Posted on 10/02/2003 10:57:43 AM PDT by bicycle thug
The three-wheel, electric vehicle will be used by the police chief and his administrators to get around downtown
HILLSBORO P olice officers took delivery Wednesday of their newest Gizmo: a 340-pound, battery-operated vehicle.
Hillsboro police Chief Ron Louie says the appropriately named three-wheeler will be just the ticket when he and police administrators have to dash from meeting to meeting.
Manufactured by Neighborhood Electric Vehicle Co. of Eugene, the Gizmo plugs into a regular 110-volt socket and gets about 45 miles per eight-hour recharge. Carl Watkins, company president, says the fiberglass vehicle costs about 80 cents a day to operate, is street legal and goes as fast as 40 mph.
Compared with 53 cents a mile for operating a full-size car, the Gizmo will be perfect for multiple daily trips between the police station and City Hall, a distance of about 10 blocks through downtown traffic, Louie says. It also will be used to go as far as the East Precinct in the Tanasbourne area.
Four feet wide and eight feet long, the Gizmo looks like a space-age egg with wheels. That's fine with Louie. He calls it a "Star Wars shuttle craft" and is thinking of having a student contest to decorate it.
"People are going to think it's a gimmick, but we are not doing it for the public relations value," Louie says. "We are very sincere about finding alternatives to fossil fuels. It just so happens trying to follow through on this, you are going to be different."
He says he considered buying motorized scooters before settling on the Gizmo.
The Gizmo cost the police department about $12,000, which is far less than a new police car at $25,000.
The department also won a $12,000 federal grant to purchase a Gem, a Chrysler electric vehicle. It looks like a big golf cart with a platform for equipment. When it arrives in a few days, it will be used by the bicycle and light-rail officers "to hug the transit corridor," Louie says.
The new electric vehicles join Louie's off-beat fleet.
The chief has eight Honda Civics powered by compressed natural gas, a 34-foot motor home used as a rolling command center and a retrofitted armored car, nicknamed "The Boar," for the special weapons team.
Louie also tossed around the idea of buying PT Cruisers to try to connect with teenagers until he found out teens thought his "cutesy" car is square.
Darting around the police station parking lot Wednesday in the Gizmo, Louie and his command staff got a feel for driving with two control sticks and hand brakes.
"Boy, he makes me nervous when he drives so fast," Louie said as a lieutenant whizzed past. "Don't crack it up."
The graphic I found has the above verbiage around it embedded and is not to be blamed on the newspaper or me.
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...the Isetta was sexier.
Here's a video of them. I wonder if they were racing title for title with the meter checker on their left.
"Four feet wide and eight feet long, the Gizmo looks like a space-age egg with wheels. That's fine with Louie. He calls it a "Star Wars shuttle craft" and is thinking of having a student contest to decorate it."
It rains too much in Oregon.
I found this on the HPD site. If the squirrel excapes the exercise wheel that drives the gizmo, it is reassuing they are equipted to pursue it.
says the fiberglass vehicle costs about 80 cents a day to operate,...
Don't ya just love ecofreaks math? The 80cents a day is the electrical cost to charge it up and nothing else, where as the 53 cents a mile is an over estimated cost per mile of fuel (=road use tax included), tires(=federal disposall fee included), oil(collection, disposal, transporting and recycling included), and guestimated yearly repairs (just think $20 per hour mechanic, income tax included).
The ecos lie so much they try to out-lie each other.
I'm sure the cost of this $12K toy is on parr with golf carts which cost about 18cents a mile above their recharge cost. 80 cents a day is a lie and nothing but a sales pitch which is easily exposed after the first tire takes a crap.
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