By Ken Sakamoto, Star-Bulletin
A truck is powered up at one of the new electric vehicle
rapid-charge units. Beginning next year, chargers will be
located around the island. The state will offer incentives to
people who buy electric cars: They won't have to pay parking
meters, they'll be able to ride alone in the commuter lane
without being ticketed, and they won't have to pay registration
or license plate fees for the first five years.

Electric cars
make rapid charge
toward everyday
use in isles

Chargers taking just
10 minutes to use will be installed
around Oahu by the end
of next year

By Lori Tighe
Star-Bulletin

YOU turn the key and hear nothing, but your electric car is on. Put it into drive, accelerate on the electric pedal and you're off without the "vroom."

You smell no exhaust fumes, travel as fast as gas-powered cars and spend $2 to refuel.

Welcome to life with electric cars. The reality is coming soon to Hawaii.

The state will be first in the nation to become electric-car ready by installing rapid chargers around Oahu by the end of 1999 through federal, political and private partnerships.

Rapid chargers, to be installed on the neighbor islands by 2001, can recharge an electric car in 10 minutes.

Electric cars can run for about 125 miles before needing a recharge.

"This will enable us to make a significant leap forward, help us to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and it will be a great boon to Hawaii," said Sen. Daniel Inouye at a blessing for the first rapid charger site yesterday in Honolulu. "We have a win-win situation."

VEHICLES such as Ford Escorts, Geo Prisms and Ford Rangers will be modified with electric engines and battery packs.

A $14,000 Ford Escort would sell for about $20,000 as an electric vehicle.

But business owners such as Bill Wyland are working with the government now to subsidize the batteries, the most expensive part. Federal subsidies would make an electric car cost the same as a gas car.

"I sold all 40-something Wyland galleries and retail stores as of last Friday. I see this is the future," said Wyland, brother of the artist who paints whales and dolphins. "It's something that should have happened already, and it hasn't. I want to be a pioneer in this."

The major car manufacturers told Hawaii if the state wanted electric cars, it needed to install rapid chargers first, said Tom Quinn, director of the Hawaii Electric Vehicle Demonstration Project.

"This is the final step in making Hawaii an EV-ready state," Quinn said.

Hawaii is the ideal state to introduce electric cars because of its temperate climate and geographic limits.

The climate reduces thermal battery problems that occur in cold weather.

Also, the islands' size ensures drivers will always be near a charging station.

THERE are 40 electric vehicles in Hawaii now, mostly driven by the military and the federal government, said Brad Mossman, deputy director of the state Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.

The state will offer incentives to people who buy electric cars. They don't have to pay parking meters.

They can ride alone in the commuter lane without being ticketed. And they don't have to pay registration or license plate fees for the first five years.

"I have no doubt in my mind, this is exactly the kind of technology that meets our needs," said Honolulu Mayor Jeremy Harris, who also attended the blessing ceremony. "If you look at the devastation from internal combustion engines, it is truly staggering. Vog we attribute to the volcano, but it comes from thousands of gallons of gas we consume each day."

"The reality is, electric fuel has to be readily available and convenient for consumers. Electric vehicles have to be transparent and equivalent to current cars," said Ross Sasamura, president of Electric Islands International, working to bring electric cars to the Hawaii market. "We are getting to that point."