KLAS-TV Channel 8 News Las VegasElectric Cars Shedding Their Ugly Image
Imagine a fully electric car -- not some glorified golf cart -- but a real sports car that gets more than 150 miles per charge.
It's real and part of a new wave of technology in the Las Vegas Valley. The first electric vehicle charging station was installed this week at the Rampart Casino and more are on the way.
They are called plug in electrics and use your regular outlets at home or new remote charging stations. Your car can be filled up with juice in minutes while you run errands. Casinos want in on it and so does the city.
"They're high performance. They're very quiet. It's what is on the inside that counts," said Steve Rypka, Greendream Enterprises.
"Our gas tank now has a plug," said Bob Rosinski, who runs EV Charge America. His company does conversions, but their newest innovation is a charging station, a radical new "gas" station. If you can't charge up at home for pennies a day. Rosinski says the car can be 80-percent charged in 30 minutes.
Using a subscription service and a unique club card, unlimited charging can go for as little as $20 a month.
"You simply waive the RFID tag in front of a system and it grants you immediate access to the electricity that you need," Rosinski said.
"It has such incredible potential," said Dan Hyde, city of Las Vegas, fleet manager. He sees the cars and the stations and gets excited. Before he had to fight electric nay-sayers.
"There was a lot of doubt, a lot of skepticism, a lot of worry and fear."
Now the city is the final stages to buy demonstration car conversions and charging stations. It's the next step toward full acceptance valley wide.
"You can really put them anywhere," said Rypka. He is a green living consultant with a solar powered house and all. He says Las Vegas has always needed a little push to be green, so combining performance and price could sell here.
"I think there's enough incentive there for people to pick up a plug and put it into their car," he said.
Probably the tough part is the price. Full electric conversions will run $10,000 to $12,000. More fully electric cars should hit the market next year. EV Charge is still waiting to hear if they are going to get stimulus money for green projects.
