Turning Black to Green: First electric vehicle charging stations, dealership set to debut in Las Vegas

Jason Huang, business development manager of BYD North America, and Eric Mims, CEO and founder of Enigma Energy

The green future is coming to Las Vegas in the form of the city’s first electric car dealership and charging stations, set to open in July. Owner Eric Mims and marketing and business development director Larry Tyler broke the news exclusively to Las Vegas Black Image Magazine.

What is Enigma Energy?
Mims: It is a partnership with me and my attorney … We started several companies together back in Akron, Ohio. One of our companies, Energy Technology Inc., distributed the first self-starting smoke alarm that you could charge by screwing into a light bulb socket. Enigma Energy will be the first electric vehicle charging system that is interconnected and off the grid. We are working with Build Your Dreams (BYD) Corp. out of China and North America. And we will have the first and only franchise for BYD electric vehicles here in Las Vegas.

How will people in Las Vegas access your cars?
Mims: Currently, we are building a dealership and charging station at 4701 W. Sahara Ave. There will be vehicles sold there and BYD charging systems. We will also work with Nevada Power to establish an electric vehicle task force. There will be 500-plus electric charging stations throughout Nevada. Nevada Power will also be providing the electrification for the grid systems throughout.

Tell us more about the dealership.
Tyler: The electric car dealership will offer cars Level 1 to Level 3-E6. The E6 car will seat up to five people and will have solar windows. They are great looking cars. The E6 runs about 87 miles an hour and goes about 200 to 220 miles on a single charge. Charging time on the BYD battery is about 15 minutes and cost $10 for a full charge. The average person drives about 40 miles a day.

What is BYD?
Mims: BYD stands for Build Your Dreams. It is owned by Wang Chuanfu and 10 percent of the company is owned by Warren Buffett, who bought $350 million [worth of] shares in the company.

What will be the cost for the electric car?
Mims: We are still waiting for the numbers to come in, but we do not see the cost to be at a premium more than, let’s say, a hybrid.

What will be the name of the dealership?
Mims: It will be called Mims Motors of BYD.

Will consumers be able to have their own charging equipment for their homes?
Mims: Yes, those will be available. I am glad you touched on that, because we are going to do something that is completely different. This is another reason that Nevada Power is excited about our business. Enigma Energy will take us back to a time when service was king. So, when you pull into our charging stations, there will be charging station attendants there to service you. They will assist you out of your car, hook it up to a charging station, check your car and wash it.

So there will be great employment opportunities?
Mims: Yes, huge employment   oppor-tunities. And because Enigma is providing power, we will pay our employees better then minimum wage. We are not talking about a $8 or $10 an hour job, but a job where you can actually have a living wage. That is very important to us and one of the things Sen. Harry Reid was talking about: “We need to put people back to work, but not into a job where you can’t buy anything.” We want to provide jobs so people can take care of themselves and are happy to come to work.