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Increasingly, Mainers like Bill Drinkwater are coming to recognize that there is room on the road for electric cars and an ever-present need for them. In past incarnations, the 62-year-old Drinkwater has eked out a living mining for gold in California, sculpted metal, been a welder and world traveler, among other things. But these days, Drinkwater is venturing into electric cars and he wants to share the wealth. Last spring he started EVMaine.org to get the word out about his newfound calling and soon he will be building his own car. He has the fueling station already set up at home.
“I put a couple of solar panels in my backyard and that will be my gas station,” says the now-retired Drinkwater, who lives in Belmont. “That may sound crazy, but in a few years it won’t.”
Tom Gocze, a fixture in the Maine energy efficiency and home improvement fields, has known this and been an advocate for electric-powered cars for years. “There’s always been this interest in energy,” says Gocze, who as a kid built electric-motor go-carts and since then has graduated to own or operate more than a dozen electric-run pickup trucks, three-wheelers, and cars.
Gocze, who provides weekly insightful and entertaining excursions into home repairs on his Hot and Cold radio and television shows, says his interest in finding out how things work naturally turned into finding out how to make them work more efficiently, whether it’s heating a home or running a car.
Gocze still remembers, while as a college student, the shock of the early ‘70s fuel crisis and the long lines of people desperately waiting for a few gallons of gas. For Drinkwater, the turning point came after seeing a documentary about how Cuba struggled to survive an embargo that included fuel. He realized he couldn’t sit idle and witness a fuel shortage happening on home turf.
Maine is certainly at risk, perhaps more so than other states. Here in vacationland, one-third of our energy consumption is for personal cars. This and other factors have left Maine ranking 15th in the nation in terms of vulnerability to high gasoline prices, according to a recent study by the Natural Resources Defense Council.
Darker clouds could be ahead. “I fully anticipate that it will happen again and it won’t be pretty,” Gocze says about the oil crises of the 1970s.
Electric cars can help avert such problems. The newer cars, with such evocative names as the Zenn and Miles ZX40, while generally small in size, have a lot to offer, both to the environment and the driver.
With fewer working parts and no exhaust pipe, it is a quieter ride. They’re whisper quiet. And no gas means that there are no carbon dioxide emissions.
The cost to operate these little dynamos has been estimated at 1 to 2 cents a mile, compared to the 8 to 12 cents a mile for a gas-powered car, so there is a substantial savings. Recharging is simple and done by hooking up to a 110 volt outlet and takes about five to eight hours.
So why haven’t Mainers latched on to these cars in a big way?
The downside to these vehicles has been that the current models, with a range of about 25 to 35 miles a charge, are intended only for shorter jaunts and not substantial trips.
Those limitations have made efforts to put more electric cars on the road an uphill battle in Maine. The rural setting may be what brings tourists back year after year and convinces many of us to live here, but it is also what has created a speed bump for the expansion of electric car use.
The vehicles aren’t speedsters, either, topping out at about 25 to 30 mph, although some can up the ante slightly. Still, these cars don’t have what it takes to hit the highway. Gocze recalls his first trip to the bank doing 35 mph in his three-wheel gizmo with a six-yard dump truck bearing down on him. “It’s a little unnerving,” he says. So these cars aren’t for everybody or every road, at least not yet.
“Definitely a local car,” says Michael Hurley, Belfast’s mayor and one of only a handful of Maine mayors to adopt a national protocol called the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement, aimed at reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Hurley is pressing forward with the protocol and proclaimed July 12 “Electric Vehicle Day” in his city.
While the reception to electric cars in Maine generally has been lukewarm, it seems to be heating up. The same study that found Maine so susceptible to gas prices also found that Maine was in the vanguard—sixth in the nation—when it comes to efforts to reduce energy dependence. For example, the state is taking the lead in promoting the use of alternative fuels. Nearly one in five vehicles in the state government fleet of passenger cars now runs on alternative fuels, including hybrids, Gov. John Baldacci says.
Other places are plugging into the benefits of electric-powered vehicles. About two years ago, some of the baggage carts and aircraft tow tractors at Bangor International Airport (BGR) went electric. The vehicles are charged once a week and are very dependable, having only been in the shop once in the past two years, says Randy Canarr, who works at BGR and who was on hand in Belfast for the Electric Vehicle Day.
July marked another turning point for electric cars in the state. Falmouth, in southern Maine, saw the opening of Maine Electric Vehicles, the first-of-its-kind dealership in the state.
Kal Rogers, marketing director for the Falmouth dealership, was at the Belfast electric car mini festival, where the curious were allowed a test drive of the cars. “It’s not for everybody, but for some people, it’s the perfect choice,” he says.
The future is likely to bring only improvements: cars with smaller, more efficient batteries, longer ranges, and more speed. Rogers says to expect to see electric cars reach speeds of 80 mph and be more highway road worthy by next year.
That sounds good to Mary Ann Hartman, a Belfast-area resident who went to the Belfast event to see the technology for herself. “I’d buy an electric car in a minute if it could go on the highway,” she says. “It’s quiet as a church mouse—smooth ride, comfortable, roomy. I’d put my order in today.”
