Dealer: Electric cars fail to spark consumers’ interest

That $4-a-gallon gasoline price is rattling around consumers' heads, but it's not the primary factor in new-car purchasing decisions, a local Chevrolet dealer said Wednesday.

The Chevy Volt, one of the electric and alternative fuel vehicles featured this week at a U.S. Green Building Council's Nevada chapter meeting at the Springs Preserve, has yet to catch on with consumers, said Justin Findlay, general manager of Findlay Chevrolet.

It's mostly an "awareness thing," he said. They're selling better in California, where there are purchase incentives and car pool lanes for electric vehicles.

Findlay sells or leases two or three Volts a month. His best-selling models in February were the Chevy Cruze subcompact and Equinox sport utility vehicle, both standard gasoline cars that get good mileage, he said.

"It's definitely a consideration," Findlay said about high gasoline prices. "But it's probably not as extreme as it was the last time gas prices reached this level. People are able to cope with these prices. They did come down for a while."

The Volt, which runs on battery power or electrical motors assisted by a gasoline engine, gets more than 100 miles per gallon overall. Officially, it can run about 35 miles on battery power alone, then another 340 miles before the small gasoline tank reads "empty." Most models sell for $40,000 or can be leased for more than $400 per month.

Las Vegas Councilman Bob Coffin said he's driven 2,916 miles on less than six gallons of gasoline since leasing his Volt in November. He calculated his direct operating cost at 3 cents a mile. The Internal Revenue Service allows 45 cents a mile in tax deductions.

"The operating costs are the key, not the capital cost, and the tax advantage," Coffin said.

One of the obstacles holding back sales of all-electric cars such as the Nissan Leaf is the lack of charging stations, said Tyler Corder, chief financial officer of Henderson-based Findlay Automotive Group. That gives people "range anxiety," or fear of being stranded somewhere outside of the car's power range.

Some companies are marketing charging stations to motels and shopping malls, but until that infrastructure is in place, it's going to be a drag on electric car sales, Corder said.

Steve Rypka said he produces enough electricity from solar panels in his home to drive his Nissan Leaf 8,000 to 10,000 miles a year. He bought the first Leaf sold in Henderson, paying in the mid-$30,000s for the car and receiving a $7,500 tax credit.

"There's no oil to change, no smog check. You rotate the tires and check the batteries," Rypka said. "It's important to remember to charge it, but it's got a telemetrics system that sends an e-mail to my computer and tells me if it's charging or not."

The electric car that got the most looks at the Green Building Council meeting was Richard Plaster's 2008 Tesla, which he bought used for $70,000 with 200 miles on it. The only car it hasn't beaten in a race is a Porsche, he said.

"It's a great car," Plaster said. "People are fascinated by it. There are only 1,500 of these cars made and only four in Las Vegas that I know of. We went to the opening of The Smith Center (for the Performing Arts) and people were looking at it, asking me questions."

Bob Brandys, a semiretired environmental consultant, said he's been spoiled by the quiet when he drives his 1981 DeLorean, which started life with an internal-combustion engine and was converted to battery power after he bought it a decade ago.

"Once you've been in an electric vehicle and you get into a gas car, it's noisy and it gets annoying," he said.

Contact reporter Hubble Smith at hsmith@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0491.