North Coast Electric Company

I came to work recently and was informed that I was in “charge” (pun intended) of the new, all electric, ZERO Emission, North Coast Electric Nissan Leaf! So I’ve been thrown headlong into the world of range anxiety and other assorted electric vehicle challenges. Yesterday was the pinnacle of the chaos so far, as 3 of us (including a very forgiving customer and a North Coast associate with a soon-to-depart flight) became stranded. Our transportation day included car ferries, passenger ferries, airplanes, conventional cars, a taxi and the beloved electric vehicle. Despite the rather inconvenient truth (can you believe I worked that phrase in here ;-) of our initial EV experience, our area is a focal point for the development of the infrastructure necessary to support a substantial adaptation of plug-in electric vehicles.

One might wonder…what’s the attraction to this?

The tone of our culture in the great Pacific Northwest is shaded heavily towards “green.” If you look around on a clear sunny day in Seattle it’s not hard to understand where a desire to protect the environment comes from. Gas-electric hybrid vehicles caught on quickly here and you see them everywhere. There are literally millions of dollars being invested in this region to make electric vehicles a viable way to get where you are going. Despite all the challenges we’ve experienced in just the first week of trying to get around in the Leaf…here’s why this car makes me think electric vehicles could take hold and become a viable transportation alternative:

1. This is a very nice car
2. This car is quiet, quick, smooth and powerful (ok there’s another pun to add to the list ;-)
3. It goes plenty fast
4. It has a lot of cool electronic gadget features I can show off to people which makes me look cooler and smarter than I really am.
5. It is fun to drive.
6. It’s a great conversation starter.
7. This first version is very capable of comfortably handling most people's urban commute.

This is the leading edge of this potential transition. As the technology evolves the range will increase, the cost will decrease, the support infrastructure will proliferate and I think the electric vehicle will move beyond the early adapter stage into the mainstream of life.

We did get the cart before the horse a little though. We don’t have a charging station installed here yet so we just plug the car into the wall!

But we will soon be installing our own “Energy Transfer Merchant,” which includes a solar charging station so we can put energy directly from the sun…into the Leaf.

Stay tuned!