How Electric Vehicles Can Improve Health

Show Transcript

Electric Vehicles & Health

[00:00:00] Bob Gatty: During the early years of life, the human brain undergoes significant development and the environment is vital in helping to shape a child's future. Today our cars as well as trucks and buses are the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. That means the children growing up in urban areas, especially, are vulnerable.

[00:00:26] So what's the solution? We have with us today Kate Harrison. She's an expert on electric vehicles and believes that they're the future and that company fleets can play a major role in reducing these harmful emissions. So stay with us.

[00:00:42] Kate L. Harrison is the co founder and head of marketing at MoveEV, an AI backed EV transition company that helps organizations convert fleet and employee owned gas vehicles to electric and reimburse for charging at home.

[00:01:01] Over her career, Kate's worked with small businesses, non profits, and government organizations to make the world a better place. She's a best selling author, thought leader, and frequent speaker at conferences and events, sharing her insights and experiences with others who are working to create a more sustainable future.

[00:01:24] Kate, hey, thanks for joining us on the Lean to the Left podcast today. I really appreciate it. 

[00:01:29] Kate Harrison: Thank you so much for having me, Bob. It's really a pleasure to be here. 

[00:01:33] Bob Gatty: You say that the adoption of electric vehicles on a large scale will not only improve the environment, but also people's health.

[00:01:41] Can you explain that for me? 

[00:01:45] Kate Harrison: Yeah. So as you said, air pollution is still a huge problem, both globally and in the United States. So we were looking at 4. 5 million deaths from outdoor air pollution. And a lot of that is caused from the transportation sector, not 100%, but a lot of it. And so people who live in urban areas where a lot of that congestion happens or along highway corridors, they're the ones who are getting a lot of that particulate matter. And what's really cool is that we have a great solution. It's a real solution. It works. There are wonderful vehicles, right? And they produce electric vehicles produce zero tailpipe emissions.

[00:02:26] So they are not producing any of that particulate matter on site. All of the energy that is generated for EVs happens at either a green facility or at a power plant that has a scrubber on it. And so it's much, much cleaner overall and much cleaner locally to be driving around an electric vehicle or have electric vehicles in your community.

[00:02:50] Bob Gatty: Okay, so that's good. But how does how does the fact that air quality, especially in urban areas, can be harmful to people's health, especially little kids?

[00:03:03] Kate Harrison: Yeah. When you have gas or diesel vehicle with its tailpipe emissions, you're getting a mix of noxious chemical compounds and particulate matter coming out of that tailpipe.

[00:03:12] And some of those are greenhouse gases, but some of those are local compounds like NO2 and these particulate matter which clogs up lungs and they're neurotoxins. So what you're seeing is kids in particular in these areas are showing signs of that exposure and it has really immediate and direct impacts.

[00:03:33] So we see cognitive function go down. We see lagging in reading and math, overall brain development, and even the size of different brain regions of kids that grow up in these really heavily polluted areas is lower. And when we're talking about American kids, we're looking about half of our population is living in areas that are not meeting our federal air quality standards.

[00:03:58] Okay. And kids that are in these environmental justice communities, like I was describing, communities that are more exposed to these kinds of toxins, they are almost 3. 7 times more likely to, be kids of color or invulnerable population. So it's really a justice issue, as well as a health issue for our communities.

[00:04:23] Bob Gatty: Wow. Okay. Now, is there evidence that replacing gas and diesel powered vehicles with EVs really does make a difference? Have there been studies that show this? And how? 

[00:04:35] Kate Harrison: Yeah, this is what's so cool. So we have a couple of different evidence points here, but just to lay the table a little bit, we have 4. 5 million kids in the United States are suffering from childhood asthma. So that's one really clear thing that you can measure, right? How many kids or people in the community have asthma? How many of those kids are going to an emergency room? And so looking at some of the areas that have had heavier electric vehicle adoption, where it's cleaner on the roads, you see that impact.

