CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Auto companies across the world are making big commitments to renewable energy and drivers around Charlotte are putting their foot on the gas to boost these efforts.
General Motors, Chevy, Volkswagen, Ford, and others have all announced major projects and investments in electric auto-making. In 2010, there were less than 20,000 electric vehicles on the road worldwide. bBy the start of 2020, the number swelled to more than 7 million, according to the International Energy Agency. The agency says electric vehicle sales hit 2.1 million in 2019, another record.
In the Charlotte area, a family made a commitment to their electric lifestyle two years ago. Around dinner time at the Paradise household, their commitment to the environment is clear. Amy Brooks Paradise and her daughter, Evelyn, look forward to eating dinner together.
"We try pretty hard. This one’s going to be vegan, until you put cheese on it, then it won’t be!” Brooks says to her daughter, while preparing dinner.
With virtual school, work meetings, homework, and other commitments, an early night dinner is time they have to connect. Their dinner of vegan sausage is occasionally on the menu depending on what they find at local farmer’s markets.
Doing their best to avoid meat is just one of the changes Brooks Paradise, her daughter, and husband have taken to create a more sustainable future. The couple also added solar panels to their roof and are considering solar panels on their garage to better charge their electric vehicle.
"If we don’t do that then we are using systems that aren’t sustainable in the long term and that affects her future and the future for every child. So, I think it’s totally worth it because I’m teaching her skills for life,” Brooks Paradise says.
The efforts they’ve taken include the recent purchase of their electric car which they used for errands and getting her husband to work.
"It’s very easy because he just takes it up and back, his usual route,” Brooks says.
The family bought an all-electric Nissan Leaf two years ago on a used car website. Part of the reason Brooks and her husband, Chris, are married is a commitment to the environment.
“It is one of things that actually brought us together when we were dating. We both really cared about the environment,” she says.
Her passion for a greener life came from her childhood, growing up on farms.
"I've just always been very aware of how completely dependent we are on the Earth, and that, it is what sustains us,” she says.
The Paradise family is part of a growing trend. Just this year, General Motors announced it wanted to be carbon neutral by 2040. The company also wants to make all emissions-free light duty vehicles by 2035, bringing roughly 30 different electric vehicles to market in the next decade. Even luxury sports car brand Porsche is doing the same.
"Porsche has stated that 80% of the cars that we will be producing over the next five years will be hybridized,” says Albie Blanco. Blanco works at Hendrick Porsche in Charlotte where in the last two years they’ve seen a groundswell of people curious about electric.
"The range is always the question with an electric car because it’s not a gasoline car, you can’t fill it up at a gas station,” Blanco says. "How often does somebody really drive 200 plus miles in a single day before they get on an airplane?”
But, even that question is fading. The other question they get is does an electric Porsche, or other type of electric vehicle, really have pickup?
In a demonstration, it took three seconds for Blanco to hit 48 miles per hour in an electric Porsche. Blanco says the test drives are crucial to show not only are the electric Porsche’s affordable, in terms of luxury vehicles, but they also have the same characteristics people expect out of a luxury brand.
The electric Porsche, a Taycan, comes in at around $79,000, in the ballpark of other Porsche vehicles. In fact, a Hendrick dealership spokesman says they’ve been selling six a month, about the same number Porsche supplies to the dealership.
"I mean are there days when I wish we were in a big comfy car? Sure. But it’s not worth it to me to have that versus being able to say, ‘I’m doing everything I can to save the environment,” Brooks says.
For this mom, a sustainable journey is all about the destination.
"We want to leave a world for our daughter, for all children,” she says.
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April 09, 2021 at 06:01PM
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Push for Electric Vehicles on the Rise in Charlotte and Across the Country - Spectrum News
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