Amber's EV 101

Hello, my name is Amber Perry and I am the new Marketing Specialist at SemaConnect.  I’m excited to join the team, and I’ve learned a lot of new information about the industry - including how Electric Vehicles operate, the continuing growth of the industry, the need for charging stations, etc. I’m new to the EV industry and to be honest, I did not fully understand the purpose behind these vehicles before. Learning about Electric Vehicles made me realize how completely unaware I was of all the benefits of driving an EV!  I hope that we continue to learn more together as I contribute weekly on this blog.

In the past, I would occasionally see EV’s when driving on the highway and wonder to myself if the person driving the car had always been the environmentally conscious type. There is a particular memory I have, where I made a joke about a hybrid car with a friend before I knew anything about electric vehicles. My friend and I were on the Cape May-Lewes Ferry and we were sitting in the car as we were approaching Atlantic City.  There was a woman walking back to the parking garage with four large plastic to-go containers full of salad, that we saw her carrying around the boat. We wondered what she was going to do with all that salad and when we saw her walk over to her Toyota Hybrid, I joked that her hybrid probably ran on salad, which we both thought was hilarious, at the time.

Now that I work for a company that makes charging stations for EV’s, I am becoming more educated on the topic and the more I learn, the more I think it’s a great idea. I am excited to be working for a company that plays such a huge role in this promising market.

One topic that intrigued me was safety ratings among EVs.  An article that caught my eye while I was doing research is, Why crash test dummies prefer electric vehicles.

In the article, The Tesla Model S, earned a 5 star safety rating from The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.  It stated that while a 5 star safety rating has been attained by other vehicles, the Tesla scored better than any other vehicle under the new rating system, which began in the 2011 model year.  

The ratings that the Tesla received during testing, were very impressive and some would even argue that safety is what will win the hearts and minds of the general public, and further catapult EV’s into the mainstream. The machine designed to test how much weight a car’s roof could withstand, actually broke after applying more than four times the force of gravity to the Model S.

The reason these cars are so safe, is the weight of the lithium ion battery and this is what makes these cars more stable on the road.  A Tesla model S has a 1,000 pound battery, which sits under the floor of the car, giving it a low center of gravity and making it almost impossible to roll over.

Another article that I found interesting was, Is the Electric Car Revolution Now Dependent on Single Start-Up?  In the article Ian Sacs, who is a worldwide transportation solutions consultant, talks about the Tesla Model S creating a quiet revolution. A revolution which is embodied in Tesla’s electric car. A revolution that reduces hundreds of moving, intricate, breakable parts, as well as removing the internal combustion engine and fuel tanks and replacing them with an electric motor the size of a milk crate. The battery can then be custom fit to squeeze beneath the passenger cabin. So what does this all mean? That the Electric Car is inherently safer than today’s cars.

I’m an EV convert, and I look forward to writing more blog posts and generating more awareness to the EV and EV Charging industry. I know my point of view on EV’s has drastically changed since I really began looking at the data. I believe that once more people become educated about the EV industry, like myself, they will wonder what took them so long to invest in an electric vehicle.

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Amber Perry is a Marketing Specialist at SemaConnect. She graduated with a B.A. in Communication Studies from Towson University. Amber handles the SemaConnect blog, supports Public Relations efforts and helps build the overall brand. As a new EV convert, Amber reports with a truly fresh perspective. Learn and grow with her! She can be reached at amber.perry@semaconnect.com.