If you keep figuring “someday” you might buy an electric car, two companies are offering an incentive to help. ADVERTISING If you keep figuring “someday” you might buy an electric car, two companies are offering an incentive to help. Hawaii
If you keep figuring “someday” you might buy an electric car, two companies are offering an incentive to help.
Hawaii Electric Light Co. and Nissan want to make your “someday” happen sooner.
HELCO partnered with Nissan to offer a $10,000 rebate on a new 2016 or 2017 all-electric Nissan Leaf sedan. HELCO says it’s part of the “Drive-Electric Hawaii” effort to speed adoption of clean, cost-effective electric vehicles and move the state closer to 100 percent renewable energy.
Combined with a $7,500 federal tax incentive, the consumer’s end cost for the $30,680 sticker price on a Nissan Leaf is $13,180. The rebate is available until March 31, or while supplies last.
The sedan has a 107-mile range when fully charged. It’s about 80 miles from Hilo to Kailua-Kona, South Point or Hawi.
The mileage range is important to consider, according to Kamaaina Nissan Executive Manager Bill Wilson.
“HELCO has put in charging stations at their offices,” he said. Those 240-volt stations are “rapid charge” and can get a car fully charged in two to three hours.
The car can be plugged into any normal 120-volt outlet. But that typically requires sitting overnight to fully recharge. That means you wouldn’t be able to drive from Hilo to Kailua-Kona late some afternoon, plug into a 120-volt outlet somewhere and get recharged in time to go home the same day.
“No, you’d have to stay overnight,” Wilson said.
There are quite a few charging stations already on the Big Island, including at the car dealership in Hilo, the Hilo International Airport, the County Building in Hilo, on the University of Hawaii at Hilo campus, at the Community Center in Pahoa and at HELCO in Waimea.
Can you drive such an electric car long distances, recharge and get back in the same day?
“You’re going to have to plan,” Wilson said. He has customers who do, indeed, drive fairly long distances.
“They schedule themselves where they have access to the charging systems,” he said.
Wilson said he has one customer who commutes to Waimea, 59 miles from Hilo, plugs in and has a full charge in time for the evening drive home. Drivers pay with something similar to a credit card that tracks power drawn from charging stations.
The perfect owner for such an all-electric car, Wilson said, is a commuter or a retiree who only takes occasional long trips and plans ahead to recharge once at a destination.
Charging-station infrastructure on the Big Island hasn’t quite kept up with the leaps in technology, he said. But Hawaii law requires all electricity to come from renewable energy by 2045, according to HELCO. And a bill in the Legislature, if it passes, will require all vehicles except collector cars to be powered by renewable energy by then.
Wilson expects more charging stations will pop up as businesses follow the lead of consumers.
“They’re eventually going to have to put in charging stations to attract customers,” he said.
Email Jeff Hansel at jhansel@hawaiitribune-herald.com.
