The excitement is electric

My wife’s cousin Brandon was aghast at all the reserved slots for electric vehicles, as he continued up the downtown parking facility in search of vacancy. “That’s the problem here,” he sighed, and continued onto a ramp up another floor.

Portland, Oregon, home to my favorite NBA team the Trail Blazers, seems to be set on cutting a path towards clean-fuel rides (as with green Mecca California). Aside from preferential parking, EV (electric vehicle) and hybrid vehicle users get tax credit that helps with the expensive price tags. Near a sprawling IKEA outlet, a couple of charging docks stood waiting for customers. Very convenient, indeed.

Car and Driver reports that “Best Buy, IKEA, Kohl’s, Macy’s, and Walgreens have begun installing free electric-car charging stations in their parking lots.” Walgreens, for one, already has 385 “hookups” and looks to double that count. How are these businesses able to afford the free perk? “Government subsidies cover most of the expense while the electricity to charge… costs only pennies per hour,” continues the magazine article.

While taking in the sights at a mall, amid stores hawking familiar RTW brands and such, our Ninang Emy ushered us into a Tesla showroom. Ever the innovator, Tesla sells its vehicles online, and potential customers can conveniently check out the vehicles in pop-up showrooms in various malls around the US.

Those familiar with the brand (or even its namesake Nikola Tesla, the late great Serbian-American father of AC or alternating current) must remember the obscenely priced Tesla Roadster, regarded as the first fully electric sports car. The Palo Alto, California-based company has now thrown its hat in the realm of practically-priced rides—if a base price of US$57,400 or P2.3 million, before tax breaks, sounds realistic to you.

But make no mistake about it: the Model S is far from pedestrian-looking. Tesla once again proves that you can go electric while looking cool as ice. It’s also a proper sports car, with nearly 50/50 weight distribution and offering “the responsiveness and agility expected from the world’s best sports cars while providing a ride quality beyond expectations.”

Looking positively Jaguar and Lexus-esque, the Model S boasts generous use of aluminum in its body structure, making it strong and lightweight. Underneath the bonnet is, well, nothing. That’s good news because that means you have 8.1 cubic feet of cargo space at your disposal.

Tesla says the Model S can accommodate seven—five adults and two children—with the kids ensconced in the rear-facing third-row jump seat.  Of course, the quiet drive is the main attraction, but there is plenty of tactile tech to enjoy within, too—particularly the 17” touchscreen within the center console. I was particularly impressed by the colorful, futuristic dash display.

Three battery types give varying performance figures and, more importantly, the range you desire. A base 40 kWh cell gives 160 miles between charging cycles and takes a surprisingly fast 6.5 seconds to get to 60 mph. The top-dog 85 kWh “performance” battery promises a range of 300 miles (at 55 mph) and a fast 4.4-second clip to get to 60.  This all-electric sports car dishes out a max of 416 hp.

Battery warranty for this alpha dog cell is eight years for unlimited miles. Charging may be a long wait through 120-volt outlets. Alternatives are to plug into 240V outlets and Tesla’s “supercharging network” in California, which tops up the battery in a measly 45 minutes.

The caveat to all these promises is the rather prohibitive price tag. The 85-kwh battery option will set you back US$20,000. With that kind of dough you could go out and buy a decent internal-combustion-engine car. Still, the US government will reward you with a big one-time US$7,500 tax credit.

Speaking of credit, it bears noting that Tesla exports its electric expertise to big player Toyota. It developed an all-electric version of the RAV4, for exclusive sale in California for $49,800 before incentives. That vehicle scores well in the Consumer Reports score sheet.

Tesla brain Elon Musk, who also conceived of PayPal and SpaceX (a private enterprise that basically takes over where NASA left off), is next bracing for the arrival of Model X—which “blends the best of an SUV with the benefits of a minivan, as only an electric car can.”

Even as Filipinos wait with bated breath for tax breaks and cost cuts for alternatively fueled vehicles sold locally, there needs to be infrastructure—lots of it—before we even begin dreaming of an electric future.

For now, suffice it to say that dreaming remains cost-free.