Great Falls Tribune, "Bill Benfits 'Medium-Speed' Electric Cars

HELENA — Electric cars have captured Ron Gompertz's imagination since he saw General Motor's "Futurama II" exhibit at the 1964 World's Fair in New York City.

The exhibit depicted a world 60 years into the future, one in which electric cars ruled the road, humans lived on the moon and people vacationed on the ocean floor.

It's not likely that people will live on the moon or take trips to Atlantis anytime soon, but Gompertz, owner of Bozeman-based Eco Auto, is determined to get more electric cars on the road.

"There have been waves of electric cars over the years, but I think 2009 is really going to be the year of the electric car," Gompertz said Thursday as he stood next to two "medium-speed electric vehicles" outside the Capitol.

Gompertz said vehicles like the ones he brought to Helena — one a small white utility truck and the other a bug-like four-door vehicle that looks like a larger version of a Smart Car — are the future of urban travel. He believes they are the bridge between the conventional gasoline-powered cars of today and the fully electric highway-speed cars of the future.

"Turns out you can't actually buy an electric car in Montana right now that will go highway speed. The battery technology isn't ready for prime time," Gompertz told the Senate Highway and Transportation Committee on Thursday. "Medium-speed electric vehicles are the only electric cars you can go out and drive right now."

In 2007, the Montana Legislature created the nation's first state law specifically regulating medium-speed electric vehicles when it passed Bozeman Democratic Sen. Bob Hawks' Senate Bill 185. That bill challenged federal law, which categorizes MSEVs as "low-speed vehicles" and limited their use to 25 miles per hour. Hawks' bill opened the door for MSEV use in Montana by upping the allowable speed limit to 35 mph, restricting their use to roads with speed limits of no more than 45 mph and requiring state registration.

"By limiting these vehicles to just roads with 45 (mph) or less speed limits, and only allowing them to go up to 35 (mph), you can create a different set of standards," said Matt Elsaesser, executive director of Student Advocates for Valuing the Environment. "There hasn't been leadership at the federal level to do that. As chance would have it, we've had a couple folks from Montana, some innovative small-business people, who brought this bill forward and the (state) Department of Justice worked on it and supported it."

Since then, Washington, Minnesota, Tennessee and Oklahoma have followed suit, and other states are considering similar legislation, Elsaesser said.

Supporters of MSEVs say SB185 was a good first step, but the legislation needs some tweaking. That prompted Hawks to introduce SB73, a bill that amends the 2007 law, in the current legislative session.

"These vehicles are used more as part-time, in-town vehicles, and, therefore, normal licensing costs are a disincentive for people to buy them," Hawks said before the committee hearing Thursday. "We're trying to make their part-time use consistent with licensing of other light vehicles such as motor scooters or OHVs (off-highway vehicles)."

SB73 would modify the 2007 law to increase the allowable gross vehicle weight from 3,000 pounds to 5,000 pounds and create a one-time vehicle registration fee of $87.50 for MSEVs.

Supporters of the bill say the changes would help solidify Montana's commitment to new, more environmentally friendly electric cars, and may push the federal government to include MSEVs in an electric-vehicle tax credit package under consideration in Congress.

That federal package establishes a tax credit for the purchase of plug-in electric vehicles, which may help consumers and manufacturers grow the marketplace for clean, efficient cars and trucks, but it doesn't provide specific incentives for MSEVs.

Elsaesser said that MSEVs can fill an important niche for environmentally conscious motorists until battery technology allows highway-speed electric vehicles to become a reality.

Supporters of MSEVs tout them as a low-carbon, affordable commuter option. The vehicles cost anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000, are emissions-free and are more compact than a regular vehicle, making them easier to park and creating more space on the road, they say.

"Essentially, this bill is just a little incentive for these vehicles, and it'll be helpful for public awareness as well," Elsaesser said. "Certainly, you have the larger companies that are working on the highway-speed electric car, like plug-in hybrids. I just think it's difficult for people to recognize the merit of having a separate category. This bill helps to do that."

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