[00:05:06] And so there was this study that came out in California that looked at electric vehicle distribution and then hospital visits. E. R. Visits from asthma, and they found that for every 20 electric vehicles per 1000 people in a community. So they're looking at saturation, right? As long as you have 20 vehicles per 1000 people is for every 20, you see a 3. 2 percent drop in the emergency room visit rate. That's really significant. That adds up many visits and a ton of money right every year just from having cleaner air that we're breathing. 

[00:05:42] Bob Gatty: Yeah, that is remarkable. That's clear evidence. There have been what about, I read somewhere that Norway was a good example of the efficacy of this.

[00:05:51] Is that right? 

[00:05:53] Kate Harrison: Yeah. Norway is a really great case study for electric vehicles because they have been the fastest to adopt and they have the most vehicles on the road.

[00:06:02] So as of this year, about 87 percent of all new cars sold are electric and their overall, penetration is really high and as a result, and it's been happening over the last two decades, right? And so we have really good data on their air quality and you can see this incredibly tight correlation between adoption and air quality overall in Norway.

[00:06:23] And adding to this, their electricity, their grid is really great. So they get 91 or 92 percent of their power from hydropower and another six or seven from wind. So it's almost all green energy, which is something we are, heading more and more towards the United States as well, but we're not nearly as far along.

[00:06:41] So they, yeah. And as a result, emissions there of these dangerous particles that come from tailpipes and the burning of coal are down to less than 2. 5 micrometers in size, sorry. That's the ones that are really dangerous are these really small particles, right? There are less than 2. 5 micrometers in size and they have plunged by nearly three quarters, right? So they're down 75 percent in the last two decades. And you can really tie it directly to this transition to electric vehicles. So they're this really clear blueprint for the rest of the world of what kind of impact these.

[00:07:21] Vehicles, right? This change can have on our local air quality and how much cleaner they really can make our cities 

[00:07:28] Bob Gatty: Yeah now in the United States California has been the leader with respect to electric vehicles, right? 

[00:07:37] Kate Harrison: Yeah, and that's, that is where that study was, that for every 20 vehicles that you see per population of 1, 000, you're looking at that 3. 2 percent drop in asthma room visits. So again you're getting this really tangible impact from swapping out these dirty local vehicles to these clean vehicles. 

[00:07:56] Bob Gatty: So what do you think that cities can do to improve the quality of the air and within their community for the people? 

[00:08:05] Kate Harrison: What I think is really cool about the electric vehicles is that it's a proven technology, right?

[00:08:11] And there are more and more options coming online every day. And so I think once you accept that premise that it's the next easiest way to reduce air pollution locally, then it's about what are the simple steps that each municipality or each community can take to accelerate that adoption because there are hurdles to adoption, right?

[00:08:33] We're not moving as fast as we should be in this country. We really have five steps that we think that communities can be taking to be really proactive about adding more electric vehicles on the road and encouraging people to make that green switch. And if you'd like I can just run through them one by one.

[00:08:53] Bob Gatty: Yeah, do it. Go ahead. 

[00:08:55] Kate Harrison: The first one is about charger access. When you ask consumers why they haven't made the switch to electric vehicle, fears about getting caught out on the road without access to a charger is one of the biggest hurdles for individuals.

[00:09:09] Yeah, 

[00:09:09] Bob Gatty: that's the case with me. I want to get an EV in the worst way, but I worry about that. 

[00:09:16] Kate Harrison: And you're not alone. Yeah. The thing that most people don't realize is that EVs, the average driver, and this is probably true for you as well, puts on somewhere around 35 or 40 miles a day. And unlike your gas car, EVs can plug directly into your house and recharge overnight.

[00:09:34] So I always joke The Magic Gas Fairy refills your car every night, so you don't really have to worry about charging out unless you're really doing a tremendous amount of driving, especially if you have a newer EV that's going, 250, 350 miles on a charge, how many times a year do you really go that far in a day, unless you're A fleet driver, going really far distances, for the average American, that's just not how far people drive.

