{"id":44507,"date":"2021-09-25T14:23:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-25T20:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/electric-vehicles-amass-at-fairgrounds-for-national-drive-electric-week\/"},"modified":"2021-09-25T20:23:00","modified_gmt":"2021-09-25T20:23:00","slug":"electric-vehicles-amass-at-fairgrounds-for-national-drive-electric-week","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/electric-vehicles-amass-at-fairgrounds-for-national-drive-electric-week\/","title":{"rendered":"Electric vehicles amass at fairgrounds for National Drive Electric Week"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"4CORE
4CORE hosted about 20 electric cars and their owners Saturday celebrating National Drive Electric Week at the La Plata County Fairgrounds. The event offered a chance for the public to ask car owners about what it\u2019s like to own an EV car and be able sit inside them. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

People interested in electric vehicles met with current owners midday Saturday at the La Plata County Fairgrounds during an event for National Drive Electric Week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s to help educate and provide information about electric vehicles,\u201d said Laurie Dickson, executive director of Four Corners Office for Resource Efficiency<\/a>, the host of the event. \u201cWe had to pivot this year because dealerships don\u2019t have any electric vehicles \u2013 any vehicles are hard to get these days. So we invited EV owners to come and share their driving experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

4CORE works to advance the adoption of electric vehicles and EV infrastructure, she said. The organization has been working alongside state program ReCharge Colorado<\/a> since 2014.<\/p>\n

She said the event Saturday was ideal for someone off the street who knows nothing about EVs or is hesitant about buying one.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you can talk to somebody who has been driving their car for a couple years, without a sales pitch kind of thing, you have a more objective viewpoint about electric vehicles,\u201d Dickson said.<\/p>\n

Laura Haidet, 4CORE\u2019s Clean Energy and Transportation program coordinator, said there was a mix of about 15 makes and models at the event.<\/p>\n

\u201cFolks have the opportunity to see them side by side, talk to the owners, sit in them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\"Scott
Scott Smith, right, answers questions about his Fiat 500e during the 4CORE\u2019s National Drive Electric Week event at the La Plata County Fairgrounds. The event offered a chance for the public to ask car owners about what it\u2019s like to own an EV car and be able sit inside them. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Rich Farrington was one of the Durangoans showing off an EV on Saturday \u2013 in his case, a 2019 Chevrolet Bolt (the fully electric model, not to be confused with the hybrid Chevrolet Volt).<\/p>\n

Farrington said got into electric vehicle ownership as part of a plan to fight \u2013 or at least not contribute to \u2013 climate change. He said his car and home both have a net zero impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe charge this car off of solar panels, so we drive with very clean energy \u2013 it truly is net zero for carbon emissions because it\u2019s the sun that\u2019s driving the car,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The Bolt is Farrington\u2019s first EV \u2013 he has owned the car for three years and has put about 22,000 miles on it.<\/p>\n

He said he was initially surprised by how powerful and quiet it is, and he thinks it should be very low maintenance thanks to its simplicity.<\/p>\n

When people talk to him about the car, it is mainly charging that they worry about, he said. The car takes about four hours to charge at home.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve driven this from Seattle, Washington, to northern Idaho, we drive back and forth to Denver all the time,\u201d Farrington said. \u201cIt takes a little bit more planning, and you can\u2019t be in a big hurry because you do have to stop and charge \u2013 so it\u2019s a great retired person\u2019s car.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the Bolt cost him a net total of about $23,000 new, after a deal from the dealership and tax credits from the state and federal governments.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe kind of wanted to buy one anyway, but it really sealed the deal for us,\u201d Farrington said.<\/p>\n

He also emphasized the car\u2019s drivability.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re a lot of fun to drive,\u201d he said. \u201cAll of these electric cars, the heaviest part of them is the battery, and the battery is a thin layer underneath the passenger compartment. So that weight has a very low center of gravity so they corner very nicely.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"4CORE
4CORE hosted about 20 electric cars and their owners on Saturday celebrating National Drive Electric Week at the La Plata County Fairgrounds. The event offered a chance for the public to ask car owners about what it\u2019s like to own an EV car and be able sit inside them. (Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald)<\/span>Jerry McBride<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Dickson said there are currently 276 registered electric vehicles in La Plata County.<\/p>\n

\u201cNational sales are ever increasing,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s the way people are going to be driving in the future, and the future is now.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to its other programs, 4CORE helps businesses and municipalities apply for Charge Ahead Colorado<\/a> grants \u2013 money offered three times a year by the state to assist businesses and local governments in installing recharging stations. The organization has assisted with about 40 applications in the Durango area, she said.<\/p>\n

ngonzales@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One-day event lets potential buyers talk to current owners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44508,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[489,3161,950,28],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-44507","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-alternative-energy","tag-auto-trends","tag-durango","tag-headlines"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44507","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44507"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44507\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44508"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44507"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44507"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44507"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=44507"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}