Everything you need to know about an electric car

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Everything you need to know about an electric car

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I wanted to have an electric car since I was quite young. I've gotten my first one in 1970, it was a very primitive car, it was more like a golf cart than an automobile. It only had a top speed of 20 mph, it had a range of about 20 miles. But it was an inexpensive car, it was $950. And it was very cheap, I learned to operate to plug it in the wall, it was cheaper than buying 1970 gasoline. Same way it is today. It’s cheaper to plug in an electric car today and go x amount of miles than it is the same miles with a gasoline car, and much cheaper to maintain. There’s no tune-up or oil change, or fan belt, the radiator flush or smog check, or valve job – all those things you have with a normal car, you don’t have any more. So, I started driving them again in 1990 and it’d come a long way. I started driving vehicles that you could actually take on the freeway. It had greater speeds and greater range. And now there’s many auto manufacturers that make them. All of them make an electric car, either a pure electric or a plug-in hybrid where you can drive it in electric most of the time and then kick in the gasoline, if you want to drive very long distances. But the great thing about electric car is you can’t make gasoline on the roof of your house, but you can make electricity on the roof of your house, I know because I’m doing it, so it becomes a very clean car. But even plugging it in to a regular grid, it’s a clean vehicle in that way because you’re not just trading coal pollution for tailpipe pollution, because most of the charging you’re going to do is off peak. Most people drive during the day and sleep at night. Well at night time when you do most of your plugging in, that’s kind of a free time you use electricity as regards power plants, they have all these free electrons that they sell to you at a very cheap rate. So if you got something called a “time of use meter” you can take advantage of that low rate for electricity, and that low pollution from electricity. So, it’s a good way to go in every way - cost, the environment and the durability of the vehicle.

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Ed Begley, Jr.

Actor & Environmentalist

Inspired by the works of his Academy Award-winning father, Ed Begley Jr. became an actor. He first came to audiences’ attention for his portrayal of Dr. Victor Ehrlich on the long-running hit television series St. Elsewhere, for which he received six Emmy nominations. Since then, Ed has moved easily among feature, television and theatre projects.

Ed co-starred in the Woody Allen movie Whatever Works with Larry David, as well as the Seth Rogan/Judd Apatow film Pineapple Express, and a number of Christopher Guest films, including A Mighty WindBest In Show and For Your Consideration.

Other feature film credits include Batman ForeverThe Accidental Tourist and The In-Laws.

On television, Ed just completed Muhammad Ali’s Greatest Fight, an HBO movie with Christopher Plummer, Danny Glover and Frank Langella. He also starred in the HBO movie Recount with Kevin Spacey, Tom Wilkinson and Laura Dern, and appeared in recurring roles on Six Feet UnderArrested Development and Boston Legal.

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