Lynnfield Dealership Selling Electric Cars

Earlier this month, Nissan reported that 10,000 of its new all-electric Leaf vehicles have now sold nationwide. Intrigued, Lynnfield Patch checked in this week with Kelly Nissan on Route 1 to learn more about these cars, which also happen to be available at the dealership.

In fact, Don Bowen, a principal at the Beverly-based environmental consulting firm Meridian Associates, was at Kelly Nissan on Monday to pick up his new Leaf directly from Brian Kelly, owner of the Kelly Automotive Group. The vehicles have been available in the Boston area since December and Kelly reported that the cars have been selling about as fast as they're coming in (about a half dozen so far), with buyers most commonly working in the renewable energy business themselves.

The vehicle gets about 100 miles on a single charge, and Bowen noted that this is ideal when it comes to meeting with Boston-area clients. For business trips outside of the Boston area, the company owns a handful of other eco-friendly cars. "We've got to walk the walk is what it boils down to," said Bowen, whose lifelong enthusiasm for renewable energy was kindled as a teenager when his father set up a wind turbine in the yard during the oil embargo of the 1970s.

Not unlike that '70s-era wind turbine, the current electric vehicle recharging infrastructure remains in its early stages. Still, recharging stations can be found at numerous locations in the region from parking garages to Boston's City Hall and Fenway Park to the Cummings Center in Beverly, where Meridian Associates is located."We're not curtailing our driving habits at all," said Bowen. "Everybody in our office wants to drive this. I can tell you there's a lot of excitement with our clients."

The electric vehicles at the Nissan dealership sat plugged into recharging stations Monday morning, which are also available to passing electric vehicle drivers who need a recharge. In the forseeable future, consumers are likely to see more commercial recharging stations that accept credit cards and which charge less than $5 for a visit. With current technology, EV owners can even use their smart phones to program their vehicles to recharge at times when the cost of electricity is at its lowest. The vehicles also come equipped with devices that help locate the nearest recharging stations.

Using a household 110-volt current, one can recharge a Leaf in 14 hours, a 220-volt charge takes somewhat less, and the 480-volt equipment gets the job done in closer to 20 minutes. And along with the obvious differences, other details that set this electric vehicle apart from its traditional counterparts are the lack of a tailpipe and the on/off switch that functions in place of a traditional ignition.

This writer and another member of the Boston area media joined Kelly and Bowen for a test drive of the electric vehicle on Route 1. The ride is smooth and quiet, and the vehicle seemed to have no trouble at all accelerating or avoiding hazards on the highway. A digital display provides the driver with real-time information on how efficiently the vehicle is operating and how much time remains on the charge. "Electrics have more torque. Getting up to speed is never a problem," said Bowen.

The headroom is good (Kelly is 6'4), although one may be tempted to associate electric vehicles with being small. Nor do electric vehicles have to be Spartan - this one came with heated seats, powered with help from a small built-in solar panel. Further adding to the environmental benefits, Kelly noted that the vehicle's interior and bumpers and more are made of recycled materials.

Overall, the electric vehicle as a consumer product has already had a very long and very fitful history. Still, this latest generation of the technology certainly seems to have great promise, from both a commercial and an environmental perspective.