Drive Oregon envisions state as EV testing hub

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Oregon has already forged a reputation as a leader in electric vehicle technology thanks to the emergence of companies like Portland-based startup Greenlite Motors.

Oregon’s electric vehicle incubator, Drive Oregon, is pressing forward to position the state as a one-of-a-kind testing ground for electric vehicles and as a place where local manufacturers, designers and component developers convene to form their own, unique marketplace.

The strategy is aided with $1.2 million in funding for Drive Oregon, sanctioned by the Oregon Legislature and Gov. John Kitzhaber in the last budget cycle. The nonprofit is now under the wing of the Oregon Innovation Council as one of six industry incubators and laboratories that also include the green-leaning Oregon Wave Energy Trust and the Oregon Built Environment and Sustainable Technologies Center, known as Oregon BEST.

“Drive Oregon embodies the kind of organization that can help position our state to leverage its leadership in the electric vehicle sector and to grow solid family- and high- wage jobs and keep money in the local economy,” said Multnomah County Chair Jeff Cogen, and chair of the Governor’s Transportation Electrification Executive Council (TEEC).

The Drive Oregon board named Barry Woods and James Mast as the interim leadership team to guide the organization.

Woods, a consulting attorney in private practice and a Drive Oregon board member, will serve as interim executive director. Mast, a former senior project manager for transportation electrification with the Portland Development Commission, will serve as interim operations director.

The duo say they are currently crafting Drive Oregon’s strategy with the Oregon Innovation Council, a blueprint for a contract that will tie the agency to deliverables. But the organization is likely to focus on building Oregon’s reputation as place for businesses to develop and deploy technologies and to attract federal and private resources, and continue to build bridges between the industry and Oregon universities, community colleges, utilities and other clean technology businesses – all with a goal of creating jobs.

Oregon’s burgeoning electric vehicle sector, early adoption market and clean-tech reputation are already a recipe for national attention.

Oregon is currently one of six states in a $250,000, national rollout of 15,000 electric vehicle charging stations, funded by the Department of Energy and administered by San Francisco-based ECOTality Inc. (NASDAQ: ECTY).

In the last two years, Mast and Woods say Drive Oregon has also joined Business Oregon, TEEC, utilities and regional economic development agencies in “a few dozen” talks with national and international electric vehicle companies looking to either test products here, launch them or set up shop.

Woods said there is potential to build on Portland’s image as a good place to launch and test innovative products among big automakers.

“We’re trying to define it and bottle it in a way that creates opportunity” locally, Woods said.

The legislature’s investment in the plan was characterized as strategic. It came amid sharp cuts in other programs that support electric vehicles, with hopes of putting the industry on a path toward operational independence.

The legislature allowed the $1,500 Residential Energy Tax Credit for electric vehicles to sunset at the end of 2011. Similarly, the Business Energy Tax Credit will no longer incentivize electric vehicle fleets, which formerly qualified for a 35 percent tax break on cost between acquiring a traditional and electric fleet.

“As much as we feel operating independently is a value here, this is a brand new industry,” said Woods.

He said Drive Oregon leaders would be looking past the first biennium for a long-term strategy in how best to use the state’s investment.

In short supply this first biennium will be grants and loans directly to electric vehicle companies and their component manufacturers, a challenge given the tight capital markets and the inability or unwillingness of consumers to gamble as readily on first-generation products in faltering economy.

The $1.2 million award from the Oregon Legislature was less than half the $2.45 million requested by Drive Oregon and the Oregon Innovation Council. Additional capital would have been used for loans and matching funds for companies looking to attract federal or other grants to fund new products.

“If it was any less than this it would be hard to get off the ground, but I think we’re comfortable saying this is just enough,” said Mast.

He said Drive Oregon could still act as a conduit for companies seeking federal grants. Other, early investments are expected to involve mapping companies in the sector or those ripe for entry, along with fostering continued networking between them to leverage partnerships.

Incubating partnerships has already proven fruitful for Drive Oregon. Examples include the marriage of REDCloud EV with Synkromotive to convert a pickup truck to electric as a pilot project for Southern Oregon University, and the recent partnership between electric vehicle companies Arcimoto in Eugene and Portland-based Green Lite Motors with University of Oregon students, who designed their car interiors.

Woods said Drive Oregon could also develop a modest research center this biennium.

“Nationally there is certification and testing that needs to be performed,” he said. “To the extent that we can provide members with that type of facility, that would be one tool in the toolbox.”

Drive Oregon will hire an executive director to lead the organization in the fall.

“With the funding of the Drive Oregon program, Oregon is again proving our national leadership in putting electric vehicles on the road,” said U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR). “We have to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and electric vehicles will play a major role in guiding our nation toward energy independence. I’ve partnered with Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee to promote electric vehicles on the national level so more communities can follow the lead of Drive Oregon and move America forward.”

Lee van der Voo, lvdvoo*at*gmail.com, is a freelance writer for Sustainable Business Oregon