[00:10:01] Yeah, 

[00:10:01] Bob Gatty: what, that's really a good point, because you don't think through that. I know that Like in my case, I haven't thought about it in that way. I always thought gee, what if I decide I want to go to New Jersey to visit somebody and I get stuck and I can't find a place to plug in, what am I going to do?

[00:10:21] And then if I do find a place, how long is it going to take me to get my car going again? 

[00:10:28] Kate Harrison: Yeah. And so what I do is I encourage people who are thinking about electric vehicles to really log how far you're driving daily. And more importantly, how many times a year do you do a really long drive? Yeah, because there are a couple of options. So one is, and then I'll come back to what cities can do to help with this. Yeah, okay. We're on a tangent now. Yeah, for sure. You know what I would say is When you're going a long distance, like you said, you're going to New Jersey, right? So I live in Maryland. I have family up in Pennsylvania and we take a Tesla and we actually can go all the way in one charge along the way.

[00:11:08] The Tesla shows you in the app where all of the superchargers are and. I can't make it. I always joke like my bladder has a shorter range than our car, right? That's a good point. Yeah, I have kids. We make a lot of stops. You just choose one of the locations where they have, there, there are a lot of rest stops that are set up now with superchargers or just regular, high speed chargers.

[00:11:33] And so you pick one and by the time you go in and everyone buys something to eat and goes to the bathroom, your car is ready to go. You don't have to It takes 15 minutes. It's not that long, but okay. So that's the first thing, but if you're really nervous about it, you're going on a really long road trip, you're going somewhere that's really rural or remote you can always rent a car because the truth is you're going to save so much money owning an electric vehicle. They cost so much less to fuel and their maintenance is so much lower and all the tax subsidies we'll talk about this more, but it's you're going to save thousands of dollars a year.

[00:12:07] So if every twice a year you have to rent a gas car to go a longer distance and that enables you to have an electric vehicle in your community, I think that's a really good switch. That's a, it's a reasonable bargain to make. 

[00:12:19] Bob Gatty: That's not a bad idea either. Now what about though, hybrid is that an option, a hybrid vehicle?

[00:12:26] Yeah. 

[00:12:27] Kate Harrison: Yeah, hybrids, I think are really great option for a lot of families. The key is being able to plug them in regularly. So if you get a not a we're not talking about a Prius type hybrid, but if you're talking about a plug in hybrid, a plug in hybrid acts like a purely electric vehicle. If for those shorter trips that are like 30-40 miles, it depends on its all electric range.

[00:12:48] And then you go beyond that it switches over to gas. So that Yeah. Completely eliminates your fears about having to charge out because you can always use gas, but on daily commute You can keep using electric as long as you plug in at night But all of these things which I certainly can talk about for a long time and would happily do So I would say the community what a community can do what a municipality can do what a company can do Is help make sure that you do have access to charging right when you're not at your house That's where, coming up with making sure that there's good public charging and there's a lot of grant money out there right now that municipalities take advantage of that grant money that they are putting in public chargers that businesses are seeing if they can install some chargers in their parking lot.

[00:13:34] It's also a great way to attract new customers. I know IKEA has had me stop there more than once because I wanted to use their charger. Okay. That's a dangerous stop financially. 

[00:13:45] Bob Gatty: They have I live in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, and there's a a mall, a outlet mall not far from my house.

[00:13:52] And they have a whole bunch of charging stations there, and they're in use all the time. And that's a good way to seems to me, it's a good way to attract people to come to the mall, right? 

[00:14:02] Kate Harrison: Yeah, and our local grocery store, The Giant, has a free charger, so you can charge while you shop for groceries.

[00:14:08] For free? For free, yes. I said no one's ever offered me free gas, but I get offered free charging all the time. 

