A Clear Lane

Greg Hanssen, a 33-year-old computer engineer from Irvine who drives a battery-powered electric car, just got his free pass to freeway bliss.

So after finishing some business in the San Fernando Valley the other day, he went out of his way to drive the San Diego, Century, Harbor and Riverside freeways on his way home to Orange County. While other drivers inched along, Hanssen drove his General Motors EV1 at 70 mph in the carpool lanes.

Under a new state law that took effect on July 1, Hanssen and other drivers of vehicles powered by electricity or compressed natural gas can use freeway carpool lanes, even when they are driving alone. It is the latest incentive for drivers to embrace environmentally friendly technology.

Proponents of the new law hope folks stuck in traffic will move into carpool lanes behind the wheels of low-emissions vehicles. The payoff, said Rick Price, an account executive with a car powered by natural gas, is the slashing of a 45-minute freeway commute to 13 minutes. “I’ve died and gone to heaven,” he said.

The problem for gasoline-using commuters is trying to find one of the ultra-low-emission cars. General Motors has suspended production. And new hybrid electric- and gas-powered vehicles do not qualify for access to carpool lanes.

Manufacturers of electric cars contend that demand is low and the cars are too expensive to make profits. They say potential buyers don’t like the limited range of battery-operated vehicles, which can travel about 140 miles before needing to be recharged.

“The market for electric vehicles is very small,” said Donn Walker, a General Motors spokesman. “If there were really, truly money to be made on electric cars, every auto maker on the planet would be tripping over each other to make them.”

Walker conceded that GM cannot fill current orders for its EV1 but declined to say how many people are waiting for the vehicles. They are leased for $450 to $500 a month, about the cost of a luxury car.

People who drive electric cars rave about them, and love to prove the manufacturers wrong. Hanssen said he drove his first EV1 from California to Florida, even though he had to recharge the batteries every 60 miles.

“The problem is, they don’t want to make the cars,” said John Stoller, an accountant from the San Fernando Valley. He said he had to use his influence as a longtime Galpin Motors customer to get his EV1. “All my friends want to drive it, and they come away with a smile,” he said.

Sandy Kapteyn, 35, a computer consultant who works for Caltech in Pasadena, has “SPAC SHP” vanity plates on her EV1.

“It looks like a space ship,” she said. “It takes off like a space ship.”

Kapteyn and her husband each had an EV1, but one of them was recalled. “When we had two of them, it was great, because we didn’t have to fight over them. Now we have to fight again to see who gets to drive the EV.”

She said getting her car took some finagling and talking with other electric-car enthusiasts. “We know the network, so we knew who to talk to [to] get one,” she said.

There are only a few hundred electric vehicles operating in California, with waiting lists at dealerships. Electric cars were pioneered in California to meet requirements of the California Air Resources Board, but manufacturers have not built many.

Car makers are lobbying for relief from a state requirement that they produce more than 20,000 electric cars a year for sale in California by 2003.

General Motors spent hundreds of millions of dollars developing its futuristic EV1, a computerized, all digital two-seater that set an electric-car record at 183 mph. Consumers like Hanssen drive a similar model, but computer software built into the car limits the speed to about 80 mph.

GM ran into technical problems with its first-generation version. In March, the company recalled 450 of the original EV1s--introduced in December 1996--because a component of the recharging system could overheat and start a fire.

Cars powered with compressed natural gas (CNG) are much more widely available--including models like Ford’s Crown Victoria that are popular with fleet operators and taxi companies. Unlike electric cars, however, they produce some emissions.

They cost several thousand dollars more than similar gasoline-powered cars. But they qualify as ultra-low-emission vehicles, making fleet operators eligible for thousands of dollars in government rebates and tax credits.

One of the biggest operators of CNG taxis is Orange County’s American Taxi Co., which has a fleet of 170 CNG cabs working out of John Wayne Airport. American President Rick Schorling said his CNG fleet has helped to keep pollution out of the skies.

Gas company officials estimate that 99% of the CNG vehicles on the road belong to such fleets. So, for the time being, the new carpool lane law will be a perk for government agencies, utility companies and private firms that already have cars and trucks powered by electricity and compressed natural gas.

For those who have clean-burning vehicles, there are incentives other than the carpool lane.

Electric cars get free parking at Los Angeles International Airport, as well as prime spaces at some shopping malls and free passage over public toll roads. They are offered free electricity at the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power headquarters, Costco stores and other Southern California businesses.

On Thursday, about 50 alternative-fuel cars promoted the new law with a caravan from LAX to the California Science Center in Exposition Park.

Hanssen was in the middle of the pack, driving in a line of cars, trucks and vans powered by electricity and natural gas.

They may have offended the thousands of other drivers stuck in traffic on the Harbor Freeway: The traffic was made even slower by the California Highway Patrol escort given to the parade of alternative-fuel vehicles.

But drawing attention was what the event was all about. Supporters of clean-running cars say they want to keep the pressure on auto manufacturers to produce more of them.

Electric and natural gas vehicles must display decals issued by the California Department of Motor Vehicles to drive in the carpool lanes. The decals, large enough to be seen easily by CHP officers, cost $8 and feature a diamond followed by the words “ACCESS OK.”

They are issued only for vehicles listed by the California Air Resources Board as zero-emission (electric) and ultra-low-emission (natural gas).

Drivers whose cars run on gasoline, diesel or any other combustible liquid are out of luck.