen cruising around our streets in increasing numbers the last several years. By the way here is the website address for MC Electric Vehicles http://www.mcelectricvehicles.com/.
I hope you go there and check out their entire line up for yourself.

Here is a picture of the Wheego:

I briefly met Steve Mayeda, who is the VP General Sales Manager. He seems very friendly and approachable, and I hope to interview Steve in the coming week, his time permitting.

MC Electric Vehicles has been selling electric vehicles since 2003, and has supplied many to local and state government agencies. I believe their greater challenge is to get the general public to purchase and use the vehicles they deal in.

I believe these vehicles are the advance wave to bridge us away from gasoline powered vehicles. Right now, if people are realistic, you could use your electric vehicle for short weekend trips, and not use gasoline. As the majority of our electricity in the Pacific Northwest comes from hydroelectric power production, the increased use of electric zero-emission vehicles can help to reduce air pollution, as well as oil product run-off polution to our streams and lakes.

The really exciting news, from the Northwest perspective, is that Washington State is one of five states chosen by the Federal government to participate in a 36 month study funded by a $100 million grant from the Department of Energy under the economic recovery program.

More than 2,000 charging stations will be installed mostly in homes, but also in public and commercial areas. This is key both for this study, but also for long-term and near future adoption of all-electric vehicles. Because of the relatively limited range of the first wave of all-electric vehicles, people will buy them and use them if they feel they won't get stranded without power. You can read the entire News Tribune article here:

http://www.thenewstribune.com/2009/10/18/921050/feds-push-electric-cars-in-puget.html

***UPDATE***

Okay, so I made it down to MC Electric Vehicles on Friday the 16th, and took my test drive of the Wheego Whip, courtesy of Ray Carter [Sales]. I must say that I am very impressed. The Wheego Whip is a very solidly constructed vehicle. It feels and drives as solidly as any vehicle I currently drive [Audi A3, Nissan Xterra, & Scion tC]. Ray took me over the basics, especially the safety aspects - how to get the Whip in gear, etc. Having had an all-electric lawn mower a long time ago, when I was a teen, I was prepared, somewhat for the total lack of engine noise or vibration once the Whip was turned on. I was not, however, prepared for the utter ease of use and feeling of power and smoothness that I was presented by the Wheego Whip as my first all-electric, city street driving experience. During our drive around of about 6 miles, Ray had me go uphill on S McClellan Street, from Rainier Avenue South. This is about an 18% [or more] grade, and sort of stair-steps up three levels to the top of the hill. The Whip had absolutely no problem with the hills. In fact it powered right up with no lag or power degradation at all. The version of the Whip I was driving was the 96 volt. This one is good for about 50 - 60 miles between charges depending on the GVW [gross vehicle weight - including passengers and cargo]. We had two men totaling about 550 lbs. During our drive, Ray told me, with a great deal of excitement and pride, that Wheego will be launching a 144 volt version of the Whip this summer or early fall, which will be allowed on the highway [current model is a NEV - neighborhood electric vehicle, which travels at 35 mph after electronic modification - initially they are "governed/restricted" to 25 mph, but they can be reprogrammed to achieve 35+ mph]. It will be able to achieve at least 67 mph, and should have a range between charges of 90 - 100 miles.

One of the major factors in deciding to buy an all-electric vehicle, should be that they don't polute [in Washington State, because of our high-percentage of electricity generated by Hydro Power - we are pretty low-impact GREEN power producers], and your cost per 10,000 miles at current electric rates is about $330 per year. I know some people, driving their gihugitron pickups and Hummer dead dinosaur burning vehicles, are spending that in a month ! Remember, right now you DO NOT pay any sales tax on a purchase of a Wheego Whip or other NEV, AND you do get up to a $2,500 Federal Tax Credit with your purchase of a NEV, through December 31st, 2010.

Another tidbit that Ray passed on to me - he can make some good pricing deals on purchases of 5 or more NEVs. That is the magic quanity point. So, if you're a city, like Bothell, for example, and you want to get a small fleet of electric vehicles, MC Electric Vehicles can make you a deal starting at 5 vehicles ! Of course you'll want to be able to easily charge your vehicles, so Ray also informed me they can procure and install the Coulomb Technologies Electric Vehicle Charging Stations: http://www.coulombtech.com/ [very interesting read about iPhone alerts for charging station locations and free charging bays, charging status updates for your car, manage your billing - if using a non-local charging station, etc.] Here's a good read about how Martinez California became the 5th Bay Area city to install a Coulomb Technolgies charging station array: http://wheego.net/more/2010/04/21/city-of-martinez-becomes-5th-bay-area-city-to-install-coulomb-technologies-electric-vehicle-charging-stations/

Ray even told me that a roof-top solar array will soon be available to top up your battery pack when you aren't near a charging station, during those sunny summer months here in Seattle !

So, now I'll share a few more pictures with you, so you can see some more detail of the interior.
The Whip has a fair amount of space behind the two seats for maybe up to 10 full bags of groceries, or golf clubs, etc. It also has a hatch door set-up, wherein the tailgate is divided in half horizontally, into a window and below that a body panel tailgate. This allows easy access to the Whip storage space even in tight city parallel parking situations ! The Whip also comes with a very good JVC based stereo system, complete with AM/FM CD Radio and MP3 and USB. So without further ado, here are the pics !