LADWP 74 Rav4EV Survival Effort

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2006.10.17 LADWP 74 Rav4EV Survival Effort

As of today, LADWP still has in its possession 74 Toyota Rav4EVs with expiring leases. There is a movement to insure these Plug-In battery electric vehicles are saved from being permanently retired/recycled/crushed (a risk if they are returned to Toyota) by either extending the LADWP leases or selling them to private individuals. A listserv email by Doug Korthof copied below explains the issue well. I attended today's LADWP meeting where the current status of the 74 Toyota Rav4EVs was discussed and Nate Vanderschaaf presented a $1.85 million dollar check to purchase all 74 Rav4EVs from LADWP. It would be wonderful if LADWP could work with Plug In America and Toyota to find a way to save these these electric vehicles. In 2001 the LADWP lauded Toyota for selling Electric Vehicles. Here is a link to Plug In America's press release regarding the offer to purchase unwanted LADWP Rav4EVs.

Scroll down for a video and pictures of today's effort.

Date: Tue, 17 Oct 2006 09:17:27 -0700
From: doug korthof
Subject: LADWP has 74 RAV4-EV: meeting today 1:00 PM in L.A.

http://dailynews.com/news/ci_4503459
DWP urged to sell its 74 electric cars to private buyers
BY KERRY CAVANAUGH, Staff Writer

To ensure the survival of 74 electric cars, advocates are pushing the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to sell its electric RAV4s to the public instead of returning the leased vehicles to Toyota.

While some DWP officials have balked at getting into used-car sales, a Colorado activist plans to offer $1.85 million for all the electric vehicles if the utility can make a deal with Toyota.

"Any cars the public owns and uses are much more likely to be used to educate the public on the benefits of electric cars," said Paul Scott, a founder of Plug In America and DontCrush.com, which is dedicated to preserving the few remaining electric vehicles on the road. "It's more important from a political and awareness viewpoint that these cars stay in the public's hands."

Automakers no longer make electric cars, and most companies recalled and crushed them. However, this year attention refocused on the zero-emissions, battery-powered cars after the release of the movie "Who Killed the Electric Car." Some RAV4 EVs sold on eBay for $55,000 recently. But Toyota has said the cars aren't for sale to the DWP or individuals because they're still in demand with cities, government agencies and other fleet operators.

"We are not in fact crushing these vehicles or retiring these vehicles," said Jim Gatzke, Toyota's manager of alternative fuel vehicle service and support. "Any vehicle that is safe and economical to operate is being redeployed so it's kept in use on a daily basis."

Toyota stopped making the RAV4 EV in 2003. The company crushed several hundred EVs before agreeing to keep them in service as long as possible. Since then, the company has retired about 20 EVs to provide parts for the remaining cars, but the rest go back on the road.

The DWP is considering returning most of its electric vehicles to Toyota because employees tend to drive the natural gas and hybrid vehicles more often, according to a staff report.

Plus, the electric cars are getting older, and the automaker will no longer guarantee the availability of parts and maintenance.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
$1,850,000 OFFER TO PURCHASE UNWANTED L.A.D.W.P. ELECTRIC CARS
When: 1:00 P.M. Tuesday, Oct. 17
Where: 111 N. Hope St. Los Angeles, CA 90012
Contact: Chelsea Sexton

The cast of "Who Killed the Electric Car" and Los Angeles City Council President Eric Garcetti will present a $1.85-million offer to purchase the L.A. Dept. of Water and Power's (DWP) fleet of 74 Toyota RAV4 Electric Vehicles on Tuesday, Oct. 17 at 1 p.m. The offer, intended to keep the zero-emission EVs on the road, will be made at the DWP, 111 N. Hope St., Los Angeles.

Leases on the DWP's 74 EVs have or are about to expire and unless the utility renews its leases or arranges for the cars' purchase, they will be returned to Toyota, where their fate is uncertain. Toyota agreed last year to keep most of its leased fleet EVs in service, but earlier destroyed more than 500 EVs, as detailed in the documentary featuring Tom Hanks, Mel Gibson, Peter Horton and the clean-car advocates presenting the offer to DWP.

DWP officials will be addressing the issue at a regular meeting on Tuesday at 1:30 p.m. The cast of "Who Killed the Electric Car" is presenting the offer on behalf of a Colorado clean-car activist who raised the money privately.

"These are the cleanest cars on the road today, and we want to keep them on the road," said Paul Scott, who appears in the documentary. "If the DWP agrees to re-lease them, fine. If they do not, selling them to private individuals will continue to ensure their air quality benefits."

In California, 6,500 premature deaths and 1.7 million cases of respiratory illness result annually from smog and soot-related exposure, according to the California Air Resources Board. "Two-thirds of those deaths and illnesses are happening right here in the Los Angeles Basin," said Scott, a founding member of Plug-In-America (PIA), a nonprofit clean-car advocacy organization.

