Newport charges into the future
Alex Coolman
Newport Beach to Al Gore: we’re way ahead of you.
The vice president, in the new forward to his book “Earth in the Balance:
Ecology and the Human Spirit,” which was released last month, strongly
advocates the abolition of the internal combustion engine on
environmental grounds.
But moving away from gas-powered engines is something the city of Newport
Beach has been doing for years. The city leases a fleet of 20
electrically powered vehicles, automobiles that are used for a wide range
of services.
“It’s the largest fleet of electric vehicles of any municipality in
California,” said Dave Niederhaus, general services director for the
city.
And while other cities in Orange County are triumphantly unveiling their
first one or two electric cars, Newport Beach is getting ready to extend
the lease on its fleet. Whether it’s a transportation solution for the
country at large, city officials’ reactions to the program here are
clear: in Newport Beach, electric works.
The parking lot of the Newport Beach Police Department has two spaces
that are marked with “Electric Vehicle Parking Only” signs -- spaces that
are home to a pair of electric Toyota RAV-4s.
The cars are used for nonenforcement work, such as parking and graffiti
patrols, said Newport Beach Police Sgt. Mike McDermott.
The work, which mostly involves puttering around town and a bit of
freeway driving, takes advantage of the strengths of the vehicles and
minimizes their weaknesses.
Though the cars’ range is only about 90 miles, that’s more than enough
for the volunteers who drive them. McDermott said the batteries still
have about a 40% charge left after an eight-hour shift.
They can’t accelerate as fast as gas-powered cars and they don’t go more
than about 65 mph. High-powered lights of the sort that are mounted on
most police cars drain too much power from the batteries, as do police
radios.
In spite of these drawbacks, McDermott said the cars are a hit with the
volunteers who use them.
Part of the appeal is strictly economic. Niederhaus says the cost of
recharging a battery is much lower than the cost of filling a gas tank.
“Even when gas was at a normal price a year ago, it was costing us about
five cents a mile for gas and one cent a mile for electricity,” he said.
Niederhaus estimates that the city saves between $10 and $15,000 annually
on fuel costs for the entire fleet.
In addition to the financial incentives for going electric, the cars are
a major environmental improvement over their gas-powered cousins.
“They’re completely cleaner,” said Sam Atwood, spokesman for the South
Coast Air Quality Management District. “There’s no tailpipe emissions
whatsoever. There is some air pollution associated with the electricity
generation, but this is a very tiny fraction of what a car would emit.”
Atwood estimated that electric vehicle emissions were “more than 99%
cleaner” than those spewing from internal combustion-powered vehicles.
Which is not to say that Newport Beach is about to go completely
electrified. McDermott said he thought it possible that the fleet could
expand “somewhat.” But the limited range of the cars places certain
restrictions on their uses.
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