Post Falls dealership devoted to environment-friendly vehicles

POST FALLS – What’s green, clean and quiet all over? In the case of Kent Votaw of Go Green Electric Cars in Post Falls, it’s the varied fleet of alternative autos headed toward the upstart dealership in the coming weeks.

In the former Winger’s restaurant – now colored an unmistakable bright green – adjacent to Interstate 90, Votaw and company set up shop as the region’s first alternative-only auto dealership. The undertaking, which Votaw hopes to become the Inland Northwest’s hub for nearly 50 different unconventional automotive lineups, is the upshot following 25 years in the industry.

“I’ve been researching this for some time,” said Votaw, 46, while seated in a round corner booth-turned-makeshift office desk of the former restaurant. “We’re trying to take anything that has to do with the environmental aspect and put it in one place.”

A few of Go Green Electric’s offerings include the Zenn, a zero-emission, 89-miles-per-gallon, speed-limited Neighborhood Electric Vehicle that is programmed to conform to the surrounding state’s guidelines that restrict NEVs’ speed to less than 35 miles per hour. Other options range from electric motorcycles to fuel-efficient flatbed trucks for under $20,000, the Comet by Spark-EV, a teardrop-shaped three-wheeler capable of 90 miles per hour with a 200 mile range that will retail somewhere in the mid-$30,000, to full-sized, fully street legal electric sport utility vehicles. Every Go Green vehicle, including used hybrids and vegetable oil-fueled vehicles, comes with a full warranty and safety inspection from Alton’s Tires just down the road.

For Votaw, the decision to get into the business of environment-friendly vehicles stemmed from the more than 25 years he spent in the mainstream auto industry, where most recently he served as finance manager at Spokane Chrysler.

“What kind of spawned this is that I’ve been kind of disappointed with the major car manufacturers,” he explained. “They just aren’t offering the technology that’s out there for us to be economically conscious. People need to have viable options.”

For example, Votaw said that instead of a push toward new technologies and better fuel economy, the major manufacturers “turned around” to focus on power options such as heated seats, adjustable pedals, power sunroofs and DVD players. “We’re more interested in consuming rather than conserving,” he added.

However, with oil prices recently topping $100 per barrel and gas prices continuing to climb, Votaw believes it’s just a matter of time before consumers start to re-examine some of their routines. “The public is going to be forced to change their driving habits,” he said.

It was with that in mind that Votaw decided to open his own dealership devoted to economically and atmospherically friendly vehicles. And when he heard about the self-advertising Post Falls location, it provided the perfect avenue, literally, to get his message out. As soon as the green coating was painted onto the exterior, interest started pouring in from all angles, including from Gordy Ormisher, a Hayden resident and enthusiast of everything electric who helped form the Electric Car Club in North Idaho, a volunteer club with dozens of members who’ve built a handful of electrically modified conveyances.

It was just recently that Ormisher, a volunteer firefighter who builds electric vehicles in his spare time, stopped by to check out Go Green, and now runs the dealership’s service department. The relationship benefits both parties, they said, since the dealership advises potential buyers to educate themselves prior to an electric car purchase, which is where the car club steps in.

“There are drawbacks to these vehicles,” Ormisher explained about the plug-in vehicles, which operate on 1 to 2 cents per mile compared with their gas-powered counterpart’s 8 to 12 cents.

Though the vehicles’ maintenance is minimal, there are some important things to consider, both Ormisher and Votaw said, such as matching the vehicle to fit your needs. Other points to remember are the fact that electrics can run out of electricity just like conventional autos run out of gas; NEVs aren’t as highly safety rated as fully street-legal vehicles and are better suited for shorter commutes; and it takes on average eight hours plugged into a standard 120-volt outlet for an electric vehicle to receive a full charge.

Those reasons among others are why members of the electric car club encourage membership, “to take some of the myth out of what an electric car can and can’t do,” Ormisher offered. “We’re not trying to replace a (conventional) car, but trying to prolong its life.”

The car club’s expertise will be on display -at Go Green Electric Cars with some custom-built vehicles available for purchase.

“There’s an underground movement of people in this area who are up-to-the-minute on electrics,” Votaw said of the club’s network of ingenious inventors. “There are things that these guys are up on that manufacturers aren’t even up on.”

Doug Bartlett, president and founder of the two-year-old Spokane business, Bartlett Greasecar, is another local auto converter who will add some modified diesel-to-vegetable oil-fueled vehicles to Go Green’s sale lot. Bartlett, whose company has modified about 70 vehicles so far to run on the restaurant byproduct, also believes that the dealership’s alternative inventory is set to become big business in the near future.

“I think what Kent’s doing over there is really going to take off,” he said. “There needs to be all kinds of different alternatives.”