It was a loooong night/early morning for the eight of us from the DC area's EV community who spoke in front of the Arlington County Board on behalf of the EV Taxicab company. Many were still there at 1:45 AM when the meeting finally wrapped up.
The room was filled to capacity with dozens of taxi drivers from competing firms who were not very happy about 40 certificates being proposed to go to a new company and many of them voiced opposition to electric vehicles with dramatic warnings of passengers being stranded on the road to Dulles airport and stories of the Nissan LEAF spending 60% of the time in the repair shop.
The Board decided to delay the final decision for two weeks so they can gather more information. We have a bit more work to do in order to help answer some of the questions that members of the board are asking in regard to EVs. We will get a list of those specific questions and share them.
In addition to the EVA/DC and MD Volt members who spoke, representatives from Dominion Power, Nissan, the Sierra Club and a local pizzeria owner who delivers pizza on electric bicycles spoke in support of the EV company.
You can see the video here: http://arlington.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=2431&meta_id=105185#.ULYKvOCtR7g.twitter" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
There are presentations from the cab companies and a few others from the County, then presentations from the public.
There is still a lot of work to do. When Volt owner Joe Lado, member of EVA/DC and MD Volt, did his presentation, he was one of the only presenters who was asked by a Board member what the range of his Volt was. He said about 40 miles (to be conservative). The Board member, J. Walter Tejada, asked him if he had 2 cars, one to get to Dulles Airport and one to get back home. I don't know if he was trying to make a joke, because many of the cab drivers in the audience laughed, or if he didn't understand that the Volt had a range extender. You be the judge and watch the video at 6:35. I'm at 6:27 (I was quite tired and rushed to get my words into 2 min.)
The room was filled to capacity with dozens of taxi drivers from competing firms who were not very happy about 40 certificates being proposed to go to a new company and many of them voiced opposition to electric vehicles with dramatic warnings of passengers being stranded on the road to Dulles airport and stories of the Nissan LEAF spending 60% of the time in the repair shop.
The Board decided to delay the final decision for two weeks so they can gather more information. We have a bit more work to do in order to help answer some of the questions that members of the board are asking in regard to EVs. We will get a list of those specific questions and share them.
In addition to the EVA/DC and MD Volt members who spoke, representatives from Dominion Power, Nissan, the Sierra Club and a local pizzeria owner who delivers pizza on electric bicycles spoke in support of the EV company.
You can see the video here: http://arlington.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=2431&meta_id=105185#.ULYKvOCtR7g.twitter" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
There are presentations from the cab companies and a few others from the County, then presentations from the public.
There is still a lot of work to do. When Volt owner Joe Lado, member of EVA/DC and MD Volt, did his presentation, he was one of the only presenters who was asked by a Board member what the range of his Volt was. He said about 40 miles (to be conservative). The Board member, J. Walter Tejada, asked him if he had 2 cars, one to get to Dulles Airport and one to get back home. I don't know if he was trying to make a joke, because many of the cab drivers in the audience laughed, or if he didn't understand that the Volt had a range extender. You be the judge and watch the video at 6:35. I'm at 6:27 (I was quite tired and rushed to get my words into 2 min.)