Living Like Ed (12 page)

INFRASTRUCTURE ISSUES

So, given their many advantages, why doesn’t everyone own an electric vehicle? Well, for one thing, municipalities are making it harder, not easier, to operate one. In the mid-’90s, California instituted special parking spots where EV owners could recharge their cars midtrip. Today, these have al-most vanished. Why? To understand this, you need to know a bit about battery technology. Until recently, when you bought an electric car, you also got a charging station, which most people mounted in their garage. I had the charging station for my Toyota RAV4 EV mounted in my garage, and I charged it at home almost exclusively. It was rare that I could do my charging elsewhere—very rare. That was partly because my life had become very busy, but it also was because L.A. had become less friendly for electric vehicles. Precious few of those electric vehicle charging stations were still in existence by 2007.

That’s because the major car companies—GM, Toyota, Honda, Chrysler—that were making electric cars during the ’90s and right up until recently didn’t come to a consensus in terms of what type of charging system to use. Instead, they came up with two—well, really three—different charging disciplines. Think of it as VHS vs. Betamax vs. DVDs. Some of their electric cars used large-paddle chargers—these big flat plastic pieces that had to be plugged into the right-size hole in the right type of charging station. Other companies used small-paddle chargers. Both of these setups used what’s called an inductive charging system. The third type of charging system was a conductive style.

None of these formats were interchangeable at all, so you could only use a charging station designed specifically for your vehicle’s system. This made it really hard for people to charge their electric cars anywhere but at home, and it upset people who didn’t own electric cars. They’d see a parking space reserved for electric vehicles—with a charging station—and they’d wonder, “Why don’t I see any electric vehicles charging there?”

The good news is that most
new
electric cars—including my new Phoenix Motorcars SUT—have the charger built right in. You no longer
need
a separate charging station at home or anywhere else. You plug your car into a standard 220-volt electrical outlet, just like the one for your clothes dryer at home. Because these cars are designed to charge on 220 current, they charge a lot faster than older models. It takes just four or five hours to fully charge the battery pack.

In a pinch, you also can plug into a standard 120-volt outlet, the standard wall outlets you have in your home. That makes charging on the road easy, if you find yourself running low on range. Instead of having to look for a special charging station, you look for any 120-volt outlet. You can find them in parking garages. You can find them at restaurants. Those 120-volt outlets are in a lot of places.

True, it will take about twice as long to charge on 120-volt power as it will on 220-volt power, but it’s nice to have that option. It just makes these new electric cars even easier to live with.

Rachelle’s Hybrid

                  Today’s electric cars are great, but I wasn’t willing to be limited by the range of an electric car. In 2001, when I was ready to get a new car, I decided I wanted a Volvo because of its safety features, until Ed made me this deal: “If you get a Volvo, you pay for it. And if you get this newfangled Toyota hybrid thing, even though we don’t know how well it works, I’ll buy it.” So I said, “Okay, I’ll try the new technology.”

Actress Donna Mills and Ed were the first people in L.A. to get a Prius. We were the guinea pigs. And I love it. I’m so happy with it. It’s a fabulous car.

I
hate
pumping gas. I just loathe it. Now I hardly ever have to. The hybrid is so dependable, too. It’s quiet, it’s fun, and it’s easy to steer. It’s very roomy inside, but small enough that it’s very easy to maneuver.

Ed doesn’t preach to people about being green. He doesn’t walk into anyone’s house and say, “You know, you could be a little bit better about recycling.”

He
doesn’t.
I
do that. It’s a flaw, a character defect. If I have to make sacrifices, you all have to make them, too. Misery loves company. But I don’t consider driving a hybrid a sacrifice at all, so I have no problem telling someone, “You gotta get rid of that car.” We must have sold a hundred Priuses that way! By now a majority of our friends have some kind of eco-friendly car, or they’re thinking about getting one.

The Prius really is a great car. It burns superclean and it works very well. So when I have to go beyond the range of the electric, I just take the hybrid. It can go 500 miles on a fill-up, easy, and I can fill it up like anyone in America, anywhere, with gasoline.

Hybrid Technology

There are several different ways to make a hybrid, but they all, whether a car or a truck, have some things in common. At least for now, they all have both a gasoline-powered internal-combustion engine, like most vehicles on the road, and an electric motor.

While most cars waste 25 percent of their gasoline when they’re just idling, the gasoline engine in a hybrid shuts off when the car’s stopped. This not only reduces fuel consumption dramatically, both around town and in highway traffic, but also reduces emissions dramatically.

Some hybrids can also run on the electric motor exclusively when coasting and when traveling at slow speeds, like in stop-and-go traffic or coming down a steep hill. The Prius falls into this category, as does the hybrid version of the Ford Escape, the Toyota Highlander, and the Lexus RX 400h (
h
is for hybrid). Under these conditions, the hybrid is just as clean as an electric car—and you don’t have to worry about charging it.

That’s because hybrid cars make their own electricity. Today’s hybrids don’t ever have to be plugged in to recharge. For one thing, hybrid cars—like those electric cars we talked about earlier—use regenerative braking to recharge the batteries that power the electric motor. Basically, when you hit the brakes, the electric motor applies resistance to the car’s drivetrain, which makes the wheels spin more slowly. The energy from the wheels then turns the electric motor, which acts like a generator, converting energy that is normally wasted in a car—when you’re coasting, when you’re braking—into electricity. That electricity gets stored in the car’s battery until it’s needed by the electric motor. The gasoline engine also charges the battery while you’re driving (much as it does in a gasoline-only car).

