Austin360 blogs > Austin Movie Blog > Archives > 2006 > July > 25 > Entry
‘Electric Car’ warm-up
Local fans of electric cars are not only environmentally conscious, they’re very nice. Ahead of the opening of “Who Killed the Electric Car?” this weekend and the electric vehicle rally at the Arbor this weekend, we’ve been getting schooled on the topic by some Austin experts.
Here’s our e-mail Q&A with Aaron Choate, the vice president of PR for the Austin Area Electric Vehicle Association. (That’s his car pictured above):
Can you tell me a little more about the cars that will be on display at the Arbor?
We don’t have the final list yet and some will come and go, but over the course of the two days we will be out there you can expect to see; an MR-2 conversion (Saturday only), a Kharman Ghia, a Geo Metro, a Toyota Prius with a modification installed that enables its EV only mode, an Escape Hybrid, an electric Ford Ranger, a GEM electric Neighborhood Electric Vehicle, a 1961 Henney Kilowatt and an electric scooter or two. There may be other vehicles that come and go as members have the time to bring them up as well.
How many electric cars would you estimate there are in Austin? And how many people do you get at your club meetings?
Honestly. I am not sure. The above are the ones that are owned by active members of the group that we see coming to events and to the open garages. A good deal of discussion about projects happens via an internet list which has over 100 members.
How can someone get involved in your group? When is your next meeting?
The easiest way is for somebody to join our email discussion list. They can find information about it here.
The next membership meeting will be Sept. 9. We also have something we call an open garage, which is an opportunity to go to a member’s house and help out on a vehicle conversion. That is often a weekly event. We also try and do a fair amount of showing the cars. The next event we are trying to be at will be the Renewable Energy Roundup in Fredericksburg in late September. We post information about all of this on our site and to the list.
Getting involved is easy and costs nothing. If somebody wants to support our group, they can do so by joining the national Electric Automobile Association and listing us as their local chapter. We receive funds back from that as part of our affiliation. In return, the person will also get a quarterly publication, Current EVents.
If someone wants to buy an electric vehicle or convert a vehicle to electric, what should be there first step?
Neighborhood Electric Vehicles and scooters are available pretty widely and can be purchased at places like Electric Cars of Austin, Alien Scooters and Texas E-Rider as well as many other environmental supply stores and elsewhere.
Unfortunately, the major car manufacturers have ceased the production of the electric cars that they had developed and that were available in California and nationwide even just a couple years ago. That is what the movie “Who Killed the Electric Car?” is all about. What is odd to us in the EV community is that we know these vehicles are possible, that people were enthusiastic about them and that the technology to be producing them exists today.
We are striving to form a support network for those people who want an electric car so much that they are willing to convert it themselves. Many of us have done so and we will continue to do so because we enjoy the process and the teaching experience. If people want to go that route, they need only join our group and start learning, helping out on open garages and eventually they will be able to do their own conversion. However, there are those who don’t want to build their own car.
To fill that niche, a couple of small car companies have stepped forward and are working to produce electric cars. Two examples are Commuter Cars with their all-electric Tango and Tesla Motors with their recently released Roadster. At this point, both of these companies have limited production capacity and cater to a market that can afford to pay a substantial amount for a vehicle.
For those who cannot, a group of our members is working to start an EV buyers club for the Austin area. The idea is that a well-performing vehicle that would please a good number of people should be possible for around $35,000-$45,000. The car would be comfortable, have factory level appointments and be able to reach well over freeway speeds while achieving over 100-mile range per charge. They are talking about this group working together to make a specification that some small car manufacturer would then be asked to build on contract. Their goal is to sign up 100 people who are interested in such a vehicle who are willing to contribute funding to an escrow account in order to prove that the market exists.
You might notice this as a similar approach to that being following in the Plug In Partners campaign for plug-in hybrid technology, which originated right here in Austin. That would be the final option. If we can’t buy an all-electric vehicle, we want to ask the auto manufacturers to make it so that we can plug in and charge the hybrids they are producing so that they will run off of all electric power for short trips around town without burning gasoline.
What misconceptions do people have about electric vehicles?
People seem to feel that electric cars are low-performing vehicles and that you have to give up the comfort that you would otherwise have in order to drive one. That is what we in the EV community are seeing is becoming less and less true. So much so that we see that with each advance in battery or power control technology, the percentage of the people in our communities that would be served by an all-electric vehicle is ever increasing. The components to build well performing vehicles are being developed and will be available. We just need to make sure companies realize there is a market for the end product.
We also talked with Dan Vogler, an electrical engineer and entrepreneur. He writes in a news release: “I quit my job, got a Ford Escape Hybrid, and started a new company to make EV’s in Austin, all because of this movie.”
Which is all the more striking when you consider that Vogler had not even seen “Who Killed the Electric Car?” in its entirety before Tuesday night.
Vogler is in the process of converting his Escape hybrid into a completely electric car as a prototype for his company, WireHead. The company is working on creating an off-peak charger, which would allow electric-car owners to charge their vehicles overnight, when demand for electricity is low. He’s hoping the big automakers will license the technology he’s developing.
And why should you even want an electric car? Vogler says the electricity costs are one-fifth those of running a car on gasoline. In other words, he said, it’s like getting 165 mpg.
Whew. I know all that’s a little out of our element in the movie blog, but I thought you crazy, doc-loving kids would be interested. And besides, I had to do something to atone for all the McConaughey posts.
Comments
Click here to report comment abuse.
By Dan Vogler
July 26, 2006 1:53 PM | Link to this
Who Killed the Electric Car?
Starts Friday July 28th at the Regal Arbor Cinema at Great Hills, Austin Showtimes are (11:40 2:00 4:45) 7:10 9:40