THE ISSUE

Using electric cars to make long road trips is slowly becoming more practical with the expansion of recharging stations.

The trip from Knoxville, Tenn., to the state capital in Nashville must have felt a bit like the pioneering motoring adventures of a century ago for Stephen Smith and his family last week.

Smith, executive director of the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, made the 160-mile Christmas trip with his family in a Nissan Leaf electric car. As in the early days of automobiles, finding a place to recharge the car posed a few challenges. Smith wanted to make the point that an all-electric vehicle that doesn’t rely on petroleum is now a viable alternative to gasoline-powered cars.

“We knew it was a bit of a pioneering adventure because the infrastructure is still being built out,” Smith told The Tennessean newspaper. “It’s good knowing we didn’t use a drop of oil getting down here.”

When automobiles were still a novelty in the early 20th century, driving more than a few miles outside town — away from gasoline pumps and mechanics — was often like setting out on an epic adventure. Blacksmith shops were more common than gas stations in those days because of the expense of owning a car and the lack of widespread acceptance of the new mode of transportation.

Today, electric cars are much like the early automobiles. Finding a place to refuel isn’t always an easy thing to accomplish.

Smith said his family stopped at Cracker Barrel restaurants along the way, which are equipped with recharging stations. It takes 30 minutes or less to recharge, he said, though one of the charging stations malfunctioned and the slower extension cord method was employed.

Smith has been an outspoken proponent for cleaner energy sources, and often criticizes the Tennessee Valley Authority for not taking bolder steps toward alternative energy production.

His Christmas journey does, however, point to new business opportunities for entrepreneurs. As electric cars become less costly and more common on the road, they will need places to recharge. It’s easy to envision a day when recharging stations are as busy as gasoline pumps are now at convenience stores.

While the nation will need greater electric power production to meet that demand, posing its own set of environmental challenges, the air and water should become cleaner with the reduced use of petroleum to get us from one place to another.