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St. Petersburg, Florida – With high gasoline prices at $3 a gallon and expected to go even higher, a lot of drivers are seriously considering electric cars. A new dealership in the Bay area has opened its doors to try to meet the demand.

Over the weekend, Torry Jones was one of the first customers at Suncoast Electric Vehicles dealership at 2401 4th Street North in St. Petersburg. The dealership opened last week. He says, “So, I’m here today to try to find an alternative because I’m spending too much on gas on an everyday basis, like $20-$25 a day.”

Photo Gallery: Electric Cars

Jones works in the insurance industry and has to fill up often. He adds, “I practically live in my car because that’s where I work. That’s my office.”

On Saturday morning, Jones was checking out the Wheego electric car. Richard Nimphie, the owner of Suncoast Electric Vehicles, says Jones came to the right place. “Unlike anybody else today that’s selling electric cars, these are available now. Most instances, where somebody’s putting an order in for other electric cars, they have to wait as much as a year.”

Jones won’t have to wait. Nimphie says his dealership is like no other in the area. “So what we’re proud of is that we’re an all electric vehicle dealer. That’s all we carry are pure plug-in electric vehicles and they’re available right now. The price of our highway car starts at $32,995. The price of this particular car, which is a city car used for urban commuting, is actually $14,995, so it’s extremely affordable.”

Nimphie adds, “The operating cost of the traditional gasoline car including tune ups, oil changes and the inefficiency of gasoline is somewhere between 30 and 40 cents a mile. Our vehicles operate at about two cents per mile.”

The two-seater Wheego can travel about 40 miles on a charge, has air conditioning and there’s a ten percent federal income tax credit. It takes about eight hours to fully re-charge and costs less than a dollar in electricity to recharge. It’s also made in the United States.

That was enough to spark the interest of Torry Jones, who says, “Hopefully, they’ll be able to help me and give me some information and I can purchase a vehicle.”

Suncoast Electric Vehicles will open in St. Petersburg in three weeks and will sell the Wheego Whip LiFe.

The Wheego is a Chinese-sourced but California-assembled electric car. It has a 100-mile range per charge, can go up to 70 mph and is highway certified. The Wheego Whip LiFe is available for $32,995 before a $7,500 tax credit. That’s about $20 more expensive than the base price of the electric 2011 Nissan Leaf.

The dealership will be equipped with solar-fueled charging stations, which will allow Suncoast customers to charge up for free:

It seems a bit of gamble opening an EV-only dealership in one of America’s most car-dependent states, but Suncoast Electric Vehicles owner Richard Nimphie said he’s already sold 12 EVs before opening his showroom. There’s no word on what other electric vehicles will be sold at the dealership, but boutique automakers like Think and Coda could be possibilities.

–Colin Bird/Cars.com’s Kicking Tires

Source: USA Today USA Today Link