"Revenge of the Electric Car"

"The grid is continually getting greener. You can't say that about oil!" So said one electric car owner last evening to the comment that the majority of U.S. electricity comes from coal, and that is hardly greener than oil. The main speaker said that even with present technology, "An electric car is twice as clean as gas."
About 40 people came out after a major snow storm last Wednesday to hear Chelsea Sexton, executive director of Plug-in-America, who had flown in from Los Angeles earlier in the day to speak to us about her passion, electric cars, fondly called ECs. Her amount of knowledge was formidable, as was her enthusiastic devotion to promoting ECs. I had no idea so many were currently available and in the pipeline. Hundai has only one EC model, but GM has several and plans for more. She showed us many photos of those already available and told us that even an electric Cadillac and SUV are being prepared by GM. Maintenance on ECs is much less than a gas-powered car. No oil changes are needed, and there are far fewer parts to wear out.
Having produced the box office success "Who Killed the Electric Car?", she was asked why there seems to be so much more acceptance now than there was even a few years ago for ECs. That film includes emotional scenes of loyal owners protesting the death of their electric cars, of their cars being crushed, of a stack of crushed cars, and of a public funeral for them with people weeping. "How much can you love a car?"
She believes the crisis of auto manufacturers made them open to a new marketing approach. "The four dollar gas helped." She said that Obama was the first "electric car president," and that has been "very helpful." Many consumers have been pleading with car companies for ECs, "and that matters." ECs are now advertised amid baseball and football games; they have suddenly become "mainstream." She said the happiest day of her life was when she saw a photo of a series of demonstrators in Delaware facing the Obama campaign train carrying signs saying, "Electric Cars Yes we can." "We had nothing to do with that demonstration! It was the first demonstration I knew of that Plug-it-in had nothing to do with."
After college she worked for Saturn and then became smitten with ECs. Since then her life has been devoted to promoting them. After the talk she told me privately that her husband was also completely devoted to electric cars. He has a paid job with a part of a company manufacturing them. During the talk she said, "When my son wants to "get under her skin," he says, 'My first car is going to be a gas car.'" He appeared about seven-years-old in the photo driving (with other children) toy gas cars on Halloween.
In answer to a question, she said that there is a standardized plug for all electric cars except the Telsa, which sells for $120, so is not in great demand anyway.
Is there a kit to convert a Prius to an EC? Yes, it costs about $10K, less than the price of a new car.
How far can an EC car go without recharging? It varies from 100 to 300 miles, with the longer range costing more. The range going up at a rate of about seven percent a year, "but that won't increase indefinitely, of course."
She said that about half the people who buy electric cars then install solar panels on their homes, where they can plug in their cars with minimal draw from the grid.
Before the talk Gray Russell, environmental outreach coordinator told of Montclair's leadership in green technology. The township has recently won a $25,000 award from Walmart that will be used to install plug-in stations around town that will be available to the public. He says this will help bring business to Montclair, as people plug in their cars while shopping and eating here. He told us that the Volt had won "the car of the year" award.
He observed that 2010 tied 2005 as the hottest year on record. The past decade included nine of the hottest ten years.
Chesea's film "Revenge of the Electric Car" is scheduled to appear this spring. Please visit the website and request the film be shown in your area. Revenge of the Electric Car.