So, you're on an island surrounded by water for hundreds of miles, all your oil has to be shipped in from elsewhere, your energy prices are always two to three times higher than your continental neighbors', and you're looking at a future where livability on your island is likely to decline dramatically as energy prices do nothing but rise—what do you do?
Hawaii's answer has been to dump as many resources as they possibly can into building out a clean energy infrastructure based on solar and wind (and, in the future, wave), greatly encourage the building of a relatively extensive charging infrastructure, and create incentives that make buying an electric car cheaper than buying a gas-powered, base-model Corolla... All on a series of islands that are particularly well-suited to the electric car; they have small-footprints, are populated by mostly low speed roads, and the temperature never gets below 'balmy.'
So it's no surprise that both Nissan and CODA have chosen to build a rather extensive relationship with Hawaii to further their electric car plans. Just this week, Nissan announced a partnership to "advance zero-emission mobility by promoting the development of electric vehicles, and an electric-vehicle charging network, throughout the state" in what Nissan is calling their "first definitive agreement in the United States."
Although Nissan has already established dozens of partnerships with other states, counties, and businesses, according to Tracy Woodard, Nissan's Director of North American Government Affairs, the agreement with Hawaii marks the first time that the partnership lays out exactly what everyone is bringing to the table and assigns responsibility. "Other partnerships were more of 'we are going to work to get everyone together'—more general outlines heading towards what needs to be done," she wrote in an email.
The definitive agreement stipulates that Nissan and the State of Hawaii will promote a charging network, and help plan for its deployment, operation and maintenance. Hawaii has committed to establishing policies to streamline the deployment of the necessary infrastructure and Nissan has committed to making an unannounced number of EVs available for sale there as well as educate and train their dealers in the state.
Although the LEAF won't be available in Hawaii until January of 2011, Nissan is betting it will sell extremely well in the state—especially considering the extra $4,500 state tax credit (on top of the $7,500 federal tax). Yes, you can buy a LEAF for about $20K in Hawaii... and California, for that matter—well, until the money runs out that is, but that's another story.
Not to be left off of the Hawaii EV banana train, CODA automotive, the relatively small but peppy electric car start-up, has committed to launching its electric sedan in Hawaii in the fall of 2011. Although limited deliveries of the CODA Sedan are scheduled to begin at the end of this year in California, Hawaii appears the next major location CODA begin deliveries.
The CODA Sedan is one of the first relatively affordable plug-in cars available, although they've been trying to find ways to put a chink in Nissan's shining armor recently in seeking out ways to differentiate themselves from the LEAF and justify what is expected to be a several thousand dollar higher price tag. For instance, CODA has been saying that their 33.8 kWh battery provides 40% more storage capacity than the LEAF (up to a 120 mile range) and has a thermal management system to provide a more consistent range over a wide variety of external temperatures—which, as many of you know, the LEAF does not.
"CODA Automotive's all-electric vehicle is another important addition to Hawaii's efforts to transition to a clean energy economy," said Hawaii Governor Linda Lingle, in a statement. "The State of Hawai'i recognizes new electric vehicle technology and the electrification of the transportation sector will play a critical role in helping Hawai'i reduce its dependency on the use of fossil fuels and achieving our 70 percent clean energy goal by 2030."
I agree, islands like Hawaii are perfectly suited for EV's. They are small so you that would be hard pressed to drive 100 miles in a day, unless you drove for a living making deliveries or such. They also are perfect for renewable energy production, like solar for instance. Then, as you point out, most of the streets are low speed. Of course Hawaii has some highways, but you wouldn't need to drive long on one very long to get to the other side of the island.
I recently vacationed in the Turks & Caicos Islands. It was a really beautiful island and the entire island is only about 38 square miles. Every time we took a cab ride I would think how perfect it would be to have EV's as cabs here and I would even ask the driver how many miles he drove in a typical day. The average according to the cabbies I spoke to was about 70-80 miles. One of the cab drivers even pointed out to me that there isn't a single traffic light on the entire Island because there is such little traffic that they don't need them. Most all the driving was on low speed, secondary type roads where we drove around 40mph. Perfect.