The Gulf oil disaster has put our nation's dependence on oil front and center, and many South Floridians see electric vehicles as a solution.
The big automakers are all coming out with their own all-electric vehicles which are far greener than hybrid vehicles that combine battery power and a gasoline engine, and waiting lists for the new all-electric vehicles are already growing.
Yet one car maker has been in the electric car business for a few years already with a new dealership in Broward County.
With hardly a sound, the Tesla Roadster, priced from $108,000 to $150,000 or more, has been proving that all-electric vehicles can deliver astonishing performance (0 to 60 in 3.7 seconds) and engineering, never pollute, and never, ever need gasoline.
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“This is an expensive car,” concedes Rob Epstein, of the Tesla Motors Fort Lauderdale dealership. “But it also appeals to people who want to be green, people who want to be eco friendly and also people who really want a pure performance sports car."
And Tesla, which considers itself a technology company more than an automaker, is now only a year or so away from launching the groundbreaking new 5-seat "Model S" starting at about $50,000.
The Chevy Volt is still not in showrooms yet but you can place your orders now. Cost? About $40,000. Same with the Nissan Leaf for a little bit less.
But all-electric vehicles offer roughly $7,500 in tax incentives.
South Floridian Jeri Miller is on the waiting list for her Nissan Leaf because she wants the world to get rid of oil dependence. "I also want to encourage others to do the same,” she said, because the more consumers demand clean cars, “the more the market will move that way."
All-electric vehicles like Tesla require much less maintenance, have very few moving parts, use almost no liquids, and never need a tune up. They need computer upgrades instead.
An overnight recharge at home is equal to 240 miles in a Tesla, for about four dollars.
But most EV's have a range of less than 100 miles before your batteries die. They call it "range anxiety." The answer to range anxiety is car charging stations now being installed in parking garages, at the workplace, or shopping malls. Michael Farkas runs the Miami Beach company "Car Charging, Inc." that installs and maintains the charging stations where drivers pay a fee for the recharge.
"And we believe that soon the penetration of the car charging stations will be a lot heavier than they are today,” says Farkas.
Government incentives can help. So can retailers who want to pay for installation themselves and give away the electricity as an incentive to bring in customers.
The electricity still has to be generated somehow. And that includes nuclear power plants and old-style coal plants. Still, driving past all those expensive gas stations, many say, is a big step toward a greener world.
