Electric cars are still odd enough to get noticed, but Bruce Chesson hopes that attitude changes as more make their way onto Kennedy Space Center’s roads.
Chesson, who is Kennedy’s coordinator for alternative-fuel vehicles, says he plans to have Kennedy’s entire fleet of 1,686 vehicles running on substances other than gasoline by 2025, hopefully by 2020. That means some electric-powered vehicles, others with hydrogen fuel cells and others that run on 85 percent ethanol. KSC currently operates 104 vehicles on compressed natural gas and manufactures are starting to produce CNG vehicles again.
The attraction to alternative fuels comes from their economy and environmental considerations compared to conventional gasoline. From a cost standpoint, an electric vehicle can go 100 miles for $1.97. Electric cars also don’t emit pollutants, and in the case of Kennedy, the solar arrays under construction can eventually provide electricity to the cars cleanly. A fuel cell’s exhaust is only water vapor.
Since buying the first electric car for the center in 2005, there are now 33 electric vehicles operating at Kennedy.
