Electric Cars, Utilities, and Community CO2 Efforts

Something very interesting appeared in front of the inn where I lived during my high school exchange. An electric car. A pure electric. Moreover, a FIAT 500 with its original powerplant yanked out. In fact, at this time this is the only pure electric car in Austria that is in private hands. The others are running around owned by utilities, car companies, or research institutes.

The oldest son of my exchange brother Reinhold is a car guy. He’s driven a classic Porsche 911 for years, and hopes to get his hands on a well-maintained or restored 356 “bathtub” Porsche. He’ll probably go through our friend in Newport Beach who builds engines, restores whole cars, and brokers deals in 356s all the time.

Yet here is Reinhold Jr. admitting that he finds some joy in driving slow and milking the last volt out of the power system in this little FIAT. Counter to that ethic, though, was his participation in an electric car race in the large city of Linz on Friday ten days ago. We would have given up a lot to see this event, and maybe he could have used the pit crew skills I acquired washing windshields at Le Mans. Alas, that was the day we were checking out the bikeway and bike rental systems in Vienna.

But more interesting is the word from Reinhold Jr. that this event is sponsored by the very progressive electric utility that serves the state of Upper Austria and the capital city of Linz. Their Director and Reinhold Jr. were scheduled to film a piece for Austrian TV about electric vehicles last weekend.

This utility has made a big push into solar electric and wind energy, and played a major role in the huge reduction in greenhouse gas emissions that Linz has achieved through programs targeted both at industrial plants and residential energy.

We will expand on this post in the future as we find out who won the race, maybe get copies of the TV show, and gather information about the emissions reductions targets, programs, and numbers.

Stay tuned.