Minuses Outweigh Pluses in Search for Electric Autos : Alternative fuels: A visit to the car show finds that battery-powered vehicles on display are not yet ready to go into production yet.
Upstairs in the Convention Center hall, Ford, Volvo and other major auto makers were busy Friday trying to give the electric car a plug.
Downstairs in the parking garage, Larry Lindsay was busy trying to get his electric car a plug.
The car makers were looking for publicity. Lindsay was looking for power.
The Torrance man had driven his battery-operated 1981 Volkswagen Rabbit to the Greater Los Angeles Auto Show in hopes of coming up with ideas that will extend its range beyond its 50-mile limit.
The problem was that Lindsay had traveled more than 18 miles to get to the auto show. And he was worried about returning home if he didn’t find a way to recharge the 16 golf-cart batteries packed into his car.
“I’m apprehensive,” Lindsay said as he glanced around the garage in vain for an electrical outlet. “I knew I could get here. It’s getting back that scares me.”
Lindsay had nursed his 68-horsepower electric motor coming downtown. He had hurriedly pulled off the Harbor Freeway at Century Boulevard when his dashboard ammeter showed that the 50-m.p.h. traffic flow was gobbling up too much electricity.
Along surface streets, Lindsay had cursed each red light that made him stop and restart the whirring motor and waste more battery juice.
The Convention Center garage attendant had been uncertain whether there were any wall outlets in the parking structure.
Parking manager Dan Pack was more assuring. “There are a few around. Maybe we should call an electrician,” he said.
Garage worker Leo Manos finally hopped into a golf cart and led Lindsay to a remote corner, where he knew there was a wall plug. Manos said the Convention Center was assessing exhibitors upstairs for the electricity they used. But he told Lindsay he could plug in for free.
That proved to be the only Auto Show energizing that Lindsay would get, however.
The 56-year-old owner of a car repair shop assembled his electric car in November from a $7,000 kit sold by a Santa Clara man, Michael Brown. For the last month, Lindsay has been carefully breaking in his new motor by driving a few miles a day.
He has driven it enough to know that the car’s range is a serious limitation, though. Hills, heavy traffic, rain and darkness also eat into the batteries, which take eight hours to fully recharge.
Lindsay hoped to see how electric cars developed by Ford, Volvo and a new local consortium called Calstart had dealt with the battery problem. He was disappointed when he went upstairs.
Several prototype battery modules displayed with the Volvo alternative fuel car were labeled as in “semiproduction.” Volvo spokesman Mark Muley told Lindsay that there is no scheduled production for the car, which has a range of 400 miles.
At the Ford exhibit, Robin Winters stood on a revolving stage with a futuristic electric car called the “Connector” and told a crowd about its 100-mile cruising range and six-hour recharge time. “Without a doubt, the electric car is in our future,” she said.
After her spiel, however, Winters confided that the Connector may not be in the future. “Right now, there are no plans to make this model,” she said.
There are no plans to produce the gleaming Calstart electric car either, spokesman Chris Gregory told him. Although some reports have indicated that the auto, which would have a 110-mile range, would be manufactured in Burbank and sell for $20,000, that’s untrue, Gregory said.
“This car is not going into production--it’s a one-of-a-kind to showcase the components,” he said. “The idea is to interest the major auto makers in the components.”
Lindsay shook his head at the prototypes. “These are all smoke and mirrors. They’re all just talking about it. But I drove here in an electric car,” he said.
Would he drive home in it, though? Thanks to the garage wall outlet--and the judicious use of his electric-powered windshield wipers during the rainy trip back to Torrance--Lindsay made it.
