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Hawaiian Electric Company’s involvement with electric vehicle development dates to the mid-1990s when the utility was part of a demonstration project to deploy and test EVs in its fleet. Five GEO Prizm compact EV sedans and five U.S. Electricar-Chevy S-10 EV light-duty pickup trucks were added to the fleet and a U.S. Electricar bus was acquired as an employee shuttle.
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In the late 1990s, through 2001, Hawaiian Electric Company installed PosiCharge rapid chargers compatible with these electric vehicles at the Ward Avenue baseyard, Waiau and Kahe power plants, Koolau base yard and Ewa Town Center. A Hyundai Santa Fe electric SUV was also put in use during this period.
The Hawaiian Electric Company electric vehicles were used until parts and services were no longer available. For these demonstration projects, Hawaiian Electric Company partnered with Enova in Honolulu, which is now the Hawaii Center for Advanced Transportation Technologies, and the State of Hawaii Department of Business, Economic Development & Tourism, as well as other organizations participating in the Honolulu Clean Cities program.
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On December 2, 2008, Governor Linda Lingle announced that a memorandum of understanding (MOU) had been signed between Better Place and Hawaiian Electric Company. Better Place brings a new concept to the electric car idea. Better Place’s plans call for an infrastructure of electric charging stations in homes, businesses, and public parking areas and battery-swapping stations where drivers can change batteries as quickly and effortlessly as one would drive a vehicle to a service station for a fill-up. The MOU aims to bring an EV charging and operating system to Hawaii in the future.
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On December 9, 2008, Governor Linda Lingle announced an MOU between Phoenix Motorcars of California and Maui Electric Company to explore the use of all-electric pickup trucks and SUVs in the Maui Electric Company fleet. Maui Electric Company plans to add new PHEV sedans to its fleet each year, beginning in 2010. Partnering with a local architectural firm, Maui Electric Company is also adding a wind turbine at its Maalaea facility to charge EVs.
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