The next few years could prove decisive in determining whether the plug-in electric car, with a driving range of about 100 miles between charges, is a boon or a boondoggle.
Judging by the scene Sunday outside the State Farmers Market, locals are plenty intrigued by the concept of a car liberated from the gasoline pump. The Triangle, selected as test market for the first wave of electric cars to arrive this year, ultimately will help determine whether that initial curiosity can be sustained to propel the nation's auto industry to a historic transformation.
More than 300 people put up with sloshy weather Friday at the market to become among the first in the nation to test the all-electric Nissan Leaf. The hatchback made its debut in Raleigh this weekend, one of the final stops of the Leaf's six-month coast-to-coast promotional tour.
The market's parking lot served as the staging ground for an elaborate production, staffed by 35 people and featuring five temporary greenhouse-like structures set up for lectures, demonstrations, videos and a snack lounge. One of the staffers described the mobile marketing campaign, which will have visited 23 cities by the end of this month, as a "traveling city."
The viability of electron-powered cars is about to meet its first major test with the arrival of the Leaf and plug-in hybrids such as the Chevy Volt and Ford Focus.
The U.S. auto industry and the federal government have paired up in a multimillion-dollar effort to move the long-range electric car to the production stage. They are now busy whetting the public's appetite for the plug-in automobile technology.
During the Leaf's visit to the Triangle, which lasted Thursday through Sunday, about 1,150 people took a two-mile zip.
"I'm sold," said Ari Breslauer of Raleigh, a paramedic. "There's no shifting gears, no engine noises. It's just smoothness."
The zero-emissions vehicle can be pre-cooled, pre-heated, and charged remotely using a smart phone. The car is so quiet that Nissan installed a mechanism to emit an artificial sound at slow speeds, to warn pedestrians.
A dashboard readout provides an estimate of the driving miles remaining in the 600 pounds of batteries under the floorboard.
About 20,000 limited U.S. models to be released this year have already been claimed in pre-registrations. Other than those, the Leaf won't be widely available until next year at the earliest.
Cheap - and pricey, too
The main appeal of the electric car is that it's cheap to operate. It costs about $2.50 to drive 100 miles on electricity, based on today's residential electricity rates charged by Duke Energy or Progress Energy. Driving the same distance using gasoline costs $10 to $12, depending on fuel efficiency and the cost of gasoline.
The electric car's main drawback: running out of juice, commonly known as "range anxiety." The Leaf can go 70 to 140 miles on a single charge, depending on driving styles and conditions. Running the car's heater, for example, reduces efficiency 25 percent.
Public charging stations are deemed critical to the widespread acceptance of electric cars as a way of alleviating fears of getting stranded. More than 400 of the pods are planned for this state, largely paid for by federal stimulus funds.
"That's why I'm holding back some," said Roger Mathison, a retired electrical engineer from Fuquay-Varina who tested the Leaf. "I want to see more of these charging stations around the country."
It takes eight hours to fill the batteries from a 240-volt charger, making the electric car impractical for a trip to the beach or to the mountains. A household charger costs about $2,200, which can be partially defrayed with a 30 percent federal incentive. Using a standard 120-volt wall outlet is an option but requires 20 hours to fully recharge the Leaf's batteries.
The Leaf's $32,780 price tag is also a deterrent, although a federal tax incentive of $7,500 brings down the cost to a more competitive $25,280.
The selling points are the environmental benefits of using electrical power plants to energize automobiles.
The Leaf's sporty, peppy, big-league responsiveness is also a pleasant surprise, especially if the only other electric vehicle you've driven is a golf cart.
"I was gunning it when I rounded that corner and got up to 70" mph, Mathison said. "I wanted to see what it could do."
