Macon Magazine

MEN & CARS | by james palmer Photography by parker sealy Plugging along You can cash in driving totally electric Driving the car of your dreams can be an electrifying experience. That's not necessarily the case whenever Chris Bolles slides behind the wheel of his Nissan Leaf. But it is electric. Bolles is one of the few drivers in Macon who is really plugged into the whole "green" car thing. But the certified financial planner with Stifel Nicolaus thinks more about the money he's saving than the trees he's saving. The Leaf is a totally electric car. There is no internal combustion engine. The car runs on rechargeable batteries on its underside. "I started doing the math," he said, sitting in his little silver Leaf outside the Bibb County Courthouse. One of the few electric charging stations in town is situated there, and it's where Bolles takes his car for a "fill up." Crunching the numbers shows what a smart choice this is. He leased the car for two years for $159 per month (with a $2,000 down payment). 30 l MACON MAGAZINE The state gives a one-time $5,000 tax credit if you lease or purchase an electric car, and the charging station provides free electricity. "I'm green as long as I can fold it," he said. There are limitations to such a vehicle. It has an 85-mile range before it needs charging again. It has to be charged every couple of days, and it's small. But he can take four of his kids to school in it rather than cranking up his Suburban, which he figures gets about 14 miles to the gallon of gas. Totally electric cars are an emerging mode of transportation and currently have a very small market share. According to on-line encyclopedia Wikipedia, at the end of 2012 there were more than 180,000 highway-capable plug-in electric cars and vans worldwide. That makes up 0.02 percent of total passenger cars worldwide. Japan and the United States lead the world in purchasing plug-in electric cars. And the Leaf is the world's best-selling model, with total sales of 65,000 through May 2013. When he started shopping for economical transportation, Bolles looked at Mini Coopers and a number of hybrids, but settled on the Leaf because, between the low lease price and the tax advantage, it was such a good deal. "I work with numbers all of the time. I kept looking at the numbers, and I couldn't believe it. I kept thinking I must be making a mistake." But it was no mistake, and he now drives a car that may look a little odd and has to be plugged in to work, but with its distinctive shape and Star Trekish interior, it's a pretty neat ride. "It's a little geeky, but it's a cool geeky," he said of the car. It also can make you something of a celebrity. Bolles said when he started charging AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2013

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