Electric Vehicles on Parade

Just driving down the street tonight, I saw this:


Of course, I had to stop and take a couple of pictures, including its cool logotypes. The script is on the back, just above the license plate, and the funky "electric" one is on the front.


So after I got home, I had to find out what the heck this thing is. I found a site called www.evalbum.com, which is a place for owners of all types of electric vehicles to post photos of their beloved electric vehicles, along with the story of how they came to acquire them, their repair history, and much more.

The Electra Van, as it turns out, was made by Subaru around 1980, and it has a motor made by GE. As you can see in the photo, it looks like a VW van, sort of, but what you can't tell is that it's about 3/4 of the scale. Cute! It seats two people comfortably (four uncomfortably, as one owner described it), and its small wheels make for a bumpy ride.

Another electric vehicle in St. Paul -- more comfortable, too -- is the Neighborhood Energy Consortium's HOURCAR. The NEC has two converted Priuses, at least one of which is located at Mississippi Market at Selby and Dale, available for sharing among HOURCAR members. It's solar powered, to boot. Here's a link to MPR's recent story on the solar HOURCAR, and one to the Pioneer Press story.