Alternative Vehicles:
Where Do We Go From Here?

Story by Margi Gomez

The talk on the streets is getting louder and more insistent every day. “Peak Oil” is no longer just a catchword for ultra-left doomsayers as all of us face ever-higher gas prices, and the search for answers is on. A basic Web search on alternatives brings up a dizzying array of Websites, from cutting-edge non-profits like energy bulletin.net and pluginamerica.com, to mainstream automotive manufacturers like Ford, Honda, and Chrysler, whose Websites offer a surprising amount of information relating to alternative transportation. Mendocino County is home to more than a few forward thinkers who have addressed the issue with unique alternatives that may be the beginning of a solution both for our region and for the planet.

ZAP (which stands for Zero Auto Pollution), with its corporate headquarters in Santa Rosa, was founded in 1994 by a northern California pioneer, CEO Gary Starr. Initially focusing on electric scooters, the company quickly added electric bicycles, and in 2003 announced its first electric automobiles. In the past twelve years, ZAP has delivered more than a hundred thousand vehicles to over seventy-five different countries and all around the United States. Starr says, “The automobile industry is highly competitive and highly regulated.” Speaking of his company’s growth, he says, “The shareholders have stood by the company through all of our ups and downs. We’re just now beginning to see the fruits of our labors.”

ZAP products can be seen locally on the coast, at Mendo Wheels, inside the Mendocino Garden Shop, in the big A-frame at Main Street and Highway 1. Starr says that ZAP’s goal has always been to present zero-air pollution vehicles as a practical and economical alternative to the internal-combustion engine. “There’s no doubt that the combination of high gas prices and concern about pollution are driving renewed consumer interest in electric cars,” he states. “We’ve looked at all the other alternatives—we even built our own hydrogen-cell vehicle, and found it was just too capitol intensive. We think the answer is a pure electric vehicle that you can plug in anywhere. You can plug it in at night when energy consumption is at its lowest.” To those who criticize the electric cars on the issue of the toxicity of batteries, Starr counters, “You can recycle batteries at almost every dump or transfer station, Sears now recycles batteries, Interstate does the same. The lead, the plastic, everything can be recycled.”

Sean Keppeler is a life-long master car mechanic, whose idealism led him to a number of experiments with automobile conversions, both to electric and to biodiesel fuel. Having had his own automotive-repair garage in Fort Bragg for twenty years, he combines decades of practical experience with a fervent desire to see alternatives take shape as quickly as possible. He spends some of his time maintaining ZAP’s rental fleet of electric vehicles in the showroom at Mendo Wheels. He says that neither hydrogen fuel-cell technology, much touted by the current administration, nor ethanol-based fuels, mostly championed by farmers hard hit by high gas prices, have made much of an impact in our area. “In the case of hydrogen,” says Keppeler, “the science is extremely complex. Unlike biofuel or electric, this is not a backyard project. The only ones that will really be able to take hydrogen on are the corporations, and I don’t see that happening until gas gets to be six or seven dollars a gallon. Most people still don’t see the problem, and until they do they’re not going to want to spend tax dollars to try to fix it.” Similarly, he says, neither alcohol nor ethanol is well suited to our area. “For one thing, we don’t grow much corn or soybeans around here, and those have been the principal sources for these fuels.”

Keppeler feels that both the electric vehicle and biodiesel fuel have great advantages for local drivers. “Most of our driving is done ten to fifteen miles from home. You need to buy the groceries and pick up the kids, turn around and go home. Most of the pollution that gas engines generate occurs during the short trips, as well.” He says that the smaller vehicles such as those that ZAP has pioneered could go a long way towards bridging the gap between the old and new technologies. “Electric vehicles have a long way to go. I do think ZAP has done a great job with getting people comfortable with the idea of the electric car.” He continues, “The other great thing is, they’re really quite cheap, especially the electric bicycles and scooters. Even the ZAP Xebra, at around eight thousand dollars, is not too much to spend considering what you save on gas. You can go out and spend sixty thousand dollars on the new Volvo electric car, and because it is a prototype, it will still have a lot of limitation. The limitations are a lot easier to live with if you’re spending relatively little on a car that can be a second vehicle, for the short trips.”

Keppeler has also had a good deal of experience with biodiesel, a fuel that derives from organic sources, which he says is working its way towards being a perhaps the most viable long-term alternative for the country and maybe even for the world. “The great thing about biodiesel is that we already have the infrastructure in place. All of the diesel pumps at all of our gas stations could be utilized for biodiesel. If we could move toward the legalization of hemp seed, this could be a great source for biodiesel, and could pick the Midwest up out of its slump.”

Keppeler, who describes his opinions as “brutally frank,” says that the same independent spirit that has motivated many Mendocino pioneers to experiment with alternatives can sometimes work against them. “I consider myself a lefty, but I have been critical of the Left for some of its attitudes. I don’t think that biodiesel can thrive without government regulation. We have benefited from regulation in so many other areas: civil rights, environmental protection, you name it. Honesty is so important right now. A faulty product can stop a new technology dead in its tracks. People need to realize that only by eliminating the flaws can we guarantee consumers the kind of product they can really depend on. I’d say that the Left has tended to get manipulated by the Right on the issue of regulation.”

Kumar Plocher is another Mendocino County maverick who started his business, Yokayo Biofuels, back in 200l. The organic basis for biodiesel in this case is derived from used restaurant oil. Plocher’s business has grown by leaps and bounds since its inception. In addition, last year Yokayo Biofuels made the decision to go from buying biodiesel from wholesalers to producing its own fuel to insure quality and consistency. “Biodiesel is not rocket science. It’s pretty simple chemistry, but you can run into problems. We decided that in order to avoid a whole host of liability issues that we had to begin our own production. There’s where the inventiveness came in.”

