Electric vehicles are the future in Oregon

I walked into today's Salem City Club program, "Charging Ahead: Is Oregon Ready for Electric Vehicles?," feeling positive about electric cars. I walked out feeling super excited about them. 

Which made me pleased that I'd put down a $2,500 deposit on the upcoming Tesla Model Y, a hatchback version of the popular Model 3 that I'm seeing a lot of here in Salem. 

Jessica Reichers got my enthusiasm ramped up with her kick-off presentation. She's with the Oregon Department of Energy. 

She noted that there's a lot of jargon associated with electric vehicles, EVs. ZEVs are zero emission vehicles. They don't emit any exhaust gas, so a fully electric vehicle would be a ZEV. As would a bicycle, of course. Reichers described four types of electric vehicles.

(1) Fuel cell. (no fueling stations exist in Oregon so far)
(2) Battery electric. (no gas engine at all)
(3) Plug-in hybrid. (goes for a while on electricity, then shifts to gas engine/generator)
(4) Hybrid. (doesn't need plugging in)

These are some of the advantages of fully electric vehicles. Plug-in hybrids, such as the Chevy Volt (we've leased three Volts) share the advantages to a large extent. 

The main disadvantage for many people is range anxiety, worrying you will run out of battery power on the road. Plug-in hybrids and hybrids don't have that worry, but they also aren't zero emission. With many more ZEVs expected in Oregon, our state has to keep up with the need for charging stations. 

Currently we have enough, according to Reichers. Tesla owners are especially fortunate, since Tesla has Superchargers on major highways that can charge a vehicle much more rapidly than Level 2 (240 volt) chargers. Many people get by with using regular 120 volt charging overnight at home.

For me, as for most people attracted to electric vehicles, a prime motivation is acting to preserve our one and only planet Earth for human habitation. Global warming produced by human-caused greenhouse gas emissions is real, getting worse, and poses a major threat to civilization. 

This slide showed the environmental benefits of electric vehicles. The transportation sector is the biggest contributor to Oregon's greenhouse gas emissions.

Many electric vehicles qualify for the $7,500 federal tax credit. Of course, you have to pay at least that much in federal taxes to benefit from it. Some electric car manufacturers, such as Tesla, have sold so many vehicles, the federal tax credit has gone away wholly or in large part. This example is for an all-electric Hyundai that qualifies for several incentives.

Fuel is another obvious source of savings, since electricity here in Oregon is quite inexpensive compared to some other parts of the country.

Yes, part of the electricity in our state comes from fossil fuel sources, coal and natural gas. This slide shows how PGE, Pacific Power, and Salem Electric (part of COU/BPA) stack up, carbon emission-wise, if used to power an electric vehicle. All are much less carbon-intensive than an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) vehicle.

The other City Club presenter was Joe Wachunas, an electric vehicle information consultant with FORTH, a non-profit based in Portland whose web site has a lot of valuable information. FORTH offers test drives of electric vehicles. 

He showed this mildly-depressing slide of electric vehicles as a percentage of new car sales. Just 2% nationally, about 4% in Portland, yet 21% in San Jose, California and a whopping 48% in Norway -- which shows that electric cars work just fine in cold weather.

Lastly, this slide debunked a criticism of electric vehicles that I've heard from skeptics. Namely, that the carbon emissions involved in making the car and its battery outweigh the emissions that aren't produced in operating the car. 

Actually, even with battery manufacturing included, the life-cycle global warming emissions for electric cars are less than half of the emissions for a gasoline car.

After the program, we got to see electric vehicles that City Club members had brought to the meeting. There was a good variety: Jaguar iPace, Chevrolet Spark, Chevy Bolt and Volt, Tesla S, Honda Clarity, others I can't remember, and...

City Councilor Chris Hoy's Tesla X. I'd never seen an actual Tesla X, so this was a thrill for me. I got to sit in the driver's seat and peruse the "romantic" mode (or whatever it's called) that features a relaxing fire on the giant touchscreen. 

Even better, Chris demonstrated how his Model X can dance. If anybody you know says that electric cars are boring, show them this video.

 

Comments

[tucson]

"Actually, even with battery manufacturing included, the life-cycle global warming emissions for electric cars are less than half of the emissions for a gasoline car."

--But if the electric car and battery were not produced at all the life cycle global emissions would be zero. Besides, the electricity to charge the battery most often comes from burning fossil fuels which = carbon emissions anyway.

If it is believed this climate thing really is caused by carbon emissions then wouldn't it be best not to produce them at all? I mean, some say the planet will become unlivable if we don't stop producing carbon emissions. So, why don't we? Because few people are willing to make that sacrifice. People want their stuff. Woke people who think they are green in their greenmobiles are still brown and not so woke. The real sacrifice is for someone else, not them. They are deluding themselves. Placing themselves on a false pedestal of virtue, patting themselves on the back for nothing. This climate agenda is all talk and hypocrisy. Carbon emissions will continue because humanity is continuing and whatever course has been set or not set by humanity's inevitable emissions will occur.

[Teresa Isle Fry]

We have been waiting since February for our rebate. Way, way to slow to save. We are starting to get angry that it is taking so long. Come on Oregon DEQ lets get moving so more people are motivated to buy and EV. We love ours but we would love it more with $2500 that we were promised!

[Rain Trueax]

I think the full truth of all of this is not yet in. Time will tell as it always does. It has the potential of being an answer for city dwellers as for the rest of us-- not so much.

[Scott]

The cost of my ZEV to fuel and cost to the environment is lower than one might think. I have been tracking my electric bill for three years. Two years before purchasing ZEV and the year that I have owned it. Only months with the same daily average temperature are compared. I have found that my electric bill has only increased from $1.25 to $5.00 a month. For the cost to the environment I pay an additional $6.00 a month for electricity that is from renewable sources. That is $11.00 a month at the most to do my part. I save over $800.00 a year in fuel cost compared to my permanently retired (scraped) ICE automobile.

Range Anxiety is real and can be over come. Planning long trips to include recharging battery helps. Driving posted speed limits helps save on battery usage. There needs to be more Level 3 charging stations. For local driving I only need to recharge battery 2 or 3 times a week.

[tucson]

Scott,
I think what you are saying is that the total cost for electricity to run your car is about $11.00 per month. Is that correct? How many miles do you typically drive? What is the source of the renewable portion of your electricity?

That is a very good deal unless you drive only a few miles and may be worth putting up with a little range angst.

The cost to the environment for production of electric vehicles and disposal of old batteries remains high but I do like the reduction in exhaust emissions and noise aspect. That's a good thing for everybody although there may be more people (and animals) run over by cars they didn't hear coming. You can hear my son's diesel truck coming from a mile away (it seems) and you can smell it from about that far away (for sure) as well.

Ah, but I love the acrid stench of diesel exhaust in the crisp morning air. Reminds of my stint as a truck driver idling for hours at a rest stop with the engine running to keep the frig unit operating. With a team operated truck, daily mileage is often 1200 miles or more. There is going to be severe range angst in the industry if they convert to electric tractor trailer rigs. We'll have to be more patient about getting our stuff if the trucks have to stop for hours every 240 miles or so to recharge. Goods will cost more per mile because of the extra time the truck and driver has to spend on the road recharging per load. Longer turn around time.

Just thinking out loud. I don't know much.

[Rain Trueax]

Just saw this today-- electric cars the wave of the future, are they? Is how the cobalt is gotten without cost? https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4764208/Child-miners-aged-four-living-hell-Earth.html?fbclid=IwAR2zaDWBe7gbE-J4tl5D9nwJiG1B1vlU2AcgiiGpfnvdMNLszsGQeQBs2So