[00:14:14] Bob Gatty: Wow, that's amazing. Let me ask you this. Let me ask you this. Just up the street from me, I live in a rapidly growing suburban area of Myrtle Beach. And they just put in two brand new gas stations, both of them happen to be Shell stations.

[00:14:36] And neither one of them have EV charging stations in them, and I'm just wondering why in the hell, in this day and age, would you put in a gas station, a service station, and a convenience store, and not have at least one or two places where people can charge up their EV? 

[00:14:59] Kate Harrison: I think this, it's a great question.

[00:15:01] I think it's bad to business decision, right? There's a lot of denial out there. I think from oil companies about what's happening with electric vehicles and maybe even some would say some incentive to try to slow adoption, perhaps what cities can do. And some have I know that Orlando is a city that's done this is there are these EV readiness codes. So what they can do is they can require new housing developments, because that's a big one, right? Being able to charge at home is really important. So new construction or, rehab, rehab permits to put in the ability to install a charger or to have a charger installed.

[00:15:40] And they could do the same thing with commercial, they could require chargers. So that is a way to encourage the businesses to step out and offer that infrastructure that's really needed to support a robust because not everybody lives in a single family house or has access to a charger, right? About 70 percent of Americans have access to a home charger, or could have a home charger, actually have access yet, but they could have access to a home charger or can plug their EV just directly into the wall, right?

[00:16:08] You can use a trickle charger and just plug in. But if you live in a multifamily unit or you live in a development that you don't have control over, that's not an option for you. So that's where this can really help thinking about new development and access moving forward, right? 

[00:16:26] Bob Gatty: Yeah, that's a very good point because using this place as an example again, they're putting up hundreds and hundreds of apartment units and townhomes, most of them don't have garage access. And so those folks are out of luck if they don't have some other place to go, right? 

[00:16:49] Kate Harrison: Exactly. Exactly. But, it's not that hard of a fix, especially if you're doing new construction, to lay down lines that would allow for the installation of a level 2 charger.

[00:16:59] Bob Gatty: Yeah, you would think it would be a huge, especially for a new apartment complex, a huge incentive for especially higher end places, where you're trying to charge $3 and $4,000 a month rent for an apartment to say at least, we offer charging. 

[00:17:18] Kate Harrison: Yeah and I don't have, I don't have the number in front of me, but that's, there is definitely evidence out there that you can charge more, they're getting higher rents in places that have the chargers installed or at least allow for that ability to charge on site.

[00:17:32] Bob Gatty: There you go. There you go. 

[00:17:34] Kate Harrison: So plowing along here, I want to, I told you I had five things that I think cities can do. And I talked about the first two, right? So just. Put in more chargers as a municipality or organization to get those grants, right? There's a local infrastructure hub has information about the grants that are available to put in those EV readiness codes.

[00:17:53] So that's the second thing. Third thing is really about education. Okay, so they're both in terms of vehicles, right? Because oftentimes, it's a new technology and just understanding what it is and debunking some of the myths and fears out there is really important, but also about the tax incentives.

[00:18:13] People don't really understand that The tax incentives and they are complicated and thankfully they just got less complicated in January because now you can actually get those incentives as a discount at the point of sale instead of having to file, the next year as part of your taxes and figuring it out.

[00:18:32] But, knowing which vehicles qualify, which people qualify, how to actually get them. And there's not just federal money out there. So there's up to $7, 500 for new vehicles that qualify and up to 4, 000 for used vehicles that qualify at the federal level, but there's also often significant state incentives and even sometimes there are local incentives.

[00:18:58] Now, it might not be for the purchase of the car. It might be for example, Installing a charger at your home. There might be a rebate or money back through your utility or through your municipality, but just making sure that the constituents in someone's area really know about what's available to them.

