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<\/a>With a Bates pickup parked behind it, one of the college’s two new Nissan Leaf EVs is shown in campus shuttle service in front of Chase Hall. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n
\u201cWe knew we wanted to replace some aging vehicles in the fleet,\u201d says Twist, who contributed his green expertise to the acquisition process led by Jay Phillips, director of operations for Facility Services. One of those aging vehicles, for example, was a van that the Harward Center used to bring students to research and volunteer commitments.<\/p>\n
\u201cElectric vehicles are really a nice fit, especially for just traveling around Lewiston-Auburn. So it makes a lot of sense.\u201d<\/p>\n
Because all of Bates\u2019 electricity comes from carbon-neutral sources, replacing gas-fueled conveyances with the Leafs reduces the college’s fossil-carbon footprint somewhat. (That footprint, by the way, shrank dramatically last year with the introduction of Renewable Heating Oil<\/a> for campus-wide heat.)<\/p>\n What’s more significant is what the Leafs represent: the start of what\u2019s likely to be, as EV prices come down and their capabilities expand, a substantial college commitment to the technology.<\/p>\n Leaf juice: One of Bates’ two new battery-powered Nissan Leafs takes a charge behind Kalperis Hall. (Doug Hubley\/Bates College)<\/p><\/div>\n Twist points out that the new Leafs have a much improved range on a battery charge than previous models. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimated<\/a> that the original Leaf could travel 73 miles on a fresh charge \u2014 vs. 151 miles for the 2018 Leafs that Bates now leases.<\/p>\n For Bates\u2019 needs, that\u2019s ample range. Although the Leaf ranks fifth for range in the all-electric sweepstakes, behind the Chevy Bolt and Tesla\u2019s three models, those competitors also cost more. And Bates got good terms for the lease from Lee Nissan in Topsham, Maine.<\/p>\n Twist and Phillips did some serious research into government and dealer incentives for EVs, says Twist, \u201cwhich really helped us get the best deal.\u201c (For example, because Bates is tax-exempt, it couldn’t benefit from federal EV tax credits \u2014 but Lee did receive the credits and passed the savings to Bates.)<\/p>\n \u201cAnd we shopped around,\u201d Twist adds. Two first-years, Domi Frideger of Durango, Colo., and Elizabeth Eareckson of Reston, Va., helped with shopping, contacting dealerships to price different makes and models. As members of the EcoReps<\/a>, students who tackle a wide range of sustainability initiatives at Bates, Frideger and Eareckson\u2019s focus is electric vehicles and the means to charge them.<\/p>\n One of their projects is to locate a car-sharing service that offers plug-in hybrids, which aren’t available here from Zipcar, the college’s current service. \u201cThey\u2019re also looking into pursuing some of the Volkswagen diesel settlement<\/a> money to see if we could get some of that for charging stations as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Currently Bates has four charging stations at two locations, and with demand growing due to both the Leafs and Bates folks who drive EVs, the college is exploring the idea of adding a third setup on or around Wood Street. Meanwhile, Twist, Frideger, and Eareckson are investigating ways to help EV drivers avoid scheduling conflicts at the chargers.<\/p>\n Twist is also looking into expedient ways to charge users, so to speak, for charging their cars, so that the college isn’t giving away electricity.<\/p>\n<\/a>