EV adoption, island style

Hawaiian chapter member creates consumer demand with his friends and neighbors at the dealership level 

Lorn Douglas and his wife Shakti meeting with three neighbors who now drive Kia Niro EVs due to his advocacy efforts.

Lorn Douglas has dedicated his life to sustainability. With 12 vegetable garden beds and 30 fruit trees, he and his wife Shakti thrive off the land on Hawaii’s Big Island and are proud of their negative carbon footprint.

“Being a baby boomer and becoming aware of climate change, I realized my generation made a huge contribution to the problem,” Douglas said. “I decided to become a model and inspiration for an alternative quality lifestyle.” 

Lorn and Shakti generate enough solar power on their property for four structures and two electric vehicles (EVs), and they still return surplus power to the grid. They teach friends and neighbors how to grow food, select solar power options, and choose EVs. They are also involved and invested in a bamboo reforestation project that could sequester up to 1% of the current global carbon emissions.  

More of late, Lorn’s sustainability efforts have extended into a serious commitment to EV advocacy. On an island where EVs have sometimes been difficult to acquire, he has been instrumental in encouraging enough adoption to make it worthwhile for manufacturers to enter the Hawaii market. 

Lorn under one of his coconut trees

Spreading the word about EVs

“First of all, I’m an early adapter,” Douglas said, explaining that he was the first customer in Hawaii to take delivery of the Lexus Hybrid, one of the first to order a Tesla, one of the first to drive a Nissan LEAF, and the second in the state to take delivery of a Kia Soul EV.

“Our Soul was a great car. It was serviced just once in three years, that’s all. So it was easy for me to promote them at public events,” said Douglas, referring to his volunteer activities as a Vehicle Associate for the Big Island Electric Vehicle Association (BIEVA). 

“I tie it all to climate change,” Douglas said about his work promoting EVs at public gatherings. “I always ask the same question: ‘Would you rather be part of the problem or part of the solution?’” 

After giving dozens of test drives in his Soul, Douglas heard about the new Kia Niro EV, then undergoing tests in Korea with rave reviews and well over a 240-mile range. 

“The range increase was a big step up,” Douglas said. “So I called Phil Hodges at Aloha KIA Hilo. We were already well-acquainted because I’d sent him so many customers.”

Lorn with Aloha KIA Hilo dealer Phil Hodges

Refusing ‘no’ as an answer

“Lorn kept complaining and getting in our ears that we needed more EVs on the market in Hawaii,” said Hodges. “Then he started talking about the Niro EV, and honestly, we hadn’t even heard about it yet.”

“I found out the Niro EV was a conformance vehicle, meaning it was built to conform to environmental requirements in certain states, and that it wasn’t planned for release in Hawaii,” Hodges continued. “But Lorn wouldn’t give up. He raised the interest level with a number of potential buyers and so we finally got the owner of the dealership involved. Pretty soon we had 10 or 15 of the cars shipped to us on an experimental basis.”

“Now we’re fully stocked with Niro EVs and it’s all because of Lorn,” Hodges concluded. “And we use his pitch all the time. ‘Do you want to be part of the problem or part of the solution?’ is practically our official EV tagline.”

Don’t forget about the Tesla

It’s been 12 years since Douglas ordered his Model S. He spent the first five years on a waiting list, and the last seven proclaiming that Tesla ownership was worth the wait.

“My Tesla was one of the first on the island. It attracted crowds of people wherever I parked,” Douglas remembered. “I’d pass out my card from the BIEVA, and I’d give test drives. I still love the car’s look, comfort, and performance as much as I did back then. It’s like being in a science fiction movie.”

But ownership of an early model Tesla has not been without its challenges, including the need for over 40 servicing appointments. Because there is no Tesla dealership on the Big Island, Tesla Rangers travel to Lorn’s home to do the work on site. On two occasions, Tesla has shipped the car to a dealership on Oahu, providing Douglas with a newer Tesla as a loaner.

“It’s all been so easy that  it hasn’t bothered me,” Douglas said of all the mechanical work. “The excellence of the service has been unbelievable. They’ve bent over backwards to accommodate me.”

Infrastructure challenges, too

What’s been more difficult with running the Tesla, as well as his Nissan LEAF, has been the Big Island’s charging infrastructure. 

“I used to carry around a 240-volt socket,” Douglas said. “I live on the southeast point of the island, and I have a friend who lives at the northwest point, far enough that I couldn’t make it both ways on a single charge. So I would disconnect his oven and I’d wire in the socket and I’d charge from there.”

Later, the problem was less about the number of charging stations and more about whether or not they worked. Hawaii law mandates charging stations in parking  lots with over 100 spaces, but there is nothing that states they have to be working. Also, there is no enforcement agency and  no penalty for non-conformance.

“A few years back, I had plans to go camping near Kona, so I called the Hilton Waikoloa to ask if they had a charger, and they said they had six. I cruised into the hotel’s parking lot with 12 miles of charge left, and I found the chargers, but none of them were working. Now I follow-up by asking if they work!”

Lorn and Shakti with their Kia and Tesla in front of the temple on their property

A new Tesla 

Douglas is planning for his next Tesla. He had ordered a Model 3, but after a brief test drive, he realized it did not meet the performance level of his Model S. Now, with a new administration in Washington and the EV tax incentives that should bring, he plans to order a new S and is looking forward to the many improvements made since 2013.

“All kinds of new EV models are coming out now with impressive features and extended ranges,” Lorn said. “It just means EV ownership will keep expanding and that’s great for the planet. It’s just another step on the way to a sustainable life for everyone.”