Larry Oswald is CEO of Global Electric Motorcars (GEM), a Chrysler company

Opening night at the new Nationals Ballpark in Washington, D.C., was a great night for baseball – and for our GEM zero-emission electric cars.

The new stadium, which officially opened March 30 with the Washington Nationals beating the Atlanta Braves, 4-3, on a ninth inning home run, plans to become the first major league baseball stadium to be accredited by the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) Green Building Rating System.

In making the new stadium a “green” facility, the ballpark’s operators will pay particular attention to protecting the environmental health of the nearby Anacostia River.

Battery-powered GEM Neighborhood Electric Vehicles, which run without emitting any tailpipe pollutants into the air, will help the Nationals reach their goal.

The ballpark purchased 20 of GEM’s clean, quiet, fun-to-drive vehicles for use in stadium maintenance, baseball operations, shuttling people around both inside and outside the ballpark and patrolling the streets around the stadium.

The vehicles were prominently displayed during opening game ceremonies.

We’ve been building America’s leading street-legal electric vehicle brand for more than a decade, and we’ve been part of the Chrysler team since 2000. We produce six battery-electric vehicle models ranging from two-seaters to six-seaters plus three utility models. Currently there are more than 36,000 GEMs in use worldwide.

GEM vehicles have driven a combined 200 million miles and have spared over 150 tons of ozone-forming tailpipe pollutants from reaching the air, while saving nearly 10 million gallons of gasoline.

The different uses of, and therefore the market for, GEM neighborhood electric vehicles continues to grow steadily. We are very pleased to show off the benefits of our vehicles in the nation’s capital.