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| Photo credit - Tim Faulkner |
The first mass-produced electric car arrived at a Rhode Island dealership last week. A Chevy Volt, which is technically classified as a plug-in hybrid, will be available for test drives through the end of the year at Balise Chevrolet in Warwick.
In November, Balise will start selling the cars.
Nationally, demand for EVs appears mixed. Both Chevy and Nissan's all-electric Leaf have been conducting slow rollouts of their sedans, reportedly to work out glitches and build buzz for their high-tech, battery-powered cars. But independent surveys show interest from potential customers is dropping while their arrival in Rhode Island is months overdue.
Perhaps in response to slow demand, Chevy has reduced the Volt's price somewhat, to about $33,000 after the $7,500 federal tax credit. The Leaf boosted its cost slightly for its 2012 models to about $28,500 after the credit. Both are selling in select markets across the country. Since December, nearly 6,200 Leafs and 3,500 Volts have been sold.
The Leaf is already for sale at some dealers in Massachusetts and Connecticut. Rhode Island dealers will have to wait until early 2012.
The demo Volt was parked outside a meeting of the Rhode Island chapter of Project Get Ready on Sept. 8 at Save The Bay's headquarters. The nonprofit advocacy group, run locally by Al Dahlberg, is helping EVs get a foothold in the state by encouraging public and private investment in EV education and infrastructure, such as charging stations, electrical capacity upgrades and signage.
Project Get Ready is targeting about 2 percent of all registered vehicles in the state to go electric within five years, which equates to about 10,000 electric cars and trucks out of 210,000 on the road.
So far, only Cardi's furniture in West Warwick has installed a charging station, and next to nothing has been heard from National Grid or Gov. Lincoln Chafee about backing the initiative.
"We have a lot to work on," Dahlberg said. "We can't do it with the group we have. We have to expand it."
Dalhberg recently delivered a letter to Chafee asking him to create a committee to help with public awareness and infrastructure. The governor, Dahlberg said, has expressed interest in helping Rhode Island embrace EVs. But in case the executive office doesn't get onboard, Dahlberg plans to turn to the General Assembly, which he said has expressed strong interest in supporting the project.
One boost for EVs came last week by way of a $25,000 federal grant to Ocean State Clean Cities to help with EV planning and readiness.
"It's not a lot of money," said Wendy Lucht of Ocean State Clean Cities. "But it's an affirmation that the Northeast is an important place for EV infrastructure."
Lucht said she wasn't sure yet on the specifics on how the grant would be spent, but she hoped it might be a sign of heftier grants to be secured down the road.
"That is pretty unclear given the state of our Congress right now," she said.
