Candidate running on 100% electricity

SANTA ROSA, California (September 9, 2008) – Judy Kennedy, 2008 candidate for Santa Rosa City Council, will tell you all about the different ideas she has if she is elected, but perhaps the best part of the ideological platform for her campaign is the platform that moves her down the road. Kennedy says she is literally driving change by driving a ZAP Xebra Xero electric truck.

Kennedy, no relation to that other political family, has hit the campaign trail and is hard to miss in her electric truck zipping around the Burbank Gardens neighborhood near downtown Santa Rosa or frequenting the Farmer’s Market at the Veterans Building. With balloons and slogan on the back, ‘Follow Me to a Sustainable Future,’ the City Council candidate and her tiny electric truck attract attention wherever they go. What gets her second and even third looks is the solar panel mounted over the bed of her truck.

Candidate runs on 100% electricity

“It’s the new hybrid -- solar and electric!” poking fun at the popular gas-electric hybrids. She adds: “If I wanted to use gasoline, I’ve got my Lexus. Frankly nowadays it just sits in the garage.”

Like many electric car owners, Kennedy is finding that electricity is a great alternative for daily driving while also satisfying her desire to help society, or “Walk the Talk,” as she says. She first got the Xebra because she thought it would be a great second car to drive locally. But in reality it has become her first car. For a "fill-up" she pays only about 60 cents, whereas the typical gas car these days fills up for about $60. This works out to about 2-3 cents per mile added to her electric bill.

Kennedy cites studies that electric cars reduce automotive emissions by 90 percent, including power plant emissions to create the electricity. When she plugs in at night, she is also using surplus off-peak electricity, a vast, virtually untapped renewable resource that could power millions of electric vehicles without creating more pollution or the need to build more power plants.

Kennedy also said that when she's through campaigning, the truck would become part of a neighborhood electric car-share program she is proposing.

The ‘Xero’ in Xebra Xero stands for "zero" emissions because solar continues to approach the ideal of true zero-emission, as California has designated electric vehicles. The solar panel works in tandem with plugging into a household outlet so that some of her electricity is completely free from the sun. The solar can even extend her range a couple miles in bright sunlight and helps her rechargeable batteries last longer between replacements.

Kennedy now finds that virtually all her driving is electric and when people see her truck coming they know its Judy Kennedy running for City Council while running on 100 percent electricity.

Thank you, Judy, for sharing ZAP's dream and for being a leader for plug-in transportation.

LINK - Judy Kennedy for Santa Rosa City Council
http://www.judykennedyforcouncil.com/Home.html