Of 5,000 EVs manufactured for California over the last decade, only 1,000 remain on the road. GM, Ford and Nissan, as well as Toyota, have crushed thousands of the vehicles. While some DWP officials contend that the EVs in their fleet no longer meet their needs, the utility has leased more than 300 of the vehicles since 2001. The remaining 74 have been driven no more than an average of 25,000 miles and virtually all are in excellent driving condition, according to PIA, which has calculated that $1.85 million would cover the residual cost of the EVs.

Environmental concerns as well as the desire to earn profits motiviated Colorado clean-car activist, Nate Vanderschaaf, to raise the money for the cars. In the past few months, three RAV4EVs sold on eBay for more than $55,000 each. These cars had been purchased for $30,000 apiece, after rebates. "I'm out for profit, and the film convinced me of how popular theses cars are," Vanderschaaf said. "But if the DWP refuses our offer and decides instead to sell them at auction to the highest bidder, I'd be even happier. My number one objective is to keep these clean cars in use."

Promote clean electric vehicles -- confound the oil lobby
http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/electric_vehicles_for_sale/

Videos at LADWP
(Select your preferred viewing format below)

View the 2006.10.17 PIA Mini Press Conference at LADWP video in Flash format hosted on Viddler.

Click the play button on the Viddler Player above to start playing.
Click here to go to the 2006.10.17LADWP-Rav4EV.mov video on http://www.viddler.com

Click on the below for a higher quality 640x360 H.264 QuickTime video of the
2006.10.17 Plug In America Mini Press Conference at LADWP.

2006.10.17LADWP-Rav4EV.mov (41.5Mb - 6minutes)

View the 2006.10.17 LADWP 74 Rav4EV Board Meeting video in Flash format hosted on Viddler.

Click the play button on the Viddler Player above to start playing.
Click here to go to the 2006.10.17LADWP-Rav4EVmeet.mov video on http://www.viddler.com

October 19, 2006
The result of Tuesday's (2006.10.17) LADWP board meeting where the status of the 74 LADWP leased Toyota Rav4EVs was discussed is concluded in the below EV World article "Who'll Save the Electric Car?" by Forbes Bagatelle-Black recopied here.

PHOTO CAPTION: Plug In America organizers support purchase offer for RAV4 EV electric cars. From left to right: Stan 'Butch' Pash, Doug Korthof, J. Karen Thomas, Chelsea Sexton, Nate Vanderschaff, Paul Scott, Linda Nicholes, Colette Divine, J. Marvin Campbell and a really big check. Photo credit: Richard Kelly

Who'll Save the Electric Car?
By Forbes Bagatelle-Black

Colorado realtor offers nearly $2 million to buy Toyota RAV4 EVs from LADWP

October 19, 2006

It was a star-studded event. What's more, the stars were not just your average stars. They were the cast of the recent film Who Killed the Electric Car? Chelsea Sexton, Paul Scott, and Alexandra Paul were there, along with Doug Korthof, J. Karen Thomas, Colette Devine, Linda Nicholes and many others. But this was no Hollywood gala or celebrity polo match. It was the Los Angeles Board of Water and Power Commissioners' Hearing on October 17, 2006. The electric vehicle advocates were there to urge the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power (LADWP) to keep their fleet of seventy four electric Toyota RAV4s on the road.

EV activist Nate Vanderschaaf flew in from Colorado for the event. He brought a check for $1,850,000, money he borrowed from Tom Dunn, a realtor in Colorado. "He [Tom] likes deals that make quick money and are relatively safe," Vanderschaaf explained, "He is smart with money."

Vanderschaaf went on to explain that RAV4 EVs sold on eBay and through other venues have recently been bid up to dollar amounts far beyond the price people have paid to buy out their leases from Toyota. Dunn and Vanderschaaf stand to make a lot of money if they go into the business of buying and selling RAV4 EVs as various fleet leases end over the next few years.

When I asked Vanderschaaf why he was asking to buy the RAV4 EVs from LADWP instead of going straight to Toyota, he cited precedent. After members of the group "Plug In America" negotiated with Toyota in 2005, the car-maker agreed to "allow satisfied customers to lease or buy their zero-emission SUVs." Vanderschaaf was confident that Toyota would allow LADWP to buy the vehicles at lease-end, if LADWP made a firm offer.

