Exciting news!  Maryland Clean Cities Coalition member, BEVI, has been awarded a Constellation Energy to Educate grant to advance Youth Energy and Environment Service (YES) Corps 2013 summer internships.  The YES Corps Program advances Science Technology Engineering Arts and Math (STEAM) electric vehicle education.  BEVI will be working with the Electric Vehicle Association of DC (EVADC) and four Maryland universities -  Johns Hopkins University, the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), and the University of Maryland College Park (UMCP) and Baltimore County (UMBC) to create paid summer internships and fellowships at the universities, and to encourage broader engagement of unpaid interns and high school students interested in participating.   BEVI is actively pursuing collaborations with sisters states as well, including Virginia and the District of Columbia, to leverage these valuable resources to drive clean transportation and clean cities opportunities.
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Over 8 million people were left without electricity in the wake of Hurricane Sandy and last summer’s derecho storm left many without power for a week or more. Some resourceful electric vehicle owners in the DC area have figured out how to use the big battery in their cars for emergency power. Television station WUSA, channel 9 in Washington, DC did a story on EVA/DC member Doron Shalvi who used his Nissan Leaf to power his refrigerator when the lights went out at his house during Sandy.

This could have been you, and it is something to think about when you shop for your next car.  Could an EV or a Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV) fulfill your needs, stroke your desires and enhance your shelter requirements — all at the same time?  The answer, of course, is “Yes!”   Whether it is the next power outage — and there WILL be a “next power outage” –  rising prices at the pump, concerns about America’s energy security and/or a strong desire to contribute to the planet, EVs and PHEVs offer advantages that are unmatched by internal combustion vehicles or even by non-plug-in hybrids.

“Well, couldn’t I just put an inverter on any car and have the same advantage?” you might ask. You could, but it wouldn’t work nearly as well, as Doron Shalvi points out.  And you might have to leave your ICE vehicle idling for days at a time until the power came back on — something that you definitely would not want to do in an enclosed garage.

Would you like to learn more?  Why not attend the next meeting of the Electric Vehicle Association of Greater Washington, D.C. and meet friendly people who have “been there, done that,” and are delighted to share what they know! EVA/DC member Scott Wilson will give a live demonstration of one of these EV inverter systems at the November meeting. He plans to brew us some coffee from the power coming off of his Nissan Leaf. We will also have pizza and soft drinks.

The public is invited to all EVA/DC meetings which are usually held at the Silver Spring Library on the third Wednesday of each month. See our Meetings page for map and details.

EVA/DC president Charlie Garlow and member Jo Reyes, owners of The Green Commuter bike shop, are featured in this NPR radio report on using electric bicycles for transportation around Washington, DC.

Click to read story and hear audio.

EVADC member Bob Bruninga is featured in a radio story about his effort to encourage local businesses to allow electric cars to plug into existing 110V outlets.

“An activist in Maryland says he has a plan to spark the local electric vehicle movement, by encouraging hotels and and parking garages to offer low-costing charging to their customers.”

Listen to story here: Plugged In: Area Businesses Opening Up To Electric Vehicles.

Dave Goldstein of Gaithersburg, who is the president emeritus of the Electric Vehicle Association of Greater Washington, D.C., plugs his electric car into a charging station next to SunTrust Bank on Old Georgetown Road in Bethesda. Federal Realty has begun installing car-charging stations near its properties nationwide. See the full story.

The electric vehicle movement lost a pioneer October 24 with the passing of Bob Beaumont who was 79. Bob is credited with his creation of the CitiCar and later, the Tropica, which he created in the early 90s. At one time his electric car company, Seabring-Vanguard was the 4th largest auto company in the US.

At Bob’s memorial service in Columbia, Maryland, former EVA/DC President, Dave Goldstein recanted the story of Bob and his meeting with Detroit executives who were trying to have his CommutaCar, the predecesor to the CitiCar, banned in Michigan as being “unsafe.” When Bob got up and whacked his CommutaCar several times with a baseball bat, with no apparent damage, and then asked the execs if he could try that with their cars! – to which they recoiled with horror. The execs dropped their criticism and Bob continued to sell CommutCars, producing about 2,200, more than any US manufacturer until recent times. To this day, there have been no fatalities or serious injuries from owners driving Bob’s CommutaCar or CitiCar.

Bob was the inspiration for many EVers and his EV spirit continues to live on.

See the October 30 New York Times story on Bob and his legacy.

Bob Beaumont photo (above) from page 370 of “The Lost Cord” by Barbara Taylor, a great book on the history of the electric car and Bob Beaumont’s anecdotal experience building the CitiCar and the Tropica.

EVA/DC member and Power of DC coordinator, Chip Gribben is featured in this episode of MotorWeek talking about the annual electric vehicle races sponsored by EVA/DC.

April 1, 2009 – EVA/DC President, Dave Goldstein responds to a negative news story by Fox News commentators Brian Sullivan and Dagen McDowell about the Volt and EVs in general and was invited on the show the next day. See Dave’s interview.