Teresa Porter pulled up to the red light and turned to eyeball the crimson pickup truck to her right. Her silver fingernails gripped the steering wheel. Her foot sank hard into the brake, ready to pounce on the accelerator.

“He came to play,” she muttered, turning back to face the road. Her brow furrowed under a mop of curly hair. Lil Jon’s “Get Low” pumped from her speakers.

When the light turned green, the pickup roared to life and peeled out with a screech. But it was no match for Porter, who quickly sprinted to the lead. “Smoked him off the line,” she said later of her victory.

The most unusual thing about this short one-block drag race? Porter’s car was silent. The winning vehicle was electric. A Nissan Leaf.

Cruising the main drag here on a Saturday night is more than a joyride for Porter, the 46-year-old founder of the Heart of Texas Electric Vehicle Association. A trash-talking, L&M-smoking gear head who spent her childhood fixing cars and hanging out at dirt-track races, she is on a one-woman, uphill mission to convince Central Texas to go electric.

Read more: Stuff

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