Sometimes someone you’ve read about online walks right up to you.
At Alnoba, a man came up to me and said he admired my work. It was lovely to hear. He introduced himself — Jesse Lore — and started telling me about his company, Green Wave EV, which sells electric cars. And then I remembered him. Not his face, of course. His story. I’d read about Jesse while working on an article about investing in those yet to be born.
I was looking for people who spend their own money on protecting nature and restoring damaged land. Jesse didn’t make it into the article: his work fell outside the topic I’d chosen. Now here he was, telling me about his business, and I was sorry I’d passed over his story.
Then he told me they plant a hundred trees for every electric car they sell. A hundred! I thought: how is that not an investment in those yet to be born? The trees don’t care how I’ve categorized the person who made it possible for them to grow.
It felt a little unfair. He’d taken the time to learn about my work and come over with a few kind words. I’d known about his work — and never written a thing about it.
Today I’m putting that right. Meet Jesse Lore.
Green Wave EV sells used electric cars and plug-in hybrids, helping people choose a car and figure out how to charge it at home. Behind the business are Jesse’s years of work with people with disabilities, his experience as an executive at a large company, and his decision to start something of his own. His story began long before his first electric car. [2, 3]
Being able to leave the house
Jesse grew up in New Hampshire. After college, he worked for nonprofits that supported people with disabilities. There, transportation meant being able to get the help you needed, see friends, and stay connected. Without the right vehicle and help making the trip, someone could be unable to leave home, even when they had places to go and people to see. [2]
He spent six years at Easter Seals in New Hampshire and New York. He developed a passenger assistance training program for taxi drivers in New York City and Washington, D.C. In 2012, he moved into the accessible vehicle industry. He worked with taxi fleet owners and local and regional governments to get more wheelchair-accessible taxis on the road. [5]
He later became vice president of sales and service at MobilityWorks, a company that sells vehicles for wheelchair users and adapts vehicles and homes. His work involved veterans’ organizations, schools, charities, and social service agencies. [5]
I think it’s worth pausing here. Behind the phrase “accessible transportation” are very ordinary wishes: deciding for yourself where to go, arranging to meet someone, getting out of the house. The work means understanding how people live and what help they need to get around. This is where Jesse started.
As an executive, he set up a social responsibility committee at MobilityWorks. Among the initiatives he supported were tuition reimbursement for employees, volunteering, and reducing energy use. Looking after employees was already part of his work before he had a company of his own. [5]
Jesse still works on public transportation issues, too. From 2022 to 2024, he chaired New Hampshire’s coordinating council for community transportation. He now represents the business community on the council. [6]
First, a car for himself
For Jesse, buying an electric car began with the questions most of us ask before a major purchase: could he afford it, and would it fit into everyday life? He was worried about cost and range. He was used to driving Fords, liked the familiar brand, and took an interest in the electric Mustang Mach-E. [2]
Before buying, he worked out the fuel and maintenance costs and factored in the tax credit available at the time. When the car arrived at a local dealership, Jesse went for a test drive with his wife. After the drive, he bought it. That was how he got his first electric car in 2021. [1, 2]
At the time, Jesse was studying for an MBA at Antioch University. In a 2022 interview, he said the course had made him look afresh at the company he knew so well: why it existed, what else it could do, and how it could benefit society. He brought those questions into his day-to-day work and discussed them with other leaders. [7]
The program looked at three sides of business together: financial performance, its effect on people, and its effect on the environment. Jesse was learning to bring all three into management decisions. Sales, the team’s work, and environmental consequences became parts of the same whole. [7]
Jesse saw an opportunity in the used-car market: as electric cars got older, their prices came down, putting them within reach of more people. That was the idea he chose to build his business on. [8]
To me, this is where two strands of his experience come together. He already knew how much the right vehicle could mean to someone. Now he was learning about a kind of car that was new to him — working out costs, trying it out, making a choice. His idea for the company grew out of those everyday questions.
