There’s this outfit called Project Better Place (cute name, huh?) that wants to bring electric vehicles to America. They’re not altruistic though, they want to be the guys that has the charging and billing contract form curb-side rechargers (clever?).
So, the first state they’re working with? Hawaii.
Sure, lots of sunshine and you could see how they could really work the green angle, both the company and the state … but I don’t see anyone talking about what I would think as being a major problem: the Hawaiian environment. No, I’m not saying this will have a negative impact on The Aloha State, I’m saying The Aloha State can, and probably will, have a negative impact on these electric cars.
As some of you may know, I lived on The North Shore for 3 years, and the Hawaiian environment is flat out brutal on cars. You never see old cars on the islands. Why? They rust away after 5 years, 10 tops. I knew a guy whose dad worked on the windward side, and he had to buy a new car every year, because they would rust through, completely through, the floorboards.
Imagine what an environment where there is sizable quantities of salt in the air at the highest mountaintops, and withing 10 miles of any given beach, there is normally salt spray so thick you can taste it most of the time.
Imagine what that kind of environment will do to things like, say, a high tech, all digital, automated billing multi-voltage charging station.
Best of luck with your business venture in Da Islands, haoles!
Source: Wired Autopia