I’ve got to admit I came to this column about short-range, slow-speed Neighborhood Electric Vehicles (NEVs) with a negative bias.
I’m a strong proponent of full speed electric vehicles and I’ve been growing increasingly excited about the new plug-in Nissan Leaf and Chevy Volt coming to market later this year.
So I just couldn’t get too worked up about the South Bay Cities Council of Government’s “LUV” (Local Use Vehicle) test program of neighborhood electric vehicles that are restricted to a 25 mile per hour top speed, could only be driven on streets with a maximum 35 mph speed limit, and came with no air bags or other advanced safety features.
When the first cars in the LUV program were introduced at last year’s Riviera Village Summer Festival, I was one of the volunteers showing the cars off to the public, answering questions about them and signing up potential test drivers.
Creative Greenius 