Starting a business with his father
Jesse first pitched the idea of selling used electric cars to his employer. Nine other executives joined him. For six months, they worked on financial projections, a marketing strategy, and plans for how the business would run. The company turned the proposal down. [8]
Jesse decided to go ahead on his own. He left his job, drew on his retirement savings, rented a space, and secured a line of credit. His father came out of retirement to join him as his business partner. [8]
The university profile captures a moment from those early days: Jesse sitting in the still-empty space he’d rented, on a video call with his professors. They had agreed to review his business plan and help him think through the first few years. In January 2023, Jesse and his father began buying cars. In February, they opened Green Wave. [8]
I like that his father came out of retirement to build something with his son. And that his professors kept helping once he was putting his plans into practice outside the university. [8]
According to the university profile published on October 19, 2026, Green Wave had sold more than 1,500 cars since opening, and the team had grown to more than a dozen people. In his January column for NH Business Review, Jesse himself reported around 500 sales in 2025. [8, 9]
Understanding the car before you buy
Green Wave now has two locations: North Hampton, New Hampshire, and Salem, Massachusetts. It sells used electric cars and plug-in hybrids. Customers get help figuring out which option suits their driving needs and charging arrangements. [3]
The team page goes into detail about staff training. How far will a car go in winter? What does a battery health report tell you? How do you arrange home charging? Sales staff complete training before they begin working with customers, then continue it every quarter. The company says it provides a battery health report for every used electric car and helps buyers understand the results. [3]
Sales staff don’t earn commissions. One person guides each customer through the purchase from start to finish. They discuss the buyer’s daily driving and whether charging is possible where they live. Green Wave also helps with questions about installing a home charger. That is how the company describes its approach on its website. [3]
In his Granite Goodness interview, Jesse compared his role to that of audio equipment salespeople back when customers were first getting to know new home systems. Today, he wants to help people understand electric cars. He wants buyers to understand the decision they’re making and feel good about it. [12]
Getting to know the cars isn’t limited to the sales floor. In May 2025, Clean Energy NH invited residents to an event at Green Wave: test drives first, followed by an energy trivia quiz at nearby Throwback Brewery. It was a chance to try an electric car and spend an evening with others who shared their interest. [14]
The year before, Green Wave had received the Small Business NH Energy Champion award from Clean Energy NH. In 2025, Recurrent named the company an Eastern Region finalist in its selection of the best places to buy a used electric car. [13, 14]
Housing, childcare, and work
Running a business also means Jesse has to think about what happens to people after the working day ends. In June 2026, Tiffany Brewster wrote about him in New Hampshire Bulletin. At the time, he couldn’t fill four of the company’s twelve positions. [10]
To help keep his staff, Jesse offered interest-free loans for rental security deposits. He also offered to pay half their childcare costs. Even that wasn’t enough: he still lost employees who couldn’t afford to live in the area. [10]
I want to leave that difficulty in the story, too. An employer is willing to help, but housing and childcare can still be more than a family can afford. Behind that unfilled position are the everyday costs of someone who needs a place to live and someone to look after their child. [10]
Earlier that year, in January, Jesse spoke out in NH Business Review against another business tax cut. He explained in his column that it would save his company very little. What he needed far more was a state with good schools, housing that working people could afford, childcare, and reliable infrastructure. [9]
He wrote that even with a larger tax cut, he would rather see the money go toward public needs. For a dealership owner, being able to hire people is tied to whether they can afford to live in the area. That is why he saw investment in schools, housing, and clean energy as essential to the growth of his own business. [9]
Green Wave’s published commitments include a living wage for full-time staff, help with health insurance, and paid time off to volunteer. Jesse also serves on the board of NH Businesses for Social Responsibility, an organization that brings businesses together around social responsibility. [4, 5]
A family hip-hop band
Among all the professional profiles, I especially liked the page about Rock Street’s appearance at TEDxPortsmouth in 2019. It’s a family hip-hop band: Jesse, his wife Melissa, and their two children, Ruby and Jackson. At the time of the performance, their daughter was ten and their son was eight. [11]
The introductions list Jesse’s position at MobilityWorks alongside Melissa’s writing and the children’s interests. Melissa had finished a supernatural horror novel. Ruby loved figure skating, karate, and reading, and wrote books of her own. Jackson was into sports and anything with wheels. And the whole family performed hip-hop together. [11]
Jesse had a musical life before the family band, too. In his Granite Goodness interview, he talked about rapping and being part of a collective of artists and activists in New York. Music has stayed with him alongside his work in transportation and business. [12]
I like picturing him that way, too — a father getting up to play music with his kids. They all have their own interests, but music is something they share. His Alnoba biography also mentions kayaking and skiing. His biography also mentions the family’s two dogs. [1, 11]
Back to those hundred trees
In 2026, Alnoba named Jesse the recipient of its CEO Environmental Leadership Award, recognizing environmental leadership by a company’s chief executive. It was at Alnoba that we met. And I keep coming back to those hundred trees he told me about. [1]
Green Wave’s website explains how the tree planting works: the company partners with One Tree Planted and pays for a hundred trees to be planted in each customer’s name. There is no extra charge to the customer. [4]
I study the effects of coal mining and often write about what happens to land and people when decisions are made for the sake of immediate gain. That’s why it matters to me when people think about the future in their everyday work. For Jesse, paying for trees to be planted with each car sold is one way to do that.
I’m glad Jesse and I met, and that I can now write about his work. And I no longer think those hundred trees for every electric car sold fall outside what I write about. This, too, is an investment in those yet to be born.