Pritchard Automotive Going Electric

by Ted Fioraliso, WENY-TV, November 13, 2009

ITHACA — It’s been five months since a popular Southern Tier car dealership lost its franchise as part of Chrysler’s bankruptcy re-organization.
     But now, Pritchard Automotive in Ithaca is selling a new car it hopes will take the company into the next decade.
     Pritchard just got its first Wheego Whip in the other day.  The owners think the fully electric vehicle will take off in the Ithaca area.
     “We’ve been driving it all over town,” said owner Dan Pritchard.
     Pritchard showed off the Whip at the NET Impact Conference at Cornell University Friday.
     This electric car is just shy of 10-feet long, holds two people, and looks like a conventional car inside.
     But it sounds much different.  Actually, it doesn’t make much noise at all.
     “It’s pretty quiet.  Only noise you hear is that brake pump,” explained Pritchard.
     Pritchard took us on a text drive around the Cornell campus.  It tops out at only 25 miles per hour, but you don’t feel like you’re going that slowly.  That’s why Pritchard thinks it’s a perfect city car.
     “A car like this to run errands just makes a lot of sense.  You plug it in, you drive to get your paper, go to Wegmans, go to the library, bring your kid to school, come home, plug it in, and you’re ready to go again,” said Pritchard.
     That’s right — the only power the whip needs is comes from an outlet in your own home.
     It’s a completely new direction for Pritchard’s 94-year-old family business.  After Chrysler dropped them in June, the company’s stayed afloat selling used cars and with its body shop.  But Pritchard is confident going into the future with electric.
     “You either change or go away.  But it’s exciting. It’s really reinvigorated the whole dealership,” he said.
     The Wheego Whip costs $20,000.  Next year, the company is expected to release a full-speed version.

(See video on WENY-TV website).