For most Americans, the automobile is the most important (and most expensive) item they own apart from their home. They usually are a considerable distance from their destination, and the car will get them there quickly and in relative comfort.

Like the horses that preceded them, all those cars need to be fuelled with the appropriate type of material to continue operating. With the horse, it was hay or sugar with the automobile, it was and is predominantly gasoline.

The gas station has become a ubiquitous component of the national landscape, dotting street corners and lining freeway exits. According to the 1997 Economic Census for Retail Trade, there were 126,889 operating gas stations in the United States in 1997, with just shy of a million paid employees and $2 million in sales each year.

Considering that gasoline has been hovering above $3 a gallon in many areas of the country (Seattle being one of those areas), alternatives to gasoline-powered transportation have been increasing in popularity. Ethanol and the ethanol-gasoline blend known as E-85 have been pushed recently as an alternative to gasoline, but it still involves paying about the same, if not a higher, price at the pump for decreased fuel economy. An alternative to the venerable gas station altogether is necessary.

Enter the electric automobile. In place of an engine and gas tank, these vehicles utilize electric motors and battery packs to provide forward thrust. For its advocates, the best part about electric vehicles is their ability to plug into a properly-wired outlet instead of a gasoline pump. It is a simple concept: drive the vehicle to work, drive home and plug it in overnight.

MC Electric has been offering Neighborhood Electrical Vehicles to the public since 2003, and has managed to sell about a hundred of them.

“Since 2003, we have found the Seattle market to be very progressive toward alternative fueled vehicles and supportive of our efforts,” said Jim Johnson, the owner and manager of MC Electric.

Many attempts at mass-producing consumer electric vehicles have been embarked upon over the years, with colossal failure befalling most of them. The most successful of these attempts, the Toyota RAV-4 EV and the GM EV1 and S-10 EV vehicles, were met with moderate success as lease vehicles, before being largely called back to be crushed after the lease periods were over. While these vehicles did work, the companies that built them found themselves unable to back up warranty claims and saw no other alternatives from a business standpoint.

Most individuals who want an electric vehicle cobble one together in their garages, with a surprisingly high success rate. While the range or power is usually lacking, these vehicles tend to keep their owners pretty pleased.

Neighborhood electric vehicles, or NEVs, are a classification of electric vehicles that are limited by the government to 25 mph. By limiting the speeds as such, these vehicles do not require crash testing and much in the way of safety equipment. The average range for NEVs is between 30 and 50 miles, but less if you operate at the maximum speed often or deal with any hills.

The most telling thing about NEVs is that the vast majority of those available to the public are converted golf carts. Many don’t hide their lineage, either; the Dynasty IT and the ZENN are the only two NEVs available in Seattle that look much like conventional automobiles at all. At a base price of approximately $14,500 for either vehicle, you’re paying a lot for low-amenity vehicles that only go 40 miles.

The speed issue of NEVs isn’t their principal handicap in the Seattle area. No, their biggest hurdle to overcome is their range. With the bus system in Seattle getting you pretty much anywhere you need to go, the point of having a car in Seattle at all is often to get out of the city. With a range of 40 miles on non-freeway roads, leaving the city is not an option with these cars.

“I don’t think that [NEVs] are ever going to be a big part of the market,” said Steve Lough, president of the Seattle Electric Vehicle Association. “Who’s going to use a car like that?”

As it turns out, businesses have become the largest consumers of NEVs. Golf courses have been using electric carts for many years now, and other businesses have begun to use them. The maintenance garage at MC Electric is filled to capacity with NEVs that have corporate or local business logos emblazoned upon their doors. Seeing as the maintenance is cheap and the vehicles never travel far from heavy-duty outlets anyway, fleets have been purchasing electric vehicles in larger numbers in recent years.

One such fleet is the UW Motor Pool, which, until recently, owned and operated seven of these NEVs. However, like many of the commercially available NEVs on the market, they were not without their problems.

David Carr is the manager of UW Motor Pool Operations, and originally spearheaded obtaining the seven electric vehicles for the motor pool.

“We no longer have those vehicles, as two of them were old and surplused, while the other five never really worked well in the applications and were sold,” Carr said. “We have since focused on efforts on hybrid vehicles, of which we have over 20 now.”

The direction the UW Motor Pool went in is a telling one. Ever since Honda introduced the Insight Hybrid to the American automotive market in 1999, hybrids have been gaining popularity among green car shoppers as the “it” car to have. With the Toyota Prius leading the charge and hybrid models becoming a litmus test for automotive technological achievement, investment in their development has multiplied in the last decade.

Utilizing both an electric motor and a gasoline engine, hybrids are capable of getting stellar gas milage on standard pump gasoline. While the average mileage of a Prius is 45 MPG in standard driving, when driven with technique 60 miles per gallon is possible. While they aren’t full-on electric vehicles, they give their owners the “green” feeling they want without dealing with tiny EV manufacturers that tend to disappear rather quickly.

Electric vehicles are available to the public in Seattle, but they don’t really make much sense for the private consumer. What does all this mean for the average UW student that wants to stay green but needs to get around? Simple — take the bus.

Reach Anthony Michael Erickson at features@thedaily.washington.edu.

PROS & CONS

PROS

• Zero emission vehicles

• Provide a quieter ride when compared to regular cars

• Much less expensive to maintain than gasoline-fueled cars

• Very little drop off in performance, when compared to regular cars

CONS

• Limited driving distance between charges

• Even though the vehicle itself doesn’t release any emissions, the electricity used to recharge the car typically comes from a pollution-producing power plant

• Few charging stations; it almost has to be used exclusively as a commuting vehicle

— Dailyfueleconomytip.com

For more information on electric vehicles, check out:

MOVIE: Who Killed the Electric Car? This film examines the history and political aspects of electric cars.

BOOK: The Electric Car by Michael H. Westbrook: This book provides a comprehensive look at the history and future of the

design and marketing of the electric car.

WEB SITE: www.pluginamerica.com: This site provides information and statistics on plug-in vehicles, as well as recent news on electric vehicles.

Electric vs. Hybrid

Electric cars are totally electric, meaning that they must be plugged in and charged, and the range of the car is only as far as the charge.

Hybrid vehicles use a mixture of gas and electric power to create a gas-efficient, partially-electric car with a less limited range.

— WiseGeek.com