At this point Plocher has had to temporarily limit deliveries to new customers because of increased demand. “We were one of the first companies in the county to market biodiesel,” he states. “The first year we averaged a thousand to two thousand gallons per month delivered. By the second year that had gone up to about five thousand gallons per month. Currently we are averaging twenty thousand gallons per month in sales.”

Sustainability is a crucial issue for Plocher. He explains that at the moment, soybeans are the principal source for what he refers to as the “feedstock” for biodiesel, mostly due to the lobbying force of the soybean industry. He relates, “High quality biodiesel can be made from a whole range of oil sources.” This, he says, includes a man in New Zealand who made biodiesel from the results of his own liposuction! As Plocher puts it, “That’s walking the walk!”

Plocher says that Yokayo Biofuels utilizes a plentiful resource in our area, recycled restaurant fryer oil as their initial feedstock, but they hope to integrate other sources in the future, including micro crops like algae, which he says can yield up to ten thousand gallons per acre. He is also working on “closing the loop” for other primary ingredients in biodiesel, alcohol and caustic soda, in order to insulate the local biodiesel market from outside pressures. “Luckily, methanol can be made from wood waste, which we have in abundance in our area, and so can caustic soda, which comes from wood ash.”

Navarro Ridge resident Steve Heckeroth has long been a proponent of alternative energy and electric cars. “I’ve built a couple dozen models starting in 1992. Right now I drive the RAV, built by Honda. It was leased for five years but only sold for about four months. I believe electric cars are the wave of the future.”

In a recent article for a Website called oilcrisis.com, “A Clean and Quiet Revolution,” Heckeroth traces the history of the electric car, from initial successes as far back as 1890, when Iowa inventor William Morrison produced an electric car that could travel 182 miles on a single charge. Other electric vehicles followed, but were thwarted by what Heckeroth refers to as, “the rubber tire alliance” between giants Standard Oil and Firestone Tires, which teamed up to purchase and then rip up tens of thousands of electric track in cities across the United States, in order to eliminate competition to the internal-combustion engine. The California Zero Emissions Mandate in the early 1990s caused another upsurge in interest and innovation in electric vehicles, which was quickly buried by wave after wave of lawsuits and media distortion. Heckeroth spearheaded his company, MendoMotive, during this turbulent time, and still gives workshops and writes numerous articles on a wide variety of topics pertaining to self-sustainable alternative energy.

Heckeroth recalls a recent event at Solfest, the yearly celebration of alternative power put on by the Solar Living Institute in Hopland. An “Alternative Fuel Smackdown” was held, with proponents of various types of alternatives speaking up for their favorites. “It was really fun. John Schaffer (the owner of the Solar Living Center) was the mediator. There were folks representing all the options, biofuels, hydrogen, and electric. He got everybody yelling and cheering.” The winner? The electric car!

Jason Thurston of Thurston Motors in Ukiah sees the writing on the wall. Having grown up around cars, Thurston says that the main reason that popularity is growing for the new alternatives is that consumers now want two things from their new vehicles. “It’s not complicated,” he states. “It’s about cleaner air and higher gas mileage. There are a lot of vehicles going towards that.” He says that sales are up beyond expectations for the Toyota hybrid, the Prius, which combines petroleum technology with electric car technology to offer consumers up to sixty-one miles per gallon. “Toyota has two different models, the Prius and the Highlander,” he explains. “Honda has two models out now, the Civic and the Accord. Chevrolet has a flex-fuel car that utilizes ethanol and petroleum.”

How popular are the hybrids? Thurston adds that sales are better than ever, as the news about global warning penetrates the mainstream and gas prices continue to spiral upward. “Right now, there’s more of a demand than we can supply,” Jason asserts. “We’ve had a wait list since 2004. At the moment, there are thirty people waiting for their new hybrids.”

The number of hybrid vehicles registered in California has increased sharply over the past six years, from 639 in 2000 to nearly 120,000 in 2006, partly due to a number of government incentives, some of which are drying up this year. If you’re interested in a hybrid, now is a good time to buy. Until October 1, the federal government is offering a tax credit of up to three thousand dollars for those willing to try the new technology. The California Department of Motor Vehicles also began issuing carpool lane permits after President Bush signed legislation allowing access to diamond lanes (without passengers) for vehicles that get better than forty-five miles per gallon. So far about sixty-two thousand permits have been issued in California, with another three thousand or so still available, with a cap of seventy-five thousand in California.

Our governor made the news recently with a new bill, AB32, the California Global Warming Solutions Act, which defied the opposition of his fellow Republicans. Under Governor Schwarzenegger’s plan, major industries would be required to cut greenhouse gases, and would be able to trade emissions credits. According to a staff article on the Energy Bulletin Website, this could cut California’s emissions by 25 percent by 2020, and would make California the first U.S. state to impose a cap on the expulsion of carbon dioxide and other gases. Although many experts say these measures are too little too late, the bill’s introduction is another sign that the news about Peak Oil and global warming is finally reaching the mainstream.

Back at Mendo Wheels, mechanic Sean Keppeler sees the Mendocino County approach as unique. “Our county has been and will continue to be on the forefront in terms of energy independence. I think the critical concept here is that it’s going to take a cultural shift in society at large to really make a difference. Real solutions are going to take real work. Right now, everything in our culture is based on going faster and faster. This has to change. If we don’t learn to slow down, nothing will work. If we can learn to slow down, and if we’re willing to work to change our laws, then we have a chance to make a difference.”