Saratoga News

Photograph by Robert Scheer

James Baron's 1971 Volkswagen bus goes 50 miles on 60 cents' worth of electricity.

James Baron's bus is a voltswagen

Conservationist practices what he preaches

By Sarah Lombardo

He drives an electric vehicle, but don't call Saratoga resident James Baron an environmentalist. At the mere mention of the title, he can list ways in which the environmental movement is in fact failing the environment. But, he says, he is a conservationist, and one who practices what he preaches with a brightly painted orange and white 1973 Volkswagen microbus with "VOLT BUS" emblazoned on the license plate.

"I'm not an environmentalist, but I do think it's important to conserve things," he says, "and to show people what is possible." And what is possible is to drive around town, shuttling four kids and their backpacks, friends and musical instruments to different schools in two school districts without burning a single drop of gasoline.

Baron, a Southern California native, has made something of a hobby out of making vehicles run on electricity, beginning in the early 1950s with an electric bicycle. From that first experience, Baron says he learned two very valuable lessons: First, that electricity needs to be carefully controlled and, second, that stealing the car battery out of your father's car to use on your bicycle isn't a good thing.

Baron says it was only after he retired in 1988 as CEO of a financial services company that he really had the time to look into electricity as a means of getting around town.

"I've always been interested in powering things, in alternative sources of power," he says. "[After retirement] I just had more time to play around with it, get more hands-on."

And play around with it he has. Baron says he bought his Volkswagen a few years ago partially converted, choosing the vehicle because "I wanted something that would hold a lot of little humans." Baron finished the conversion, taking the engine out of the microbus, replacing it with two batteries and installing the necessary switches up front. Though lighter in weight with the lack of an engine, Baron says, the bus winds up weighing almost as much as before, if not more, once the batteries are installed.

On the inside, the van looks much like any other van, except for a small, almost unnoticeable, bank of gauges that sits in between the passenger and driver seats. An even more unobtrusive switch to get the electricity flowing lies in between and slightly behind the two front seats. A flick of the switch and a turn of the key gets the van started. But if not for the buzz of the radio--can't very well drive without AM and FM, Baron says--the van would seem dead.

"The only drawback is also [electric vehicles'] best feature, and that is that they are silent," Baron says. Baron explains that most people are so used to expecting noise from a moving vehicle that they get thrown off by a silent car coming at them. A few, he says, don't even notice the vehicle unless they see it, which can make for a dangerous situation. To remedy that, Baron has fixed his van so that the brakes make noise while stopping, so pedestrians are warned.

On the outside, the only thing that sets the electric van apart from any other vehicle--apart from the ripe-orange color--is the plug hanging out of the fuel tank door on the side. With a grin, Baron says he could easily fit the plug inside the defunct fuel tank door, but leaving the plug hanging out makes people laugh.

"People see that and they laugh and wave or ask, 'What is that?' " he says.

Baron stresses that the bus, for the most part, uses all 1910 technology. Newer electric vehicles, he is quick to note, use an all new array of technology. Baron recently attended an electric car show and says he is impressed by the quality of electric vehicles produced today.

"I'm a car buff. I collect cars, and I can tell you, these are great cars," he says. "Electric cars are certainly going to be part of the 21st century."

Clare Bell, managing editor of the Electric Auto Association's newsletter, Current Events, agrees. "Really, electric cars have fewer limitations than gas cars," she said. "[The industry]'s got a hell of a potential."

As for the safety of electric vehicles, both Baron and Bell readily debunk concerns that have surrounded the electric-car industry for years.

"It's much easier to produce electricity at one location and then clean up the emissions at that one location and then distribute the electricity to other locations," Baron says in response to the argument that even electricity can produce harmful byproducts.

Bell, who also competes in electric-vehicle races at speeds of up to 100 mph, attacks the myth that crashes involving "EVs" would lead to dangerous spills of acid all over highways.

"That's very inaccurate," she says. "First off, you are more likely to bust a gas tank than a battery. Second, battery acid is just not that strong."

In demonstrations, Bell has been known to stick her finger into battery acid and hold it up for all to see for as long as 10 minutes before washing it off. She says it stings a little, but does not burn away flesh like some imagine.

"The legend of battery acid has come from the movies, and it's wrong," she says. 'The acid is just not that strong. If an EV is built properly, it is safer than any gas car."

Bell predicts that EVs will in time be in demand because of the safety and performance factors, stressing that many vehicles are now traveling distances on a single charge that rival the average distance gas-powered vehicles can travel on one tank.

As for Baron, he's in the market right now for a new EV, although he laughs when describing how his children feel about his driving around in an electric "hippie van."

"At this point, they are embarrassed by their parents about everything. But I keep telling them that this is a great way to meet guys. I mean, I open the back, and [guys] are right in there wanting to see how it works," he jokes. "But I think they enjoy it."

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