[00:19:16] That is a huge thing in terms of accelerating adoption, because if I'm like, hey, by the way, you're going to get 7, 500 off that car, that's real money, 

[00:19:27] Bob Gatty: right? You're not kidding, it is, especially in this day and age when cars are so damn expensive. 

[00:19:31] Kate Harrison: Yeah, and I did a, an experiment earlier this year where I wanted to see how much I could buy, like, how cheap I could buy an EV for, basically.

[00:19:42] All right. And I went out and I found a used Nissan Leaf, a 2012. So this is like the first EV, that was commercially made. Ever made, right. Yeah, it's old. It's really, it's so cute. It's a really cute car, but. Did you buy it? I bought it. So I bought it. It was a little bit under 8, 000, like it was right around 8, 000.

[00:20:00] Because of the tax credit, there's up to that 4, 000 which is not the full four. So it's 25 percent out of the value, I think. So you know, that was going to knock another like two and a half thousand dollars off about. And then I did the math of just the driving on what I was going to save in gas and maintenance.

[00:20:20] And I will have a free car in about a year and a half. So that's perfect because I have a kid who's heading towards 16 pretty soon. So he can drive that guy around.

[00:20:31] Bob Gatty: Oh, that's cool as hell. That really is. 

[00:20:33] Kate Harrison: Yeah. So it really, when people are like, Oh, they're so expensive. They're not affordable. It's actually, there really are a lot now coming into the used market.

[00:20:41] And there's an incredible number of Teslas right now because Hertz is auctioning off 20, 000 of them. So they're really, their prices are deflated and they qualify. Part of me just wants to buy one because They're such a good deal, but I already have all the cars I need. 

[00:20:59] Bob Gatty: I didn't know about the Teslas about this big sale of Teslas.

[00:21:04] Kate Harrison: Yeah Hertz is selling off 20, 000 of them because I guess when people rent them, they're really hard on them as you might imagine. So they're spending more than they wanted on. Yeah. But that doesn't mean they're not great cars. They're really, that's a, it's a good deal out there.

[00:21:21] Yeah. 

[00:21:22] Bob Gatty: Okay. So 

[00:21:23] Kate Harrison: that's the third thing. Sorry. 

[00:21:24] Bob Gatty: I don't mean to take five. No, that's okay. Go to four and five. Tell me. 

[00:21:28] Kate Harrison: Come on. Okay. Yeah. All right. Four and five. The fourth thing is, I say it's not walking the walk here. It's driving the drive. So every right city municipality they own vehicles.

[00:21:39] It could be the little car that drives, the library vehicle around. It can be the police force. It can be, the school buses, their electric school buses. So Making sure you are actually converting your own fleet vehicles over and doing that in a really public way. It's not just about also cleaning up the air and public health and cutting costs, right?

[00:22:02] I have a great case study of a police force that basically got an extra cop on their very small town and they were able to hire an extra person and expand their fleet because they saved so much money on EVs. 

[00:22:14] Bob Gatty: Wow, that's a great story. 

[00:22:16] Kate Harrison: Yeah, it's really, it's cool. But it's not just about the budget, right? It's also about, again, showing people that EVs are great. If you have a police car that is an electric vehicle, people are like, oh the police wouldn't do that unless it's a really good car, right?

[00:22:32] Police want to move quickly, they want something that's reliable. And so part of it is just demystifying it, right? And using your own employees to help evangelize or will people. Pun if you spell it out with the EV big, but get out there and really show people that electric vehicles can be used for every part of public life.

[00:22:54] Bob Gatty: Did you really say evangelize? 

[00:22:56] Kate Harrison: No, I know. I'm sorry. 

[00:22:58] Bob Gatty: All right. So what's number five? 

[00:23:01] Kate Harrison: Okay. And so number five is and obviously this is a little self-serving 'cause this is part of, oh no, you wouldn't do that. That it does. I would never Yes, no . The, we created this product called Reimburse EV, which allows people to, or organizations to reimburse employees for charging at home. Okay. So I always say that's the fifth thing because it's great to have your fleet of vehicles, whether you're a company or. Or municipality switched over to electric vehicles, but if they are all staying on site, that's not nearly as good as if they're going home into the community for two reasons.

