SACRAMENTO, Calif —
Every Friday, high school students from Sacramento Academic and Vocational Academy (SAVA) in Sacramento, are slowly but surely transforming a 1964 Chevy Impala into an electric vehicle, also known as EV. They are part of the school’s EV Lowrider conversion project, which is the first class of its kind in California.
“A lot of this is preparing them for the workforce,” said Galen Hartman, the SAVA instructor for the class.
From the mechanical to engineering side, the program was created to provide students from underserved communities a unique combination of skills to prepare them for the green career pipeline that's needed to meet California’s clean energy goals.
Hartman said the class wouldn’t be possible without leaders like ShaVolla Rodriguez, a longtime member of the lowriding community in Sacramento.
Amid the EV revolution, Rodriguez thought converting a sleek, classic car into an electric vehicle would be a great way to introduce young people to the wide range of job opportunities that might not have been accessible to them otherwise.
“Who wouldn't want to be a part of building one of these beautiful cars, with the beautiful paint jobs and the pinstriping and engraved metal, the hydraulics?” said Rodriguez. “Just all the things that make it part of a lowrider, but then to be able to say, you as a student were able to build one of the first EV conversions of that.”
She started talking to anybody and everybody about the idea including: Neil Lubin from the California Automobile Museum and Jaime Lemus, the director of transportation and climate change at the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District. They helped recruit academic, private and public sector partners to be part of the project.
They strongly felt that a class like this was needed in the Sacramento area because of the large, tight-knit lowrider community and the evolving automotive industry transitioning toward zero emissions vehicles.
Thanks to the trio's vision, SAVA was eager to make it a reality and did. In early 2023, students trickled into auto shop for this flagship class.
Many community organizations were excited to support this project, such as: SMUD, Sacramento Metro Air Quality Management District, Sacramento Lowrider Commission, Ohm Electric Cars and the California Automobile Museum.
The program also works with businesses in the greater Sacramento region. A local dealer, King City Classics donated the 64’ impala while Joseph Munoz, the owner of Street Certified Customs, and Ash Dalal, a trained engineer who owns Ohm Electric Cars, teaches part of the curriculum.
“We had no idea that it was going to take off the way that it has,” said Rodriguez.
However, not everyone was excited when the program began.
“My first initial reaction to this was ‘Why?’" said Wyatt Showen, a SAVA student enrolled in the EV Lowrider Conversion project. “It's a beautiful, beautiful car.”
After joining the class, his concerns were quickly dispelled. From the hands-on learning to the field trips, Showen has been pleasantly surprised by how much he has learned.
“It means the world because I can put on my resume that I did this,” said Showen. “I can help push this in other areas to make it a new norm.”
Thanks to his distinctive skillset, he has received a few jobs offers since the program began.
For student Nayeli Rodriguez, the class is deeply personal. Just like her mom, ShaVolla Rodriguez, she grew up immersed in lowrider culture. While she’s a member of Duke’s Car Club and considers the lowriding community in Sacramento her family, she was still anxious to take the class.
“I was nervous at first, but now it's more exciting that I get to learn all of these new things and being an actual lowrider that's working on the lowrider just feels... words can’t even describe it. It’s just super exciting,” she said.
A year into the class, Rodriguez still can’t believe she’s helping convert a lowrider into an electric vehicle. As excited as she is, Rodriguez doesn’t feel like many people are into electric cars.
Jaime Lemus said he’s heard similar sentiments from the Hispanic and Latin community in Sacramento. Financial barriers are one of the main reasons why it’s difficult to adopt zero emission vehicles, he explained, especially within communities who have been historically underserved.
The city of Sacramento launched “The Clean Cars 4 All,” an incentive program that allows eligible residents to trade in their old cars for up to $9,500 toward a new hybrid, or electric ride. This was created to provide an equitable way for communities from disadvantaged backgrounds to transition into zero-emission vehicles.
Lemus has also heard that representation is part of the problem.
“The community says, ‘These cars are just not cool. They just don't represent us.’” said Lemus.
That’s why he believes this class is so important. By converting a vehicle iconic to the Latino and Chicano community, he hopes it might encourage more people to see themselves driving an electric vehicle.
This switch is vital to cleaning up the air.
“Automobiles and the auto sector are the largest sector of air pollution here in the region,” said Lemus. “We also know that most of our communities of color are located near the biggest roadways, which means that you have the most amount of air pollution in those regions because of the amount of congestion there.”
Air pollution is linked to chronic diseases and cancer, according to the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences.
For him and many other stakeholders, this is more than just a class converting a lowrider into an EV.
“Our intention is not to convert every single classic car. Our intention is to convert the mindset (of communities) along with the vehicle and bring our children along to understand the new stem or electric vehicle technology that is going to be the future," said Lemus.
The conversion is expected to be completed by the end of May. SAVA will continue converting classic cars into electric vehicles under their newly launched Green Energy Pathway to help prepare students for clean energy jobs and electric vehicle adoption.