LIHU‘E — Flash forward 15 years from now. Everyone is puttering around in miniature electric cars powered by solar-charged batteries. There are shuttle systems which carry the cars and their owners to destinations across the island and Kaua‘i is no
LIHU‘E — Flash forward 15 years from now.
Everyone is puttering around in miniature electric cars powered by solar-charged batteries. There are shuttle systems which carry the cars and their owners to destinations across the island and Kaua‘i is no longer dependent upon foreign oil.
Sounds like a science fiction fantasy or a scene from the animated sitcom “The Jetsons,” but it can be done, Tony Locricchio said at Thursday’s Apollo Kaua‘i meeting.
From “solarizing” neighborhoods to manufacturing $3,000 vehicles on island, Locricchio’s model for “changing America’s transportation and power systems” is a “doable project in a limited number of years.”
In the United States each family has an average of 2.3 vehicles, whereas in Hawai‘i, that number is 3. Locricchio blamed the discrepancy on a lacking mass transit system and spouses who have to work to make ends meet.
But with a declining economy and a deepening visitor industry slowdown, “life on Kaua‘i is going to change dramatically,” he said, affirming the urgent need to become more self-sufficient and less reliant on imports.
Having electric vehicles and LiFT (land-integrated ferry transport) stations is “pretty revolutionary” and would “really meet the future of transportation,” he said.
“Job creation is the key to all of these proposals,” said Locricchio, head of Renewable Electronics Transportation International.
Employment would be possible everywhere from manufacturing plants for the vehicles — which could be made with materials gathered on island like bamboo and reclaimed metals — to “solar orchards” where the “fruit” harvested would be battery packs.
“Electric vehicles are really the future,” Brian Goldstein of Better Place Hawai‘i said Thursday evening in a presentation following Locricchio’s. His business presented a “solution” to the high cost of battery-operated vehicles.
The reason more individuals have not converted to alternative vehicles is largely due to the high cost of batteries, he said. His plan is to provide an exchange program for them, reducing the cost to consumers.
“It’s like a cell phone service,” he said. “You sign a contract, but instead of buying minutes, you buy miles.”
And rather than gas stations, battery exchange locations would be located across the island for cars of different makes and models.
While both entrepreneurs presented separate business plans, their fundamental goal was the same.
“We need to break the addiction to oil,” Goldstein said.
For more information visit www.evtransports.com or www.betterplace.com/global-progress/hawaii.
• Coco Zickos, business and environmental writer, can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 251) or czickos@kauaipubco.com.
