Oregon's Races Towards EV Future
Oregon’s governor Ted Kulongoski is currently getting some flack in our comments section over his pay-per-mile road tax scheme. But this is not the only green-oriented plan Kulongoski is floating, having already confirmed that Nissan will provide EVs for the state fleet in 2010. Another controversial transportation proposal of Kulongoski’s is to replace the $1,500 hybrid tax credit with a $5k credit towards the purchase of an all-electric car. If this plan does go into effect, it will make your Tesla Roadster (or Nissan Better Place-mobile) a little more affordable, just be prepared to have your doors blown off by a Datsun 1200 when you hit the road. Check out Oregon Field Guide’s visit with White Zombie, the zero-emissions ass kicker you never saw coming.
More by Edward Niedermeyer
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That is one great video. I wonder how many miles an EV1 with EEStor technology in it could drive on one charge.
Ahh, the street legal drags at PIR. Brings back memories. Never met the owner, but that car has been around forever - I remember reading in the Oregonian about it smoking Vipers in the mid 90's. But like was mentioned, this is a drag prepped car, with a skilled driver (note he doesn't drive it himself) competing against stock street cars with inexperienced drivers. I've been to many races there, and most drivers don't know reaction time from Miller time. Dedicated drag calls always win, be it EV or otherwise. And that M3 has a good 1000 lbs (or more) on the Datsun. What you said RogerB34 is true about Oregonians on some levels - "Sales Tax" is considered political suicide in the state. On the other hand, Multnomah county will approve any income tax increase that builds unneeded libraries (I'm not opposed to Libraries, just when they rebuild perfectly good ones in place of the old one) and sends money to parks. But the rest of the state is more agricultural and not so left leaning in spending. In fact, to my knowledge, only Multnomah county (which Portland is in) requires vehicle emissions checks. The rest of the state does not. But you can get around emission checks in Portland. Just buy an eighties Subaru with four wheel drive (or any 4WD vehicle pre - OBD II). There is no OBD port and the test stations don't have four wheel dynos so as long as your car does not put out visible smoke you get a pass.
great to see different technology / points of view, but the whole 'holier than though - sound bites for tv' take everything down an order of magnitude...