http://portlandtribune.com/pt/9-news/302019-177000-gas-prices-wont-get-them-out-of-evs Gas prices won't get them out of EVs 13 April 2016 Jake Bartman
[image http://portlandtribune.com/images/artimg/00003543239957.jpg Shirley Woods says that she will continue to drive her 2014 Honda Fit electric vehicle despite low gas prices ] Wilsonville [OR] residents cite other reasons to drive electric It's almost an axiom: when gas prices go down, demand for SUVs, pickup trucks and other gas-guzzling vehicles goes up. Recent research suggests the obvious as well: that at as interest in SUVs increases, sales of electric vehicles decrease. That point was argued in a January 2016 Forbes article that showed EV sales falling as pickup truck sales rose, and later that month, Tesla Motors CEO Elon Musk acknowledged that he expects low gas prices to take a bite out of EV sales. While that may be the case, however, a few dedicated Wilsonville auto enthusiasts are continuing to advocate for electric vehicles as the future of the industry. "There's going to be a tipping point where people in the country do understand the true cost of gasoline is not just the two dollars at the pump," says Gary Exner, a proud 2014 Honda Fit EV owner and organizer of Wilsonville's first two Drive Electric Week events. Exner, who is a member of the Oregon Electric Vehicle Association, says that gas prices aside, environmental concerns have helped to ensure that interest in electric vehicles is still on the rise. Part of the problem with sales may be that EV dealers themselves often aren't the best advocates for their wares, he notes. "It's no big conspiracy. It's just economics," Exner says. EVs can be less profitable to dealers because they require less maintenance than gas-powered vehicles do. There also needs to be a push to better educate dealers, many of whom have the same misconceptions about EVs as customers do, Exner says. Some aren't aware of how far a given vehicles can get on a charge, for example. Calls for comment to several Wilsonville auto dealers that sell EVs were not returned. Wilsonville resident Shirley Woods says that concerns like those are things that must be accounted for once one gets behind the wheel of an EV. "Driving an EV is a little different," she says. "You have to be thinking about how far you want to go, and how many miles you want to get." Like Exner, Woods drives a 2014 Honda Fit EV, which can travel around 100 miles on a full charge. She says that she loves her car — so much so that she chose to forgo her job in Beaverton and move into retirement because her work site lacked a place to charge her EV during the day, which was necessary to make it home in the face of worsening congestion around the metro area. Woods says that what she most appreciates about the EV is it doesn't require spending money on maintenance. And she adds that she enjoys driving the Fit too much to consider going back to a gas-powered vehicle, low fuel prices aside. William Noonan, also of Wilsonville, became one of the first Tesla owners in Oregon when he bought a Model S in January 2013. He wanted to cut back on fuel and maintenance costs, he says, but he also wanted a car with the power and torque to make driving more fun. "The thing that is the greatest personal motivation is that electric vehicles drive so much better," Noonan says. "Now when I go back to driving a gasoline or diesel vehicle, it's noticeable." Noonan is also an environmentalist, and an array of solar panels on his home provides more than enough energy to power an EV for a day. He switched to a BMW i3 electric in October 2014 to up fuel efficiency further, and uses the car to commute to downtown Portland and back. He adds that while the fun of driving his EV is a major reason why he won't revert to using his family's gas-powered car for day-to-day driving. "Even at $2 a gallon, gas is far more expensive than that," Noonan says, noting that government subsidies are used to help petroleum companies find new sources of oil. In the long-term, Noonan says, EVs are a way forward that will be better for drivers and for the environment. Exner doesn't expect interest in electric vehicles to be tied too closely to gas prices in the coming months and years, and says that the Chevrolet Bolt — an EV slated to be released this fall with a price tag of around $30,000 and a range of some 200 miles per charge — will have more people than ever buying and learning about EV technology. "The major barrier is sometimes misconception," Exner says. [© portlandtribune.com 2016 Pamplin Media] ... http://pamplinmedia.com/pt/9-news/302019-177000-gas-prices-wont-get-them-out-of-evs Gas prices won't get them out of EVs 13 April 2016 For EVLN EV-newswire posts use: http://evdl.org/evln/ {brucedp.150m.com} -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-Lower-pump-prices-won-t-get-her-out-of-her-HMC-Fit-EV-tp4681595.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/ Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
