{"id":6956,"date":"2012-03-02T09:27:44","date_gmt":"2012-03-02T15:27:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/?p=6956"},"modified":"2012-03-02T10:53:04","modified_gmt":"2012-03-02T16:53:04","slug":"for-his-birthday-bieber-does-the-electric","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/03\/02\/for-his-birthday-bieber-does-the-electric\/","title":{"rendered":"For His Birthday, Bieber Does the Electric"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/OZZhy5aWV7w?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Justin Bieber, the babyfaced heartthrob coming to a &#8220;Tiger Beat&#8221; near you, joined the ranks of adulthood Thursday. The singer turned 18, and for his birthday his manager got him a special present.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I always yell at you, don&#8217;t get anything flashy, be humble,&#8221; Bieber&#8217;s\u00a0manager Scott Braun\u00a0told him <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?feature=player_embedded&amp;v=OZZhy5aWV7w\">on the Ellen DeGeneres show yesterday<\/a>. &#8220;And I kinda broke my own rule.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>And then in a move\u00a0reminiscent\u00a0of the <a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/The_Price_Is_Right_(U.S._game_show)#Showcase_Showdown\">Showcase Showdown<\/a>, Bieber looked across the stage and saw his new gift: the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.google.com\/url?sa=t&amp;rct=j&amp;q=&amp;esrc=s&amp;source=web&amp;cd=1&amp;cts=1330700578946&amp;ved=0CDsQFjAA&amp;url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.fiskerautomotive.com%2F&amp;ei=y-BQT9LRCarJsQKK__C8Dg&amp;usg=AFQjCNGGD4dDf7OQR16eiI5sfTINjMSMCQ&amp;sig2=O0bRiIUwmSAzPVF5tFMUPg\">Fisker Karma<\/a>, a plug-in roadster that starts at over $100,000. The car can go 32 miles on the electric charge alone, but it also has a gas combustion engine that gives it a combined range of 230 miles. It&#8217;s also notable for the solar panel on its roof, which the company says can add up to four or five miles of juice in a given week.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We decided to get you an environmentally friendly car,&#8221; his manager told him. \u00a0<!--more--><\/p>\n<div class=\"related-content alignright\"><h4 class=\"related-header\">Related<\/h4><div class=\"links\"><h5>Posts<\/h5><ul><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2011\/12\/14\/plug-on-in-san-antonio\/\">Plug On In, San Antonio<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/01\/03\/how-one-mans-roof-paid-for-his-car\/\">How One Man\u2019s Roof Paid for His\u00a0Car<\/a><\/li><li class=\"link\"><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/02\/15\/will-electric-cars-strain-the-texas-grid\/\">Will Electric Cars Strain the Texas\u00a0Grid?<\/a><\/li><\/ul><\/div><div class=\"topics\"><h5>Topics<\/h5><p class=\"topic\"><img class=\"alignleft\" src=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/files\/2011\/07\/Chevy-Volt-Charging-Station-at-SXSW-2011-60x60.jpg\" height=\"60\" width=\"60\" \/><a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/topic\/electric-cars-in-austin\/\">Plugging In To The Electric Car Scene In\u00a0Texas<\/a><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n<p>DeGeneres then gave Bieber a gift complementing his new ride,\u00a0unfurling\u00a0a sunshade with cutouts of her face and Bieber&#8217;s. Surrounded by a heart, of course.<\/p>\n<p>The Biebs joins other celebrities like Leonardo DiCaprio, George Clooney, and Jay Leno who have added electric cars to their garages. (It probably helps to have a fleet of back-ups when you can&#8217;t go much further 32 miles on the battery alone.)<\/p>\n<p>If Bieber ever makes the trip to Texas, he&#8217;ll find plenty of charging stations to &#8220;refuel&#8221; his ride. Texas has more than 100 electric\u00a0vehicle\u00a0charging stations, according to\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.mychargepoint.net\/find-stations.php\" target=\"_blank\">the ChargePoint website,<\/a>\u00a0which offers subscriptions for charging. Austin has<a href=\"http:\/\/kutnews.org\/post\/austin-energy-installs-dozens-electric-vehicle-charging-stations\" target=\"_blank\">\u00a0the most stations thus far<\/a>, and has about 150 electric\u00a0vehicles\u00a0currently in use, according to Austin Energy. And\u00a0Austin Energy predicts that by 2020, <a href=\"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/2012\/02\/15\/will-electric-cars-strain-the-texas-grid\/\">there\u2019ll be between 10,000\u201335,000 new plug-in vehicles in Austin<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Justin Bieber, the babyfaced heartthrob coming to a &#8220;Tiger Beat&#8221; near you, joined the ranks of adulthood Thursday. The singer turned 18, and for his birthday his manager got him a special present. &#8220;I always yell at you, don&#8217;t get anything flashy, be humble,&#8221; Bieber&#8217;s\u00a0manager Scott Braun\u00a0told him on the Ellen DeGeneres show yesterday. &#8220;And [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[57],"tags":[18],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6956"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6956"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6970,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6956\/revisions\/6970"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/texas\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}