The first delivery of the greenest car available in the San Jacinto Valley was made last week.
Hemet Mayor Jerry Franchville and representatives of the Green Coalition, among others, were on hand at Pedder Nissan in the Hemet Auto Mall to witness the delivery of a Nissan Leaf to Matthew Gilmore.
Richard Perry of the dealership said the Leaf is the only totally electric care on the market right now, though other manufacturers are building hybrid cars that operate on a combination of batteries and an internal combustion engine.
The Leaf is good for 100 or so miles per charge, but that can be reduced considerably by hills, high wind, a lead foot, hard stops, or high speed.
Well, high speed for the Leaf anyway, which has a top speed of about 57 miles per hour.
On the other hand, the range can be extended to 160 miles or so with careful driving.
Perry said Gilmore covered about $12,000 of the more than $32,000 cost of the Leaf through federal and California tax rebates.
Gilmore was at the top of the list of about 100 prospective buyers, said Perry, but even then could not get permission to buy the car until Southern California Edison had installed, or committed to install, a charging station on his home power system.
The charger requires a separate circuit.
