Talk to electric vehicle owners in Juneau and you\u2019re likely to hear some iteration of the phrase \u2018Perfect place.\u2019<\/p>\n
Five people said those exact words at the Electric Vehicle Round Up on Saturday at the Juneau subport parking lot. Event organizer Duff Mitchell put it this way:<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re in that goldilocks zone,\u201d said Mitchell, who was surrounded by Nissan LEAFs, a few Chevy Volts and something called a E-ROD V84X \u2014 a three-wheeled, smart-car-sized two-seater.<\/p>\n
Mitchell has counted 175 electric or hybrid vehicles in Juneau as of Aug. 1. That\u2019s more than twice the 83 he counted at the time of last year\u2019s round up. In total, he said those vehicles have logged at least 1.2 million miles of oil-free travel in Juneau.<\/p>\n
Members of the Juneau Electric Vehicle Association expect those numbers to grow as the weather, geography and cost of electricity in Juneau make it an ideal place to go gasless.<\/p>\n
For one, Juneau\u2019s isolated road system staves off \u201crange anxiety.\u201d Electric vehicles can only travel so far before their batteries run dry. When they do, drivers need to get home or to one of Juneau\u2019s 10 charging stations.<\/p>\n
But Juneau\u2019s isolation means no road trips, so drivers don\u2019t often travel far enough to test their ranges, which are anywhere between 80 and 238 miles for all-electric cars.<\/p>\n
There are currently 10 charging stations, and the city will build one more within a year, according to City and Borough of Juneau architect Michele Elfers, who was on hand at the round up to ask electric vehicle owners just where to put the new charging station.<\/p>\n
The cool weather is easy on batteries, which keep better here than in warmer weather, Mitchell said. Alaska Electric Light and Power, the local electricity utility, also offers a discount for car charging outside of peak hours, AEL&P\u2019s Alec Mesdag said.<\/p>\n
Nissan LEAFs are far and away the most popular option for electric vehicles in Juneau. But there\u2019s no Nissan dealer in town, which makes maintaining the vehicles difficult.<\/p>\n
Though owners say LEAFs are low-maintenance, they have to be shipped to the Lower-48 if they need any serious work, said Bellingham Nissan\u2019s Devin Devolio.<\/p>\n
Devolio said that\u2019s only happened once, and because of the LEAF\u2019s popularity in Juneau, the company hopes to send a technician up a few times a year.<\/p>\n
Owners reported many reasons for going electric. For EV owner John Cooper, you can\u2019t beat the economics.<\/p>\n
\u201cI decided to put my money where my mouth is,\u201d Cooper said. \u201cFor about 80 cents I can drive 24 miles with the LEAF, so if you have a car that gets 24 miles to the gallon, that same distance costs you $3.29 for gasoline. From a pure economic standpoint, driving an electric vehicle in Juneau makes all the sense in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
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\u2022 Contact reporter Kevin Gullufsen at 523-2228 or kevin.gullufsen@juneauempire.com.<\/b><\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Talk to electric vehicle owners in Juneau and you\u2019re likely to hear some iteration of the phrase \u2018Perfect place.\u2019 Five people said those exact words at the Electric Vehicle Round Up on Saturday at the Juneau subport parking lot. Event organizer Duff Mitchell put it this way: \u201cWe\u2019re in that goldilocks zone,\u201d said Mitchell, who […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":427,"featured_media":31982,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":4,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-31981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/427"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31981"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=31981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}