[00:23:38] The first one is financially again when you send vehicles home. They can charge overnight and often that's an off peak rate. It's reduces pressure on the grid, right? And you can save up to 60 percent depending on what the utility situation is. You can save even more money sending those vehicles home, but also again, when people see those cars in the community and their neighbor has one that's charging, it's just there's, yeah.

[00:24:05] There's a viral effect to technology adoption that's been shown over and over. So if you have solar panels on your roof, the chance of your neighbor getting solar panels on their roof is much higher than if you don't. And it's the same thing with electric vehicles. If your neighbor has an EV and you see them charging it and using it and loving it and talking about it, and you can come check it out and give it a test drive.

[00:24:28] You're much more likely to get one. So I think municipalities should be sending those vehicles out into the community as much as possible.

[00:24:36] Bob Gatty: That's a great idea. Before we get off, I wanted to ask you about battery life. Have they have had batteries in electric vehicles improved a lot in recent years?

[00:24:50] Kate Harrison: So every single year, EVs are getting better in every way, right? The batteries are going longer. They're being produced with fewer materials, less toxic materials, because that is the criticisms, right? That the batteries are big and have to use a lot of. Lithium, so now we're coming out with these lithium free batteries, like the batteries are getting better.

[00:25:09] The technology is getting better. They're lasting longer. And now we have a enough of a history to say that those batteries, which was a big concern, their degradation is much lower than was initially projected. So they're losing about Two or three percent of capacity a year. It's not like your cell phone, which, works really well for two years and then dies.

[00:25:33] It's not like that at all. They're slowly degrading and they're lasting much longer than those warranties on average, like way longer. So I know everyone's nervous about that because the battery expense would be high if you have to replace it. But the truth is that, they're really they're lasting much longer than anticipated, and it's not for every once in a while.

[00:25:54] You might get a car where you have to replace the battery, just like you might get a car where you have to replace the motor, but statistically, it's just much lower than expected. 

[00:26:03] Bob Gatty: Yeah, okay. All right. So let's talk about specifically what your company does and how it works with communities to help them power up their EV capabilities.

[00:26:16] Kate Harrison: We have a couple of different types of ways that we engage with communities. So the first thing we do is called Advise EV, and that's really coming in a lot of smaller communities, in particular, don't even have a fleet manager, so they have nobody on staff whose job it is to manage the fleet, let alone figure out how to convert the fleet to electric.

[00:26:39] So we really help them understand where their fleet is today, help them figure out which vehicles should be swapped when and for what kind of charging infrastructure they might need and what grants they qualify for. So it's an advisory program for communities. The second thing we do is help them with that Reimburse EV product.

[00:26:59] So before you even get into thinking about, Oh, we're going to have to install depot charging and it's going to be, these things are very expensive to install. It can be a hundred thousand dollars to put in one of these chargers. And it's, a major construction project and it's a whole thing.

[00:27:15] So we say, Hey don't. Get hung up on that, right? You don't have to have a depot right now. You can have these vehicles today, send them home with your employees, and just reimburse them with Reimburse EV. So that's the second thing we're offering. And then we have another product where sometimes we have an organization like a university, for example, that has a, or a community like has a bunch of different departments and they do have a charger.

[00:27:45] There are what are called smart chargers and dumb chargers. So I'll call it. I don't think it's called a dumb charger. We call it a dumb charger. It's if you have a charger and you have a bunch of different departments that are using that charger and for your own internal accounting. You really should be knowing you want to know how much quote fuel is going into each vehicle and what the costs are.

[00:28:07] So we have created this product called Recharge EV that allows you to know, it basically turns that dumb charger into a smart charger and lets you know exactly what each department should be billed for internally for managing. So those are really our yeah. Our three core products currently 

[00:28:25] Bob Gatty: cool.

