National Drive Electric Week event connects Indiana’s EV future with its EV past

When it comes to electric vehicles (EVs), the people of Indiana are a tough sell. 

“Hoosiers are very resistant to change,” said Richard Steiner, president of the Hoosier Electric Vehicle Association. When it comes to EVs, it seems like they’re turning their backs on their own past.”

Partly in order to change this situation, Steiner purchased Waverley Electrics, a firm founded in 1896 by Albert Augustus Pope that manufactured the electric Waverley vehicle in Indianapolis from 1898 until 1916. “I want to show folks there’s a precedent here,” Steiner explained.

National Drive Electric Week debut

Last month, Steiner displayed a Waverley at Hoosier EVA’s Carmel, Indiana 2021 National Drive Electric Week (NDEW) event, held early for site availability reasons. The first of 40 replicas of the 1908 model that Waverley Electrics is manufacturing in China, the car was the talk of what turned out to be the most well-attended event in Hoosier EVA history.

“Everyone wanted a test drive,” Steiner said. “If we had known the Waverley would get that much attention, we would have used it to promote the event.”

“People just loved that car,” agreed Kevin Whited, the Transportation Coordinator for Carmel, the city that has hosted Hoosier EVA’s NDEW events for the past several years. “Afterwards, we posted pictures on our Facebook page and I had people calling me for more information. We’re a pretty affluent suburb, so I wouldn’t be surprised if someone says ‘I want one.’”

Steiner, a retired IBM Systems Engineer who is now servicing EV trucks and other commercial vehicles for a battery manufacturing company, launched Waverley Electrics as an April Fools joke in 2011. 

“I started the company as a side business to restore EVs that had been abandoned,” Steiner said, explaining that he and his business partner Rod Spurgin have turned around a number of cars from Workhorse, Lordstown Motors, Think City, and other brands.

The firm’s primary goal of building a classic Waverley with present-day technology was in the planning stages for 10 years. Steiner designed the prototype himself, basing it on the 1908 model, and then engaged the Chinese manufacturer.  

“They make sightseeing vehicles, and they’d built an EV that resembled a Ford Model T,” Steiner said. “It’s basically just a souped-up golf cart, but Ford wouldn’t allow them to import it into the US. I’m able to import it as a 1908 Waverley Electric touring sedan. Taking delivery of the first prototype was the culmination of my April Fool’s joke.” 

A longtime association

Steiner has been involved with EVs for well over a decade. In 2006, desiring an electric motorcycle with lithium batteries, he found a start-up EV motorcycle manufacturer using acid batteries and gave the firm a special order.

“I was essentially an active customer,” he said. “I had them modify the frame to fit a set of lithium batteries. It was actually the first lithium-powered vehicle certified by the US Department of Transportation. I had planned to sell them at first... I was planning to become a dealership. But then I realized that I’m an engineer, not a dealer of anything. So I never went through with it.”

Nevertheless, “I took the motorcycle around to show it off,” Steiner said, telling the story of an Earth Day celebration in Indianapolis in 2008 where he met Nick Harless, who had worked with his son Scott to convert a Pontiac Fiero. 

“Nick had bought a used Fiero with a blown-out engine, intending to install a V8, but his son convinced him to install electric batteries instead,” Steiner said. “Nick ended up driving it for 20 years and 250,000 miles.”

Harless helped convert a second vehicle with friend Robert Layman, an engineer for Eli Lilly, who he introduced to Steiner. The three enthusiasts, along with fourth co-founder Bill Spitz, formed the Indiana chapter.

“I’d been driving my Honda Insight to Chicago every couple of months for chapter meetings,” Steiner said. “This saved me the trip.”

Twenty years down the road

Hoosier EVA has grown to approximately 45 members who attend monthly chapter meetings, at least sporadically. There, EV advocacy efforts are discussed and carried out.

“We’ve attended hearings at the Capitol, including VW mitigation meetings,” said Steiner. “Frankly, there’s always someone there who argues in favor of investing in clean diesel or clean gas, but not electric. We still have a long way to go  in this state.”

To bolster advocacy efforts, Hoosier EVA is in very active association with Solar United Neighbors (SUN), a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting rooftop solar energy. 

“We’ve worked to elevate Hoosier EVA and to provide resources,” said Zach Schalk, SUN’s Indiana Program Director who also serves as Hoosier EVA’s Media Director. “We helped to refresh the chapter’s website and we’ve organized the members to the extent that they’re interested in getting involved in local, state, and national solar and EV related policy issues.”

Last summer, Schalk worked with the chapter on a petition to save public Level 2 charging stations associated with BlueIndy, an Indianapolis ride sharing program slated to be shut down. “We had 100-odd signatures and sent it into the city as part of the public information request for comments,” Schalk said. 

“SB 309 has been important to our club members,” said Steiner of the legislation recently passed by the Indiana General Assembly that essentially eliminates net metering of energy surplus produced by solar. “Zach and others have been working hard to get that repealed. If we don’t succeed, it will take effect next year and folks who install solar won’t be able to net meter any surplus they produce.”

“We have to keep fighting on that issue, as well as others. We have to keep moving forward in educating the leaders and the people of our state,” Steiner concluded. “Luckily, so many in our chapter are passionate about EVs and passionate about healing the environment. It’s been great to be a part of that.”