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Health & Fitness

Mayor's Weekly (July 14 – July 20)

Novato's Mayor Eric Lucan shares city news, events and meetings on the horizon, and on occasion a few spontaneous thoughts.

On my Mind
Looking for a new car?  Have you considered electric? Almost a year ago, my wife and I leased an electric Fiat and we still get stopped everywhere we go from people checking out the car and asking questions about things like range and time to charge.  My simple answers and explanations often turn into a persuasive sales pitch as I am even more of an electric vehicle enthusiast now then when we first took the EV plunge.

While the environmental benefits are quite compelling, the financial and convenience benefits might be even stronger.  Taking the Fiat for example, they offer a 3 year lease for $1,000 down and $200 per month.  Over the course of 3 years, that would be about $8,500 not to mention the rebates and gas savings.  Right off the bat, there is a $2,500 rebate for electric vehicle which would bring the 3 year cost down to only $6K.  Regarding gas, let’s say your current vehicle gets 25 MPG.  At $4/gallon and 12,000 miles/year (the limit for the lease), one would spend $5,760 on gas over a 3 year period—assuming gas remained at $4/gallon (we could only hope).  Now that electric car only costs $240 over 3 years.  Electric cost will increase though so we have to add that back in, but a combination of free public charging plus garage charging will probably only add up to $1,000 over 3 years.  As a result, the total cost over the 3 year lease would be $1,240 or $35/month.  Not a bad deal at all for a car that gets close to 100 miles per charge.

Also, maintenance would be minimal if any and you can drive in the carpool lane if you apply for the stickers.  You don’t even need a special charger as most electric cars charge off of 110v (although it takes longer).  When we got the car, we definitely accounted for the gas savings, but one thing I overlooked is the time savings of even having to go to the gas station.  Sorry for giving you my pitch in the blog, but does it sound interesting yet?

Around Town
City Council Work Session on the Civic Center Master plan – Thank you to everyone who participated in the Civic Center Master Plan Work Session this past Monday.  Great to see such a strong turnout.

Ridgway Space Station -  This past Wednesday, I met the band members of Ridgway Space Station made up of some recent graduates and some current students at Marin School of the Arts and San Marin.  Check out their band and upcoming schedule on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RidgwaySpaceStationMusic.  They play this week on Monday, July 21st at Ghirengelli's at 8:30.

The Week Ahead
Tuesday (July 22):
City Council Meeting – 6:30PM (City Hall)

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