Alaska Embraces Electric Vehicles: Challenges remain but public interest piqued.

• Author: Orr, Vanessa
• Position: Transportation

On The face of it, it would seem that driving an electric vehicle (EV) in Alaska--either all-electric or a plugin hybrid--would be challenging. There are a lot of miles between major cities with the likelihood of charging stations few and far between. And many believe that the state's harsh winters will wreak havoc on the life of the vehicle.

And while EVs are still relatively new to the state, there are some places in Alaska where EVs are not only growing in popularity but are proving to be an impressive asset. In Juneau, for example, there are almost 300 EV owners, and the borough has already placed an order to add an electric bus to its fleet. The Anchorage Public Transportation Department has spent the last several months testing a fully electric bus--the first such experiment in Alaska--and plans to expand its fleet with more electric vehicles in the future.

"There is a lot of skepticism regarding electric vehicles in Alaska, and we wanted to create an opportunity to diffuse any misperceptions," says Abul Hassan, director of public transportation for the Municipality of Anchorage. "The technology is here to stay, and we need to move with the times or get left behind."

Southeast Drives Interest in EVs

While some of the more remote areas of Alaska may not lend themselves to the use of EVs, Southeast Alaska seems to be tailor-made for the vehicles.

"When we started the Juneau Electric Vehicle Association [JEVA] three years ago, 1 owned the sixth electric car here--we're close to 300 now," says JEVA co-founder Duff Mitchell. "There are certain places in the world where electric vehicles make a lot of sense, and Southeast Alaska is one of them.

"At first, I was leery--would it run in the snow, would it make it up hills, and of course, there are range anxiety issues," he adds. "That's one of the reasons we started the association-not only to share information and ideas but to help each other out if one of us got stranded."

Happily, no one ever needed these services, and as EV technology has evolved so has the range that they can travel. Mitchell says that about 90 percent of the electric vehicles in Juneau are Nissan Leafs, with the later models getting approximately 150 miles to a charge. Considering that there is only 30 miles of road in the capital city, the chance of becoming stranded isn't very likely, especially since there are now a number of charging stations both downtown and "out the road."

"At the beginning, it was hard to promote electric vehicle use without the security blanket of being able to charge it when you were outside your home," says Mitchell, who estimates that 85 percent of EV owners charge their cars at home overnight. "The Juneau Economic Development Commission got together with the Juneau Community Foundation and private businesses in town and put together a grant proposal that raised $50,000 to install twelve chargers around Juneau."

The chargers are located in both public and...