{"id":2180,"date":"2007-08-10T21:47:38","date_gmt":"2007-08-11T01:47:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spacingtoronto.ca\/?p=2180"},"modified":"2013-01-21T13:40:06","modified_gmt":"2013-01-21T18:40:06","slug":"the-electric-car-lives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/08\/10\/the-electric-car-lives\/","title":{"rendered":"The electric car lives!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1266\/1075714626_dd35fd8be4.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p><strong>VANCOUVER<\/strong> &#8212; I&#8217;m on the west coast visiting some friends and exploring wonderful Vancouver. I&#8217;ve been out here almost every other year for the past 10 years and each time I visit a friend turns me onto something that catches me by surprise. On this trip, it&#8217;s the electric car.<\/p>\n<p>Pictured above is my friend Alex Tu, who is an alternative energy and sustainability specialist at BC Hydro. He is also the sole driver of the utility&#8217;s only electric car. Alex is one of those late bloomers when it comes to driving &#8212; he got his license when he was 28. When he started working at BC Hydro, this experimental electric car was unused most of the time so he was encouraged to become its test driver for as long as he wanted.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1120\/1074855511_70e3ff937b.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>While it looks pretty suave form the outside, there is absolutely no frills on the thing &#8212; the doors are as thin as the early 1990s <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Geo_Metro\">Pontiac Firefly<\/a>, the material used for the driver and passenger seats are similar to fancy lawn chairs, a dashboard does not exist, and the steering is worse than rack-and-pinion. But those are easy things to ignore when you realize that it doesn&#8217;t emit any greenhouse gases and you &#8220;refuel&#8221; the engine by plugging it into a socket. I was completely charmed when Alex flipped up the &#8220;gas tank&#8221; lid to reveal a simple household electrical outlet (pictured above).<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1073\/1075719010_10bd922043.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The gear shift is as simple as it gets &#8212; its like turning on the timer for a toaster oven. And each time Alex starts the car I have no idea if its on or off as the engine is totally silent.<\/p>\n<p>There are a few drawbacks: we have to drive around with the hazard lights flashing and a reflective orange safety sign hanging out of the trunk because the vehicle is not recognized as a <em>real<\/em> car &#8212; from a registration point of view, it&#8217;s classified the same way as a tractor or city utility vehicle; if it exceeds 45km\/hr the vehicle automatically starts braking; and the battery life is last for only 40km.<\/p>\n<p>The documentary <a href=\"http:\/\/farm2.static.flickr.com\/1073\/1075719010_10bd922043.jpg\">Who Killed The Electric Car?<\/a> opened my eyes to how advanced research on this type of vehicle has\/did reached. Luckily, at least for my friend Alex, this type of vehicle is not extinct and may provide us with more environmentally-friendly ways to travel in the not-so-distant future.<\/p>\n<p>Here&#8217;s the documentary&#8217;s trailer for those unfamiliar with the film.<\/p>\n<p><object width=\"425\" height=\"350\"><param name=\"movie\" value=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/nsJAlrYjGz8\"\/><param name=\"wmode\" value=\"transparent\"\/><embed src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/v\/nsJAlrYjGz8\" type=\"application\/x-shockwave-flash\" wmode=\"transparent\" width=\"425\" height=\"350\"\/><\/object><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VANCOUVER &#8212; I&#8217;m on the west coast visiting some friends and exploring wonderful Vancouver. I&#8217;ve been out here almost every other year for the past 10 years and each time I visit a friend turns me onto something that catches me by surprise. On this trip, it&#8217;s the electric car. Pictured above is my friend<a href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/08\/10\/the-electric-car-lives\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"sr-only\">&#8220;The electric car lives!&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1022,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13,9],"tags":[6489,427,6485,6486,1371,6488,23,6484,2194,21,6490,6483,6487,54,562,6491],"class_list":["post-2180","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-green-space","category-traffic","tag-alex-tu","tag-driver","tag-electric-car","tag-electric-car-lives","tag-energy","tag-energy-and-sustainability-specialist-at-bc-hydro","tag-environment","tag-experimental-electric-car","tag-gas-tank","tag-other-cities","tag-pontiac-firefly","tag-real-car","tag-test-driver","tag-vancouver","tag-west-coast","tag-who-killed-the-electric-car"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The electric car lives! - Spacing Toronto<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/spacing.ca\/toronto\/2007\/08\/10\/the-electric-car-lives\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The electric car lives! - Spacing Toronto\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"VANCOUVER &#8212; I&#8217;m on the west coast visiting some friends and exploring wonderful Vancouver. 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