[00:28:26] Okay, so let's just say I want to go out and buy a new. Maybe I want to buy one of these Tesla's that's on sale from Hertz. Okay. Now I don't have a charger in my garage. What do I have to do and how much is it gonna cost me? 

[00:28:41] Kate Harrison: It's a great question. So again, it comes back to how much are you really driving?

[00:28:44] So every electric vehicle, just like your cell phone, comes with a charger. Okay? It's called a charger or a le, a level one charger, okay? And it literally plugs into the same outlet that your cell phone goes into. Okay? Now it charges slowly, so it adds three miles an hour, right? Overnight. Okay. So you plug it in when you get home.

[00:29:07] It charges up overnight, and over the course of the week, as long as you're driving basically 60 or 70 miles or less a day, you don't need any new infrastructure at all. You can just work off your trickle charger. You're fine. Oh, okay. If you want to install a level 2 charger, you need the same type of outlet, the 240, I always get the numbers a little confused, I'm a little dyslexic, I think it's 240, the one that goes for your dryer.

[00:29:34] Bob Gatty: Yeah, okay. Yeah, I had to have one put in for my hot tub. 

[00:29:38] Kate Harrison: Exactly. So whatever it costs you to put that line in for your house. Yeah, it was a hundred bucks. Double that. An electrician has to come out. They have to separate out the line or they have to, depends where it's going to be. If it's to go to your garage, they have to run it out there.

[00:29:53] If it's. Far away from the house. So you got to get an electrician out there They have to make sure that there's a line some garages already have them in which case you're fine And then it's just a few hundred dollars for the actual unit to charge and it depends, you know It's like all these things there's higher end ones and lower end.

[00:30:09] Yeah. Yeah. Yeah But

[00:30:11] Bob Gatty: okay, but the bottom line is the cost is not prohibitive to do it. It's not 

[00:30:16] Kate Harrison: prohibitive It can be anywhere. I would say from four to six hundred dollars up to a few thousand depending on how

[00:30:23] Bob Gatty: But for basic use you don't really need that. You just use the, what you call the trickle charger. Exactly. Which I guess is really a dumb one. You talk about dumb chargers and that's got to be one of the dumbest, right? 

[00:30:37] Kate Harrison: We'll just call it the easy charger. The easy charger. Any old outlet will do.

[00:30:43] Bob Gatty: Yeah, you don't want to hurt anybody's feelings. 

[00:30:45] Kate Harrison: I take mine in my car with me, and I'll, when I pull up somewhere, if I see an outlet outside a building, sometimes I'll just, you just plug it in to any building, so you can pick up a few miles while you go inside and have a meeting.

[00:30:56] It's pretty cool. 

[00:30:58] Bob Gatty: Huh. So you're ripping off their electricity. I 

[00:31:01] Kate Harrison: mean, they're offering a free outlet outside. Until there's a sign, I 

[00:31:04] Bob Gatty: Oh, so you're not just going up you're just not going up to some store and you see an outlet outside, just a regular outlet.

[00:31:13] You're not You could, yeah, I don't do that. But you're not doing that. I'm not doing that. Alright you know what, we've come down to the end of the line here. Anything else you want to tell us? Oh, 

[00:31:26] Kate Harrison: What I didn't talk about, and you were asking what else we do for communities. Okay. Going back to the education thing, we also run demo days, and that is something you don't need us to do.

[00:31:36] There are a lot you could do yourself. But, Again, it's about exposure, right? I just think like more is more like when people, I love my favorite thing is to watch people who've never driven an EV get inside specifically the Tesla's because they're so zippy. They're really fast.

[00:31:53] Oh, really? Oh, they're so responsive. It's so cool. Cause EVs have the way that they're built, they have instant torque. So when you hit that accelerator pedal, I think there was this. People thought it was going to be like a golf car yeah, but it's so people just get in these cars It's wow this car is so fun and responsive and really fun to drive and so it's been very interesting seeing you can get real car what are they called?

