John and Jeanette Domm get inside their electric pick-up truck. Lately, they’ve been quite the celebrities riding around Rocky Mount.
"The people who live in this area - they like it. And I think in the very near future, you're gonna see a lot more coming from overseas,” John said.
It’s called a neighborhood electric vehicle, or NEV. This particular truck the Domms bought came from e-Ride Industries out of Minnesota. Dealers say these electric vehicles are legal on roads with a speed limit of 35 mph or less. Although the truck looks like a toy, it has Virginia tags and a county sticker.
"It took a couple days for the insurance company to figure out how to write the insurance policy for it,” John said.
A small screen inside the truck shows how much power is left. Instead of a gas cap are two outlets. When the charge gets below 80%, John brings the truck to the back of his house, and plugs it in to charge it up. He says a six-hour charge can last about 55 miles.
How does that translate at the pumps?
"The one figure that was thrown out to me by the dealers was, it gets 220 miles to the gallon,” John said.
For the Domms, they don’t travel too far away, usually staying within Rocky Mount.
"Being retired and not having to go everywhere like we did when we were working, if we don't use gas, that leaves somebody who has to go to Roanoke. Let them have the gas,” he said.
When it comes to the gas prices, they want to lead by example.
"We want to show the people of Rocky Mount and everyone around that there's an alternative to it,” John said.
Ten On Your Side talked to a spokesperson for e-Ride Industries. The company said in the past two months, it’s really seen a spike in people’s interest for the electric cars. Although they’re not sure if it’s directly related to gas, the spokesperson said, overall, people are starting to think and act “green.”
The cars go for about $15,000. For more information on these cars, visit www.e-ride.com.
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