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Hawaii to test Hawaii will get a large-scale test of electric vehicles next year, when 15 all-electric sports utility vehicles provided by Hyundai Motor Co. go into service on Oahu roads.
electric SUVs
The project uses
Hyundai's Santa FeBy Russ Lynch
Star-BulletinThe SUVs will be used by Hickam Air Force Base, Hawaiian Electric Co., the City & County of Honolulu, and the State of Hawaii for a two-year test period.
Enova Systems Inc., based in Torrance, Calif., is providing the electric motors, batteries and related systems and has had an electric-vehicle maintenance and service facility in Honolulu since 1994.
"These are mid-size SUVs," like most others except that they produce no emissions and run quietly and efficiently on battery power, said an Enova spokesman, Edward Moore.
The model is Hyundai's new Santa Fe SUV. The South Korean-based automaker recently offered a combined gasoline-electric Sante Fe model but the Hawaii test project will use all-electric versions. They have air conditioning and all the other normal vehicle accessories, run by systems developed by Enova, Moore said. Hawaiian Electric will provide the battery-charging facilities.
Gov. Ben Cayetano scheduled an agreement-signing ceremony for early this afternoon in his office, involving representative of the state High Technology Development Corp., Enova and Hyundai. HTDC will oversee the test project which came to Hawaii partly because of work by the Hawaii Electric Vehicle Demonstration Project launched by the state two years ago. The project, which aims to make Hawaii the first "electric vehicle-ready" state, has helped introduce a number of test vehicles.
HEVDP obtained $500,000 in federal funding for the planned trial of an all-electric passenger-mover bus system for use within Honolulu Airport. The air conditioned electric Wiki-Wiki vehicle, produced by Enova, should be in place by February, Moore said.