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Despite their findings, however, some\nstate officials were clearly wary about\nmaking any significant changes to their\nfleets and expressed concerns over the\nreliability of EVs and inadequate charging\ninfrastructure.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hierarchy\n<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
In 1997, the state Legislature established a state policy to encourage the use of EVs. And a decade ago, it passed a law requiring all state and county agencies, when purchasing new light-duty vehicles, to \u201cseek vehicles with reduced dependence on petroleum-based fuels that meet the needs of the agency.\u201d It also established a hierarchy of those types of vehicles, with the most-preferred being electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since then, however, state and county fleets remain largely gas-powered. The state alone has 1,333 light-duty vehicles, according to an inventory by commission staff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the commission\u2019s meeting, Brian Saito, head of the Department of Accounting and General Services\u2019 Automotive Management Division, attributed his reticence to EV adoption to the poor performance of a slew of Nissan Leafs he purchased for his department in 2011. The batteries never delivered the range they were supposed to, dropping from a starting range of 100 miles down to 50, he said. \u201cPeople refused to drive it, so we started going with Priuses,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, he added that 2019 is the first year he believes the mileage delivered by EVs should be good. He\u2019s acquired one new Nissan Leaf so far, but is waiting to see how it performs before ordering more. \u201cI don\u2019t want to do a whole slew of them and it doesn\u2019t work out again,\u201d he said. (It should be noted that as part of its warranty, Nissan would have replaced the poorly performing batteries of those old models, free of charge.)
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Saito said managers of fleets for other agencies are probably not even thinking about buying electric vehicles and that it\u2019s important to educate them about what EV\u2019s can do. The lack of charging infrastructure might frighten them, he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Department of Health administrator and commission member Bruce Anderson was certainly one of those worried about that. His department has 118 light-duty vehicles, according to the inventory. Anderson said some of his staff are in their cars all day long and make 15 to 20 stops a day, doing a variety of activities. Nurses, for example, drive 150 miles a day, he said. He argued that the driving patterns of DOH workers would push \u201cthe limits of what an EV can accomplish.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cReliability is huge for a lot of\nour staff,\u201d he said.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reichelt suggested that Anderson should have a consultant take an inventory of what\u2019s actually driven by his staff. She pointed out that some of the new EVs have a range of 240 miles on a fully charged battery. \u201cYou can drive around the island twice,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Still, Anderson worried about the lack of charging infrastructure in places such as Puna on Hawai\u2018i island and the rural island of Moloka\u2018i. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the Hawai\u2018i State Energy\nOffice, Moloka\u2018i has no public charging\nports, and Hawai\u2018i island has 43. Even so,\nthere are 35 and 508 registered EVs on those\nislands, respectively.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Department of Land and Natural Resources director Suzanne Case, who said she owns a 2013 Nissan Leaf, said that the charging infrastructure doesn\u2019t have to be perfect. She pointed out that EVs can be charged using a regular outlet. \u201cYou don\u2019t have to have Level 2 or 3 [standard 240-volt and fast-charging EV ports, respectively] in your garage for this to work,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Reichelt added that people will be uncomfortable driving EVs at first, but once they change, they\u2019ll like it. In her presentation, she noted that by about 2024, the upfront cost of an electric car will equal that of a gas-powered car. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Department of Transportation\u2019s Highways Division, at least, has embraced\nthe notion of transitioning to EVs and is\nworking with the state Energy Office on\na study assessing charging infrastructure\nneeds for its current fleet of more than\n60 light-duty vehicles, as well as needs of\nmedium and\/or light duty EV trucks that\nmay be purchased in the future.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Charging Infrastructure\n<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
While, as Case said, charging infrastructure doesn\u2019t have to be perfect to ensure that government employees driving EVs won\u2019t run out of power while working, commission members acknowledged that more needs to be done to at least maintain the infrastructure that exists. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2009, the Legislature passed a law\nrequiring parking facilities with at least 100\nspaces to designate one percent of them for\nEVs by the end of 2011, and also required\nthem to provide an EV charging unit. That\npercentage would increase, to a maximum\nof 10 percent, as the number of registered\nEVs in the state increased.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
While the law established penalties for\npeople who parked non-electric vehicles in\ndesignated EV parking stalls, it did not set\npenalties for developers of parking facilities\nwho failed to install chargers as required,\nnor did it designate an enforcement\nagency. Since charging units can cost a few\nthousand to tens of thousands of dollars\nor more to install, many parking facilities\nhave ignored their obligations.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOn Maui, we\u2019re having collapsing infrastructure,\u201d said one meeting participant, who called for greater accountability among those required to provide chargers to make sure they actually function. She said the various charging stations on the island are operated by a variety of different companies, which sometimes makes them difficult to use. She recommended that there be a statewide vendor \u201cso there isn\u2019t a public perception that charging is difficult.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For the 9,360 registered EVs in the state, there are 495 public charging ports, fewer than 10 percent of which are fast chargers. To improve the EV charging infrastructure statewide, the Legislature this year passed a law that establishes a rebate program for parties willing to install new chargers or upgrade old ones. The state Public Utilities Commission, which will administer the program itself or through a third-party contractor, will provide $4,500 for the installation of two or more new Level 2 ports, $35,000 for a new fast charging system, $3,000 for the upgrade of two or more Level 2 ports, and $28,000 for the upgrade of a fast charger. Total annual rebates would be capped at $500,000. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Legislature also passed a bill requiring all agencies to identify and evaluate vehicle fleet energy efficiency programs \u201cthat the agency may implement using vehicle fleet performance contracts.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Even so, state Rep. Nicole Lowen, who chairs the House Energy and Environmental Protection Committee, said that there needs to be more discussion of how to make sure charging stations are working and the infrastructure benefits the electrical grid. Speaking to the commission\u2019s overall discussion on EVs, Case said, \u201cThis is all about us groping our way forward. This is what I call participating in the mess. … This discussion of is going on at the governor\u2019s office level.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the end, the commission unanimously called for a lead entity to identify and undertake activities that will help state and county agencies to transition their fleets to \u201cclean, renewable fuels,\u201d including coordinating any necessary implementation, serving as a technical resource and reaching out to fleet managers, and regularly updating the commission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u2014Teresa Dawson <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" It wasn’t long ago that transitioning to hybrid gas-electric vehicles was seen as a better way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions on O‘ahu than going purely electric. Unlike the neighbor islands that generate more of their electricity from renewable sources, … Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[459],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11805","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-october-2019"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11805","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11805"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11805\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11805"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11805"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/environment-hawaii.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11805"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}