[00:32:21] Like car nerds, but that's not what they're called because they're cooler than that. They're real like car heads. They really love the electric vehicles because they're just really fun and fast. They're fun and fast. 

[00:32:32] Bob Gatty: What kind of service do they 

[00:32:34] Kate Harrison: require? They have much lower maintenance because if you think about the service that you normally bring your car in for, it has to get its oil changed.

[00:32:43] Longer because it's just a battery, right? And how, whatever, and how all the different sort of mechanical aspects of your motor are completely missing. So you only have to go in, you want to bring them in for tire, you want to check the tire pressure and have the tires rotated or changed.

[00:33:01] However, often you do that a couple, maybe once or twice a year, something like that. And then your air conditioner, every couple of years, you want to get that cleaned out, but basically that is it for maintenance. There's nothing, there's almost nothing. And a lot of the maintenance not maintenance, but the.

[00:33:18] What's neat about them, too, about electric vehicles is that they are smart cars, right? In the same way that we have smartphones, a lot of times you'll get okay, so there, I'm sorry, I'm going all over the place with you, but. Do you remember they had this huge scandalous story Tesla recalls their autopilot?

[00:33:39] I don't know if you saw that but it was yeah. Yeah, that made me so mad because what actually happened in that situation Was that Tesla sent out over the airways an update to the software? It was a software update the same way that you're every once in a while your computer is like hey time for a software update click that was that entire, quote, recall was just a quick, automatic software update that happened while everyone was sleeping. You didn't know this happened. Wow. That's what's really cool about them, too, is that they're always coming out with new improvements to the software that improve the life of the battery because of the way they're doing it, that improve the performance of the car, and you don't even have to go into a service center.

[00:34:20] They just update themselves. It's really miraculous. Wow. 

[00:34:24] Bob Gatty: I shouldn't have done this interview with you. No, 

[00:34:27] Kate Harrison: you should have, because you're going to save so much money every year. Yeah, 

[00:34:32] Bob Gatty: I'm going to have to, I'm just dying. 

[00:34:36] Kate Harrison: Yeah, people save on average, just so you can calculate it in your mind.

[00:34:40] You're going to save between 3 and $5,000 a year driving your EV around. So how quickly that whatever car you're eyeing plus those tax incentives, I haven't 

[00:34:50] Bob Gatty: looked at any, I've been chicken. You 

[00:34:54] Kate Harrison: should. It's they're really great. It's an exciting thing. And now, it's also going to be helping your community reduce the air pollution.

[00:35:01] So that's coming forward too, right? 

[00:35:03] Bob Gatty: Yeah, it's true. Fewer kids with asthma. That's always a good thing. 

[00:35:08] Kate Harrison: Yeah. And adults. Adults are also suffering. Better for all of us, right? 

[00:35:15] Bob Gatty: Okay, Kate. Listen, thanks so much. I appreciate you being with us on the on our podcast and I enjoyed it a lot, and learned a lot, and I hope you guys that are listening and watching this thing take a listen to what she had to say, because I think I'm gonna go check some, check out, I don't know if I'll do a Tesla, but I need a bigger car, one that's got room for my dog.

[00:35:41] Kate Harrison: There are a couple of great trucks out, there's some good SUVs, don't worry, you're gonna go look on CarMax. 

[00:35:47] Bob Gatty: Yeah, I might do that. Okay, alright. Thank you. I almost said thank you, Tesla. Yeah, 

[00:35:54] Kate Harrison: no, I do not work for Tesla. I just happen to own one, also a Leaf, like Nissan. I like all of them. They're all great.

[00:36:00] They're all great. 

[00:36:02] Bob Gatty: Okay. Thank you. Great talking to you, Kate. You too. Thank you.