All-green, all-go — electric car charges up spectators at raceway

WEST VALLEY CITY — It's quick, it's compact and as the eco-friendly car zipped along the oval at the Rocky Mountain Raceway, it made nary a sound.

It also used no gas.

Touted as the "plug and play vehicle" the all-electric car can go 100 miles without a charge and reach speeds up to 90 mph.

"This car is ready for prime time," declared Brooks Agnew, vice president of engineering for Salt Lake City-based Green Star Products, the car's developer.

Agnew is unabashedly proud of the vehicle, which he is described as highway ready, commuter friendly and crash-tested.

"This is robust and simple to drive, but it is not a golf cart with doors."

Fueled by the optimism Green Star will be successful in its pursuit of a $200 million grant from the Department of Energy made available through the 2009 Recovery Act, Agnew is eying Utah as the possible home for a production plant.

He wants to turn out 30,000 of the cars a year, and has plans for an all-electric pickup truck that will seat four people. The cars will sell for under $20,000.

The car, spanking new white and sparkling forest green, is actually 15 years old and has been sitting in a garage, waiting for consumers to be, well, ready for it.

"There was no real motivation for the production of an electric car 15 years ago," Agnew said. "Gas was a dollar a gallon."

Last summer's wallet-busting gas prices drove stakeholders in Green Star to the telephones, urging Agnew to resurrect the all-electric car and make it a reality.

Sporting a cap with the word "Armageddon" scrawled in front, Agnew said the word sums up his views on the path the world is headed unless environmentally sound changes aren't implemented soon.

"I think we are running out of time," he said. "This is the 21st century and frankly I am amazed we are still shoveling up our planet, putting it in our fuel tanks and burning it."

In contrast, the "plug and play vehicle," simply plugs into a 110-volt outlet and can get a 90 percent charge on its 12 regular deep cycle batteries in as little as an hour.

Agnew said for the price of powering an additional water heater in your home per month, motorists can skip the expense of filling up at the gas station. Based on local costs of electricity, the car gets the equivalent of 190 miles to a gallon.

For more information about the Green Star's electric car and the company's other ventures, go to www.greenstarusa.com.

E-MAIL: amyjoi@desnews.com