All electric vehicle manufacturers have pushed back their release dates. One of the most feasible, the Chevrolet Volt, has an estimated release date in early 2011, not late 2010, as was spoken of last year.
Tesla is taking preorders for the Model S (at $50,000 each), but it’s not expected until the last quarter of 2011, at the earliest.
New Detroit automaker Fisker Karma’s $80,000-plus sedan can also be preordered, but it won’t be delivered until 2012.
Nissan will start taking reservations for its Leaf electric vehicle in April, start building by October and sell the car starting in December. The price is believed to be in the mid-$20,000 range (after the $7,500 federal EV tax credit), undercutting the Chevy Volt by about $10,000.
A number of massive changes will follow the deployment of EVs. For example, as a recent $100 tax on EVs sold in Washington state shows, taxes included in the price of gas will have to be replaced to pay for and maintain roadways.
Then, EVs will likely require far less maintenance and repair than gasoline-powered vehicles.
That could threaten not just the oil companies, but dealer service and parts sales, muffler shops, smog shops, brake shops, radiator shops, tuneup and engine specialty shops, gas stations and so on.
Car manufacturers, Middle Eastern sheiks and oil company cronies knew it all along, and they did everything in their power to delay the EV’s deployment — witness the total recall and destruction of GMC’s EV1 and electric street cars in the first half of the 20th century.
General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said GM will likely always lose money on its hybrid vehicle offerings. He added that hybrid vehicles will never penetrate the market beyond a 10 percent market share.
Locally, during a recent interview in our office, Santa Cruz County Sheriff Phil Wowak stated that there are no plans for the sheriff’s office to deploy any green-technology vehicles, even though production of the Ford Crown Victorias it uses will cease next year. Ditto for Scotts Valley Police Department, with the possible exception of locally made electric Zero Motorcycles for off-road patrol use.
Santa Cruz Yellow Cab owner James Monroe also said that because of the high cost of hybrids, it’ll stick to a gasoline vehicle fleet — but if any owner-operators wish to buy hybrids, they’ll be supported.
Escape a ticket
Last year, I got a speeding ticket in Santa Cruz that was clocked by a radar gun. I always fight tickets, but especially this time, when a city bus was right on my little Hyundai’s tail and there was no way the police radar could tell us apart.
There are many books and Web sites that’ll tell you what to do, but beware of the later editions — there are outdated pyramid schemes selling the same old thing that isn’t state-specific.
One book — “Fight your Ticket and Win in California” by David Wayne Brown — seems state-specific enough and up to date. Just make sure you’re reading the latest edition.
One thing from that book that works for me is asking to have your case heard by a real judge. You have a right to that — a traffic court “judge” is just a lawyer appointed as a commissioner.
Once you get that appointment, the law enforcement officer who gave you a ticket has to show up in real, nontraffic court on a day that’s not designated specifically for his or her department, which lets them show up at traffic court during their regular work hours (Santa Cruz Police’s day is Tuesday, the California Highway Patrol’s is Thursday, etc.). It gets even worse for them when the appointment is on a day off: Most police departments won’t pay overtime for such an appearance, so officers have to go on their own time — and that seldom happens.
Once you go that route, extra administrative costs make the state and county lose money on your case — thus beating the morally questionable revenue-collecting aim of excessive traffic law enforcement.
• Lucjan Szewczyk, the Press-Banner’s photographer, is a part-time cab driver who commutes to Scotts Valley from San Jose.
