Electric Cars Parade on Earth Day

Perhaps it sounds strange that I drove a diesel-powered 2009 Jetta TDI in an electric car parade today in honor of Earth Day. Mine was the last car in this small parade of alternative fuel vehicles (four Toyota Prius models, one Honda Accord Hybrid, two all-electric Toyota RAV4s and one bio-fueled 1981 Mercedes-Benz 300CD conversion).

I felt kinda funny driving the 2009 Jetta TDI in this way-too-small parade down Harbor Boulevard’s dealer row in Costa Mesa, Calif., which just happens to be my hometown. I shouldn’t have felt so out of place. Most people don’t understand the 2009 Jetta TDI is fueled with extremely low sulphur “clean” diesel and gets a whopping 41 mpg highway. That’s pretty green in these pre-electric car days!

Still, when we pulled into Costa Mesa’s The Camp (a super cool eco-friendly shopping mall), I didn’t park my Jetta TDI with all the other semi-electric and all-electric cars.

The Sheklow family was at the front of the line. This enthusiastic mother-father-daughter tribe is super proud of their 2005 Toyota Prius. “I’m doing my part for the environment,” says Mother Sheklow with a bright grin. “(The Toyota Prius) is also a great investment,” she continues, noting that she hasn’t had one maintenance problem with the car in three years. “It is definitely a well-built, quiet car that reduces my carbon footprint,” so says Mother Sheklow.

Next in line was Costa Mesa City Councilwoman Katrina Foley. She and her young son were happily driving a silver 2004 Honda Civic Hybrid. Foley called her Honda the “Plain Jane” of hybrid cars as it looks the same as any other Honda Civic on the road. Still, she says the car is a “workhorse” for her family and she’s happy with her hybrid for both environmental and money-saving reasons.

Don Cruse is a Costa Mesa guy too. He bought a 2008 Toyota Prius and then outfitted it with an $11,000 plug-in battery kit, which he got an expert to install. Cruse says he charges his now all-electric Prius using his roof’s solar panels. He claims to get about 187 mpg highway and up to 2,028 mpg city. Super cool, Don!

Robert Saunders works for Southern California Edison, which is Southern California’s electricity provider. Known for driving some change in the electric transportation market, SCE had their Mr. Saunders drive a 1999 Toyota RAV4 from the utility’s fleet of electric vehicles (EVs). Saunders was driving a 1999 RAV4 EV that has a range of 100 miles. “(SCE) is honored to be involved in celebrating Earth Day by showing how people can reduce their mobile emissions,” he says. The other all-electric Toyota RAV4 was driven by Ted Flittner of the EV activist group, Plug In America.

“Matt” from Costa Mesa was a lone ranger with his vegetable oil-converted 1981 Mercedes-Benz 300CD. Matt says he converted his full-sized sedan two years ago. So far, he’s driven 23,000 miles on a weekly ration of 19 gallons of leftover frying oil from a local restaurant. He claims that he hasn’t had any problems with his biodiesel ride, although it does have a tough time starting in winter, which is why he still uses a couple of gallons of diesel fuel a week. Yeah, it’s not an EV, but Matt is at least driving on renewable fuel, reducing his emissions and saving gas money.

I still can’t get over the fact that only a handful of eco-minded transportation enthusiasts, including myself and my gleeful five-year-old daughter (what kid doesn’t want to be in a parade of any kind?), showed up to this Earth Day event.

I mean, isn’t the public more than beginning to understand about how electrifying our transportation is so important to our economy, our national security and to our Great Blue Mother? From today’s showing, it doesn’t seem that the EV craze has yet caught on.

Maybe next year, the American public will wake up to EV technology.

Maybe next year, Toyota will show more of an interest and enter plug-in Prius to the parade. Maybe next year, BMW’s MINI brand will bring over their cool new MINI-E. (When, oh when, is BMW going to let me road test a MINI-E? C’mon MINI!)

Hopefully, the second annual 2010 Electric Car Parade will stretch longer than just eight cars, maybe even a whole city block. See you next year (perhaps driving that MINI-E or some other almost-in-production EV) and keep going electric, America!

Sheryll Alexander is a lifestyles writer based in Costa Mesa, Calif.