Putting in a plug for the electric automobile

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on March 17, 2013 at 6:01 AM, updated March 17, 2013 at 12:20 PM
"Off the line, a Ferrari has less power than this. I've had passengers check to see if we weren't rear-ended." - Michael Thwaite on his Tesla
ELECTRICCAR.JPG Michael Thwaite with his fleet of electric vehicles.  

It was a sunny Sunday afternoon and I was behind the wheel of a Tesla Roadster bombing down some back roads in Somerset County.

When I floored the accelerator, I felt like Michael J. Fox in those "Back to the Future" movies. The Tesla shot forward so fast that I expected it to take off and come down in 1985. How to get back to the future? No problem. I’d just find an electrical outlet somewhere and plug it in for a few hours.

The Tesla is a totally electric vehicle, one with a Lotus suspension and a price tag well in excess of $100,000. It’s in a league with Porsches and Ferraris, but it’s a bit faster in that crucial 0-60 mph run.

"Off the line, a Ferrari has less power than this," said Michael Thwaite from the passenger seat. "I’ve had passengers check to see if we weren’t rear-ended."

Thwaite is a Warren resident who has three electric cars. If that seems a bit eccentric, well, Thwaite is English. And the English have always had an obsession with the unconventional when it comes to what we call driving and they call "motoring."

In the Tesla’s case, the motor has a key advantage over piston engines. Electric motors produce maximum power instantly. And that in turn produces acceleration that is both brutal and effortless.

"Let me tell you, it just never gets old — ever," Thwaite said as I punched the pedal.

Thwaite is the spokesman for the Electric Auto Association of New Jersey, an enthusiasts’ group. I gave him a call after learning about a bill introduced in the state Senate by Jim Whelan (D-Atlantic) that would impose a fee of 0.84 cents per mile on all cars to replace the gas tax. When that got a harsh reaction from the driving public, he amended the bill so it would apply to electric vehicles only.

ELECTRICCAR1.JPG The Mitsubishi: A four-door hatchback for less than the cost of your daily coffee and Danish  
Both approaches are based on a misconception. The misconception is the belief that revenue from the gas tax will decline as drivers switch to more economical vehicles. Nothing illustrates the flaw in that theory better than the Mitsubishi i-MiEV that also sits in Thwaite’s driveway.

The i-MiEV is a four-door hatchback perfect for shopping trips but ill-suited for the open road. Its top speed isn’t much above that 60-mph mark and it has a range of only 65 miles. Those limitations relegate it to runs to the supermarket and the mall. Who can afford to keep a car for just that?

Just about everyone, it turns out. Thwaite has leased the car for a mere $95 a month with no down payment. For the price of a daily coffee and Danish, he’s got a car in which he and his wife can run all their errands without ever buying gas.

Thwaite also got a good lease price on his BMW ActiveE, a midsized car with all the luxury features you’d expect in a BMW. How can the manufacturers afford to offer such deals? Simple. They’ve got to meet federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy goals every year. The more electric cars they make, the more gas-guzzlers they can make.

Under that system, the same amount of fuel is burned and the taxman still gets the same cut. He’s just getting more from SUV owners and less from electric-car owners.


That doesn’t stop politicians across the country from proclaiming that gas consumption will drop in the near future, as Whelan did. The federal Energy Information Administration says otherwise. It predicts gas consumption will remain stable through 2040.

And when it comes to gas, many members of the association have cars that can burn it. The club includes members who have plug-in hybrids such as the Chevy Volt. The Volt has an engine and can run on gas, but the owners pride themselves on keeping that engine from ever coming on, Thwaite said.

"The worst thing the Volt can do to the owner is fire up its engine," he said. "It pulls on the heartstrings. They were driving electric, now they’re burning gas like every other car on the road."

Volt owners like to top off the electric charge whenever possible. That makes them valuable allies in the electric car owners’ efforts to make charging stations as common as gas stations.

"Retail outlets are starting to get the idea," Thwaite said. "Restaurants and shopping malls are starting to roll these things out. They think, ‘If we put these things in, people will drop by.’ "

In a pinch, the cars can be recharged on household current. Thwaite recalled taking the BMW to Cape May for a weekend with his wife. That used up a lot of its 250-mile range, but the owner of the bed-and-breakfast where they stayed just ran a cord to the car for an overnight charge.


The ActiveE looks and performs like a typical mid-sized BMW.



Even when range isn’t an issue, electric-car owners make a game of conserving energy: Avoid the brakes for all but emergency situations. To slow down, just ease off the accelerator and the car recaptures the energy as electricity.

Though these cars are high-tech, they’re remarkably simple in design. There’s just a big battery and a motor the size of a watermelon. As battery technology improves, so will range and performance.

That’s the plus side. The minus is that they’re still prohibitively expensive compared with conventional cars. If it weren’t for a $7,500 federal tax credit and the incentives from those CAFE regulations, even that tiny Mitsubishi would sell for more than $30,000.

That means electric cars are going to remain a niche product for the foreseeable future — and politicians don’t need to dream up ways to make them even more expensive.

So they can quit worrying — unless of course they really do have a time machine.