Some drivers embrace electric cars, despite
drawbacks
They enjoy life on the cutting edge, though they can't
drive far or fast.
By Jenifer B. McKim
ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. -- Barry Friedberg enters his
bubble-shaped car and punches in a code on a key pad to
start the motor. A thin, round instrument panel lights up. He steps on the accelerator and
hears a sound similar to a plane taking off.
Friedberg is on his way to work -- maneuvering a $34,000 driving machine that has no
exhaust pipe, no oily engine, no need to ever, ever fill up with gas.
He loves it. Except he can't go too far or too fast if he wants to get anywhere. While the
car can accelerate from 0 to 60 in less than 9 seconds, it can go only 90 miles between
charges -- and that is when he drives with a feather foot and lots of control.
"It's frustrating," Friedberg said about his silver-blue General Motors EV1. "The
problem is that it begs to be hot-rodded."
The 49-year-old anesthesiologist is one of hundreds of people in Southern California
who have catapulted into the future by buying or leasing an electric car.
Southern California has the largest number of electric cars and publicly available battery
chargers in the nation, industry specialists say. There are 180 free chargers in the region
with 75 more expected to be installed this year.
It's a slow-growing market to be sure. And driving experiences gleaned from several
Orange County, Calif., residents who have joined up and plugged in show that the
autos are far from practical for everybody. They only go short distances, are costly, and
need to be recharged for hours.
But many drivers love them.
"It's the greatest car ever made," said Loren Nielsen, 50, a Huntington Beach, Calif.,
engineer who has owned an electric car for about a year. "It's clean. It's fun. It's the
future."
Major manufacturers have sold about 950 electric cars in California to date, triple the
number since last year.
General Motors, which has been selling its landmark EV1 for more than two years, has
leased 479 vehicles in California and Arizona.
"The drawbacks are the cost, the range, and the recharge time," said Jeremy Barnes,
product safety and environment administrator for Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A. in
Torrance, Calif. "Until there is some huge breakthrough in battery technology, which
hasn't happened in the last 100 years, that range is not going to increase appreciably."
Though the range is not expected to change dramatically anytime soon, the charging
time might be reduced significantly. Early last month, new technology was introduced
that within a few years could reduce the charging time from hours to minutes.
The South Coast Air Quality Management District says electric cars are needed to help
reduce pollution in the region, which has the country's dirtiest air. The agency says it
can better regulate electric power plants, which fuel the cars, than millions of polluting
automobiles.
People such as Friedberg are not willing to wait for technological breakthroughs. They
see themselves as pioneers of a future world when most commuters will be driving
some form of electric car -- either propelled by a battery or a fuel cell, or a hybrid
running on gas and batteries.
They've joined clubs, built Web sites, driven long distances to prove it can be done.
Many say it's not just the "green" factor, but that the cars are fun to drive and
technologically inspiring.
Friedberg fits General Motors' profile of an electric-car driver: He is male, with a
household income of $125,000 to $150,000, and owns more than one family car.
He's a so-called "early technology adapter" -- someone who bought a laptop computer,
a cellular phone, and a videocassette recorder before they became popular. (He bought
his first VCR for $1,000 in 1980.)
"We are test pilots for the 21st century," Friedberg said.
But being the first doesn't always mean getting the best.
Friedberg acknowledges that he probably leased an inferior car for top dollar. The cost
of leasing an EV1 already has declined to $399 a month from what he pays, $514 a
month.
But he complains of few inconveniences -- and the pluses are that he never has to stop
for gas or get an oil change. He thrives on the "intellectual challenge" of seeing how far
he can go before recharging. He likes the looks, the thumbs-up from strangers, the
honks.
Drivers of electric cars have to be good planners.
David Kodama and his wife, Jean, both own electric cars. The two engineers commute
together from their home in Cerritos, Calif., to Costa Mesa, Calif., where they pick up a
second car and head to their jobs. She has a charger at work. He finds an outlet if he
needs one.
"If it is going to be farther away than you can make on one trip, you have to know there
is going to be a charger," he said. "You adapt pretty easily."
Friedberg, a freelance anesthesiologist for cosmetic surgery patients, has a varied
schedule. Some days he drives only a few miles. Other days, he travels from Laguna
Hills, Calif., to Long Beach, Calif., requiring at least a 45-minute stop at a public
charger to get home.
He keeps a close eye on the line of "energy bars" -- the lighted bars on the car's
instrument panel that indicate how much electricity remains.
And he steps lightly on the gas. On a congested highway he stays at 45 m.p.h.,
avoiding the urge to weave between cars. Going downhill, he recharges with a special
braking system.
"This is the largest video game I know," he said. "It adds a different dimension to your
drive."
When he's near home with miles of extra electricity in his car, it's time to let loose.
He'll floor the accelerator, his head snapping back when he charges up a hill.
No matter that when he arrives home, he can't turn around for hours if he wants to fully
recharge.
He'll plug the car in and wait for another day. |