Some hybrids engage both the electric motor and the gasoline engine at the same time. They use the electric motor to provide more power—when you’re accelerating, when you’re passing, and when you’re climbing a hill—so then they can put a smaller, more efficient gasoline engine into the car. That helps to reduce emissions and improve gas mileage even further.

For instance:

•
The 2007 Nissan Altima hybrid has Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ratings of 42 mpg in the city and 36 mpg on the highway.

•
The 2007 Toyota Prius is rated at 60 mpg city, 51 mpg highway.

•
The 2007 Toyota Camry hybrid is rated at 40 city, 38 highway.

•
The front-wheel-drive version of the 2007 Ford Escape hybrid is rated at 39 mpg city, 31 highway.

•
And the 2007 Lexus RX 400h is rated at 32 mpg city (31 for the four-wheel-drive version), 27 mpg highway.

Now, as you probably noticed, not every hybrid was designed to get in-credible gas mileage. Some are larger, like the sport utility vehicles, and they were designed to provide a sort of “best of both worlds” alternative: the ability to haul stuff and still have a more environmentally sound vehicle.

If they don’t get phenomenal gas mileage, how can people say they’re more environmentally sound? Because what comes out of the tailpipe is cleaner. In many cases, these vehicles have far lower emissions than an internal-combustion-engine vehicle that gets the same mileage numbers.

According to the EPA, the expected greenhouse gas emissions from a front-wheel-drive Ford Escape hybrid are just 5.4 tons per year—compared with 14.9 tons for the highest polluters on the market right now. And that figure for the Prius is just 3.4 tons. That’s a dramatic difference.

I’ve also found that the maintenance costs—and needs—are largely reduced on hybrids. I’ll only speak to Toyota, because those are the hybrids I’ve been driving for seven years. In those seven years, after racking up 130,000 miles, all the car has needed is a lube and oil change, and the routine scheduled maintenance at 50,000 miles and at 75,000. I’ve never had any other car that made it to 130,000 miles with my only investment being the lube and oil changes plus a $700 bill at 50,000 miles and maybe an $800 bill at 75,000 miles.

So these hybrids are multifaceted beauties. It’s not just the emissions. It’s the mileage, and it’s the carefree maintenance. And then compared with electric vehicles, there’s also the advantage of unlimited range.

Alternative Fuels

Beyond electric cars and hybrids, you’ve got other choices that are generally considered greener than regular gasoline-powered internal-combustion-engine vehicles. Alternative-fuel vehicles are squarely in this camp.

What exactly are alternative fuels? They’re as follows:

•
natural gas, in the form of compressed natural gas (CNG) or liquefied natural gas (LNG)

•
propane, also called liquefied petroleum gas (LPG)

•
biodiesel

•
ethanol blends

Someday,
hydrogen
also might be a viable alternative fuel. It burns extremely clean. And it’s the fuel that will be used in fuel cell cars, a type of technology that the government and automakers are investing in heavily, though its use in vehicles you and I can drive is probably several years away. A fuel cell is an electrochemical energy conversion device that mixes hydrogen and oxygen to make water, creating electricity in the process. The big drawback with hydrogen—and the reason I’m not a huge supporter of hydrogen fuel cell vehicles at this time—is that hydrogen is made by burning fossil fuels, so the benefits aren’t enough to outweigh the drawbacks right now. We need to find a clean way to “make” hydrogen for it to be a fully green solution.

In the meantime, you
can
get a car today that burns one of these other alternative fuels. And if you can get around and do the tasks you need to do while you’re burning one of these other fuels—while you’re burning natural gas or propane or biodiesel or ethanol—it’s often better for the environment than burning gasoline in a regular internal-combustion-engine car.

You may also qualify for some tax benefits, or be able to drive alone and still use the carpool lane. In California, you have to get a special sticker for your vehicle that will allow you to use the high-occupancy vehicle, or HOV, lane. Anyone who has dealt with L.A. traffic knows this can be a very big benefit indeed.

So let’s take a quick look at each of these other alternative fuels and see what your options are today.

Natural Gas

Natural gas
is
a fossil fuel, but it’s one of the cleanest-burning alternative fuels. Also, it’s made primarily from methane. Furthermore, almost 87 percent of the natural gas used in the United States is
produced
right here in the U.S., so switching from a gasoline-powered car to a natural gas car helps reduce our dependence on foreign oil.

Consumers don’t have many choices when it comes to shopping for a natural gas-powered car. In 2007 only one vehicle that ran exclusively on natural gas was available to consumers in the United States (as opposed to governments or big companies for their fleets). Actually, it was being sold only in California and New York. That vehicle is the Honda Civic GX NGV (for natural gas vehicle). It comes with a device called Phill, a refueling appliance that you connect to your home’s gas line, the same type of gas line that fuels your stove or your clothes dryer. That way, you can fuel the car at home overnight, which makes it just as convenient as an electric car. A full tank gives you a range of 220 to 240 miles, so you can go pretty far with it, and if you use it around town, you will never have to go to a filling station.