For anyone who regularly attends media events in Long Beach, the sight of Mayor Bob Foster’s white Toyota Rav4 with the blue “EV” logo on its side is as common as can be. Foster has driven the electric car since taking office in 2007, and can be seen whirring around town in it from one event to another. On Tuesday, Nicholas Zart of Examiner.com asked the question: Is he the only U.S. mayor to drive an electric car?
In his article, Zart tells the story of how Foster became interested in the idea during his time at Edison, and points out that Long Beach was recently named the greenest city fleet in the country. Maybe it became so commonplace to see Foster’s Rav4 EV zipping around town that we began to assume that all (or at least, some) mayors did the same. Zart has yet to find one.
From the article:
For Mayor Bob Foster, it all started when he was President of Southern California Edison, SCE wth the fleet of electric cars Toyota leased them, the famous RAV4 EVs. After driving them, he soon realized they were no golf cart, functioned like a normal cars and had enough performance for highways cruising. He was hooked and used his service vehicle for 4 years.
Unknowingly, Zart may have also dropped a little hint into Long Beach’s business future at the end of his piece, when he asks mayor Foster what his next car will be. His answer? The Tesla Model S, a four-door electric sedan that was introduced a few months ago and covered in this article by lbpost.com columnist Nancy Pfeffer. More importantly, Tesla Motors has been rumored to be interested in building a factory in Long Beach that would begin production in 2011 – the year that the Model S is to begin production. Is Foster hinting that a Tesla production deal is imminent, or does he just have his eye on the curvaceous sedan?
Either way, Foster’s daily use of the Rav4 and the City’s optimistic plans to welcome Tesla Motors continue to bring positive attention to environmental efforts being made in Long Beach.