Electric Car Gets a Test Run

A Coda electric vehicle gets recharged during its pilot program at the Air Pollution Control District. Prices at the pump have taken another one of their dramatic swings upward, but a few County employees recently logged hundreds of miles of driving without using a drop of gas. They were taking part in the County’s first-ever pilot program of an all-electric car.

The team that oversees County vehicles is actively exploring whether a zero-emission model would be a good fit. This particular trial run started when General Services’ Fleet Coordinator Mike Rivers was at a green fleet conference last fall and met a representative of Coda Automotive. The company makes an all-electric sedan and has a program to loan it to interested parties.

“At a glance, you’d think it was a Corolla,” Rivers said.

After getting the sign-off for the County to borrow the car, General Services arranged for staff from the Air Pollution Control District to try it out for a month. Employees could use it for work travel like getting to meetings or just take it for a spin. They needed to fill out a log with some basic tracking information and complete an evaluation.

Senior meteorologist Bill Brick says he jumped at the chance to drive one.

“I like the fact there was no motor sound,” Brick said. “It was neat to not hear a gasoline motor revving when you accelerated.”

And Brick said he was impressed with that acceleration, getting up to freeway speeds quickly and smoothly. As for the car’s overall comfort level, Brick said that did take a back seat to extending the driving range.

So how far was that? Rivers said on a fully-charged battery, the car would get from 85 to 105 miles. He said any number of County employees might cover more than that in a day, and he understands the vehicle just wouldn’t make sense for that. But for those making shorter hops, especially if there’s adequate recharging time, it could work really well.

To get it recharged, APCD staff plugged into a standard 110-volt outlet, the kind you typically find around your house or office. It took five to six hours to get it back to a full charge. Rivers said with a 220-volt charger, that would drop to about two hours. The County would most likely install the higher charging power if it buys electric vehicles.

Rivers said according to federal standards for electric cars in the same class as the Coda, the average cost of power per mile is just under 4 cents.  We all know gasoline prices routinely soar and dip, but based on the rate as of Feb. 27, the cost per mile is nearly 14 cents.  There are numerous figures that go into determining cost-effectiveness of any vehicle, but potential savings on the per-mile fuel cost are obviously substantial.

The County’s next step is the same that many car buyers take: keep looking around.

“We want to do as many pilot programs as possible and determine which is the best option,” Rivers said.