Getting Electrified
by Kathryn Reed
An electric highway now stretches from San Francisco to Truckee and may soon reach Tahoe's South Shore. The Truckee charging station opened in August 2005, completing a circuit of stations along Interstate 80 where people can amp-up their electric vehicles. The Electric Auto Association (EAA) plans to scope out the South Shore for station locations this year. With an existing station in Placerville, a South Tahoe plug-in would electrify the Highway 50 route to The Lake.
No plans are in the works to bring the project into Nevada, but that doesn't mean electric vehicles aren't cruising into the Silver State. Drivers can get enough of a charge in Truckee to drive into Reno, run errands and then drive back to Truckee to get recharged.
Officials aren't sure how many locals—other than golf cart drivers—will use the Truckee facility this summer. Scott Terrell, director of planning for the Truckee Donner Public Utility District, who helped fund the station, says he has seen only a handful of people there since it opened. He expects it to become more popular, however.
"Our main concern here, and why all the partners funded it," says Terrell, "is we are trying to reduce the amount of fossil fuel use in the Sierra. We have so many people from the Bay Area and other parts of the state coming here. We prefer, in the future, they drive a clean fuel vehicle versus a fossil fuel vehicle." About 4,600 vehicles in California (not including golf carts) rely solely on electric power, with less than a quarter of them being in the northern half of the state.
The District has a three-year contract with the EAA to provide the electricity for free. There are plug-ins allowing two vehicles to "fuel up" at the same time. The $40,000 facility was funded by the EAA and the Placer County Air Pollution Control District and is located on Truckee Recreation and Parks District property near Meadow Park.
The EAA is a national group founded by Walter Laski in 1967. Today, this nonprofi t association has nearly 1,000 members. Its mission is to promote the use of electric vehicles as a means to save the environment and reduce dependence on fossil fuels. The group is expanding to support plug-in hybrids.
Currently, hybrid vehicles don't use plugin stations because the gasoline engine recharges the electric battery while it is running. There are hybrids in the making, however, that are even more fuel-efficient and do plug in. A stumbling block on the road to popularizing the latter is that they will cost more than today's hybrids, which already cost more than a comparable gas-only vehicle.
"There is definitely a market (for plugin hybrids), but it's hard to quantify," says Tom Dowling, a volunteer with the EAA in Northern California. Dowling owns 2 Toyota Rav4 vehicles. The electric bill to "fi ll up his tank" is about $5, which gives him 30 kilowatt hours of power. Most electric-car owners have a recharging mechanism in their garage. The approximately $20 more a month they pay in electricity bills—the equivalent of 50 to 60 cents per gallon—is a bargain compared to the current cost of gasoline.
On a typical trip to Truckee from his home in Folsom, Dowling can stop in Auburn and/or Colfax for a charge (with approximately 53 percent of his charge left at Colfax) and then continue on to Truckee, arriving with 30 percent of his charge left.
Dowling says that electric vehicles are great for about 90 percent of his travel needs. Longer trips require him to use his gas-powered vehicle. But he is looking forward to buying a plug-in hybrid and permanently parking his gas-guzzler.
To find out more about the Electric Auto Association, visit www.eaaev.org.