Sexton, who was also acting in her role as Executive Director of the EV advocacy group Plug In America (PIA), supports Vanderschaaf in his efforts. However, she is open to other options as well. She told me that PIA wants to see the LADWP RAV4 EVs stay on the road, but "We're a little bit agnostic on how they do it." She went on to list several possible courses of action which would be acceptable to PIA. "LADWP could buy the vehicles from Toyota and sell them to Nate, or they could sign up to keep leasing the vehicles when the current leases end. They could also auction them to the public. These vehicles have years of useful life left in them, and we want to make sure that life gets used well."

Paul Scott, another founding member of PIA, was a bit more skeptical about leaving LADWP and Toyota to their own devices. "A few weeks ago, I urged the LADWP Commissioners to extend the leases on these cars, but I have changed my mind since then. The best course of action would be to sell the RAV4s to Mr. Vanderschaaf."

After a press conference outside LADWP headquarters, the group moved up to the commission chambers for the hearing. Thirteen people, most of them PIA members, spoke to the commissioners during a "public comments" period. All the speakers urged them to sell the RAV4 EVs to Vanderschaaf or to take other actions to keep the vehicles on the road. Doug Korthof passed around a letter from US Congresswoman Linda Sanchez, urging LADWP to work with PIA on this matter. Richard Kelly was especially persuasive, describing how he had recently bought an electric Chevrolet S-10 pickup from LADWP. He told the commissioners that it was the best vehicle he had ever owned.
When the public comments were finished, two of the three LADWP commissioners who were present voiced their support. Nick Patsaouras, the commission's budget hawk, asked "Who was the genius who signed these leases without an option to buy?" He indicated that purchasing these vehicles would be in the department's best interest, fiscally-speaking. Forescee Hogan-Rowles held up the letter from Congresswoman Sanchez and proclaimed that LADWP should work with PIA and Sanchez's office in assuring that Toyota makes all RAV4 EVs available for sale when leases terminate.

However, the commission decided to defer the question of selling their RAV4 EVs to Vanderschaaf or anyone else. Instead, LADWP will re-lease all the vehicles which are deemed "viable" after a thorough inspection. Commissioners indicated that initial inspection suggests that fifty nine of the seventy four are likely to be considered viable. Many of the remaining fifteen vehicles had been damaged in accidents. Commissioners suggested that they would look into the repairs required to make these fifteen vehicles roadworthy again.
Vanderschaaf called the commission's decision "a stay of execution." Sexton called it a "victory." While many PIA members did not consider the outcome a complete success, all agreed that it was much better than sending the RAV4 EVs to the crusher.

END STORY

November 7, 2006

It CAN Happen: Miracle at L.A. DWP on RAV4-EV
Posted by Doug Korthof on the Yahoo Group: Electric Vehicles for Sale

A lot of the credit goes to Nate Vanderschaaf, who flew here with a line-of-credit for $1.85 million to break the log-jam.

LADWP staff today, at the regular Board meeting, reported that they had progress at negotiations with Toyota, and that Toyota was negotiating a lease/purchase agreement for all the DWP RAV4-EV.

Commissioner Nichols stated that some of the emails about damage and dislike were curious, because other fleet drivers seemed to love the Toyota RAV4-EV. The Board wanted to know of anectdotal evidence of driver dissatisfaction, and wanted regular reports of Toyota RAV4-EV
use and status.

President Nahai stated that it was the order of the previous Board that staff had been following, and, once it had been called to their attention, they immediately reversed the policy.

The Board stated that they intended to keep the Toyota RAV4-EV on the streets and in use, although my proposal that they "rent" them out to willing residential solar ratepayers so far has not been accepted.

So if this claim of staff is correct, it's a sort of complete victory, even if we can't yet buy or drive the RAV4-EV. At least the option is open.

At one time, DWP did lend cars to customers, so this is not too outre an idea.

This is a great accompaniment to LADWP's commitment to a "green vision" for L.A., a plan for "green buildings", and a catalogue of L.A. city buildings and resources in terms of energy and water use. The equivalence of "energy == water" is well-known to DWP.

(Note: This is the first EV fleet leaseholder who has stood up and requested a lease with an option to buy. - Linda Nicholes)

Cutaway diagram of the RAV4-EV drive system.

Webpage created on: Tuesday, October 17, 2006
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Driving on the 101 to LADWP.	Los Angeles	LADWP building on the right.	LADWP photovoltaic solar arrays.

	Paid parking at Gate 6.

Dump the pump.

A lagoon/moat of water on top of the LADWP parking structure.	Doug Korthof

		Nate Vanderschaaf and the $1.85 million check.	The paparazzi!

Paul Scott, Nate Vanderschaaf, and Chelsea Sexton.

	LADWP	Nate Vanderschaaf and Linda Nicholes.	Paul Scott and Forbes Bagatelle-Black.



	Plug In America Mini Press Conference.

			Corbin Sparrow EV t-shirt and filling out speaker cards.

View from the 15th floor.	DWP Board Meeting.