NY charges ahead on electric vehicles
Bennett J. Loudon, Staff writer
The sound of Bill Destler's Chevrolet Volt coming down the street wouldn't be mistaken for the roar of a muscle car or the purr of a luxury sedan. In fact, it might be mistaken for nothing at all. But the relatively quiet sounds of his hybrid vehicle, which can run on electricity, or electricity from a gas-powered generator, just might be the type of car everyone will driving someday— if not today. "I think it's inevitable that we will, but I don't know exactly what the time frame will be," said Destler, president of Rochester Institute of Technology, who built four electric bicycles, which are charged from power generated by solar panels at his home.
Still, electric vehicles and their hybrid cousins have been slow to catch on with consumers. Prices, availability of charging stations and the driving range of the vehicles need to improve before they become more common, experts say.
More than 90 percent of the nearly 10.5 million in vehicles in the state ran on only gas as of June 2013, according the most recent data collected by the state Department of Motor Vehicles. Of that, only 4,570 were all-electric vehicles. There were 122,498 hybrids. Most others were powered by diesel or were flex-fuel vehicles, running on gasoline, or a gas and ethanol blend.
In Monroe County, only 5,875 vehicles out of the more than 540,000 vehicles registered in June 2013 were hybrids, according to the DMV. Only 108 were all electric, compared to 69 just two years earlier.
http://www.stargazette.com/story/money/2014/08/08/ny-electric-cars/13810853/