Is This the First Electric Car in Lake Forest?

Every week until Earth Day on April 22, we'll run a story about the "green life" in Lake Forest.

When Gary Hill put in an order for a Nissan Leaf, he entered his name into a spreadsheet showing brand-new owners of the recently released, electric-powered car. He and wife Jenean say it looked like he was the first person to put in a Lake Forest address.

But Hill, a longtime machinist at Disneyland, didn't purchase the car—which was made available in the United States in December 2010—to fight global warming, or even necessarily to save on gas money.

"The typical ecoterrorist mentality is not what we had in mind," he says. "For me, it spans back to a decade ago. I turn on the TV and I'm watching people jump out of the Twin Towers. I started to do a little homework on the sponsoring of al-Qaida—60 percent of our petrofuel dollars going over to the countries bent on destroying us."

He and Jenean bought a hybrid-electric Toyota Prius and drove it for seven years; he says it ended up being a good value. But when the opportunity to buy a fully electric car arose, the Hills ditched the Prius and put in an order for the Leaf. It arrived Tuesday.

The Leaf, along with the Chevrolet Volt, has been heralded as one of the first of its kind. The New York Times calls the Leaf "arguably the first plug-in electric car aimed at capturing the middle-American market."

"It plugs into our house and [the] 7.1 kw photovoltaic solar panels on our roof," Jenean wrote in an e-mail. "We have enough energy to power our house, provide free fuel for the new car and get paid enough for the overage from the electric company to cover our annual gas bill."

The Hills took the new ride out to the regular classic car show in the parking lot at Fuddruckers, at 23621 El Toro Rd., on Tuesday night. The gearheads and car collectors were "open-minded" about the vehicle, looking under the hood and into the charging port.

If you see the car around town, you'll know it by the "IBELEAF" license plate.

"We bought those plates so that we can get across the idea that it's doable," Hill says. "We believe in running electric. It is possible, it is doable, and eventually it'll be the future."