Tag Archives: Ford Focus Electric

Telsa 3, is it worth $60k

As many of you have a read my blog in the past know I’m a big fan of Tesla and Elon Musk.

Many of you may have read that Tesla is on track now to build 5,000 Model 3’s a week or more.

You also know that the Tesla game plan was to work their way down to building a car for the common man. Well, sorry, in my estimation they are no where near that goal, yet.

Apparently Tesla has invited all 500,000 or so people who put down a $1000 deposit to order their car. Remember when they said they would fill orders from the first to last but west coast to east coast? And we all know that right now that even if you don’t configure a single upgrade the car is going to cost $50k before sales tax and tax breaks. For me that would be $46,500 after the sales tax and $7.5k tax rebate.

In reality though once I choose a paint color other than black ($1k), the wheels that aren’t ugly($1.5k), the dual motor option ($4k) and the $5k advanced cruise control (auto-pilot) I’m at $60k is serious coin. O.K. so is $46,000.

This is not a Model S. Which configured about the same way would only be $20k more. Yet a far more useful car. A car that can fit the family for a long cross country trip. A car that gets free supercharging (with referral code). If you can afford $60k why not $80k?

And all this for a car brand that is about as reliable as Cell Phone service was in it’s infancy.

What’s it like to be turning left across traffic and have the the power steering stop working? Ask Marques Brownlee.

What’s it like to be driving along and have your screen go blank? Ask Ben Sullins.

Ben and his wife talk about why you really want this version because it’s the best battery for the buck and how having the most battery you can buy to get the best useful range possible only to say just a few minutes later how it would be great if the car could comfortably fit their family and gear for longer trips.

Like most people I want a Tesla because it doesn’t use gas, oil, spark plugs and mufflers. It eliminates the complexity of an internal combustion engine. The brakes last longer because of regenerative braking. But most of all the promise of autonomous driving.

Yes, I want a Tesla because of the advanced driving aids and potential of autonomous driving. But it’s still not that advanced. Adaptive cruise control and lane keeping assist isn’t really that advanced by todays standards. Tesla is in the same stage the iPhone was at the beginning when people thought they could use it as a phone. I have no doubt they will get there, one day. Today they are counting on the threshold of pain theory.

Could I change my mind. Maybe if I get inside one and take it for a few test drives. After all, that’s how I ended up married. Also not a financially rational decision. I haven’t been attached to a single car as long as I’ve been attached to my wife though.

Are there other cars worth looking at. More functional, almost as pretty but not quite the trophy wife the Tesla 3 is?

If you’ve read my previous posts you know I’m not a fan of the Bolt. And probably never will be. I don’t fit in it and they will never overcome that obstacle. I’m still a big fan of the Ford Focus EV but Ford isn’t so that could be a problem in the future. I am intrigued by the new Nissan Leaf. A car possibly taking a second look at now that Tesla hasn’t yet met its promise of a $35k car without rebates. When it does and it’s not as stripped as a VW Golf EV S Model whose SEL Model I actually like they might have something.

I hope Elon sells his 400,000 or so reservations the higher priced models. Because that’s what it’s going to take to get to the $35k car. If 300,000 people are waiting for the cheaper car like me, I’m not to sure he will get there. But if a rocket can take off and land safely he might just pull it off.

I’m telling rooting for you Elon. Hopefully you don’t end up like Nicola did.

 

 

Plug-in Hybrids, Boon or Bane?

There are still a lot of people that are afraid to buy an all electric car. It’s hard to blame them as most people think they need far more range than they actually do.

Sixty-one percent of drivers never drive more than 50 miles one way ever.  Twenty-one percent never drive more than 200 miles one way. (https://ark-invest.com/research/electric-vehicles).

“About 8% of workers in the USA have commutes of an hour or longer, and nearly 600,000 full-time workers endure “megacommutes” of at least an hour-and-a-half and 50 miles, according to new U.S. Census data on commuting.

The national average, one-way daily commute is 25.5 minutes, and 4.3% of the nation’s workers work from home. The data is from the U.S. Census Bureau’s annual American Community Survey for 2011.” (https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2013/03/05/americans-commutes-not-getting-longer/1963409/)

If the average commute is 26 minutes and the average speed in 60 MPH then the average one way commute is 26 miles or less. And it’s probably a lot less as many people spend much of their commutes in rush hour traffic. The real average commute is probably 20 miles or less.

Other than having a fantasy in their mind about, how could you possibly live with a car that has less than a 200 mile range and that you can’t drive cross country, most people would be fine with a car with an 80-120 miles of range. That is until the rise of plugin hybrids.

All the car magazines and shows encourage this fantasy as well. Well, as long as people think they need to drive 200 miles a day then let’s give them 200 miles, or better yet, 400 miles on a tank of gas with 15-20 miles of plug in charge range. That way they can drive 95% of the time using battery power and maybe 5% of the time on gas power. And that one or two weekends a year where they actually make that 200 mile spur of the moment trip (sarcasm) they don’t have to go rent a car for the trip.

And that’s where the Plugin Hybrid is a boon. 99% of the folks who buy them will spend most of the time on battery power. And it doesn’t hurt that they will spend 100% of it in the HOV lane. Especially is cities like Phoenix where you can’t pay to use it.

They can also plug in to a 110 outlet and be fully charged by the end of a ball game. No need for expensive installs of 220 dedicated chargers. 3 hours and your good to go.

So why are they a bane?

They take much of the limited public chargers. Pure BEV’s can’t charge when they really need it. When I first bought my Ford Focus EV 2 years ago the plugin hybrid was a unicorn.

I could go to work where there were 6 spots with Level 2 chargers and you might find 2 or 3 cars there. A couple Leafs and maybe a Tesla very now and then. Now 2 years later and you will rarely find one open space. And most if not all of the spaces have Volts, maybe a CMAX or two and maybe a Fusion. And the biggest problem is that almost half the cars are there for 3-4 days as a majority are pilots or Flight Attendants. That’s a lot of wasted charge potential. A level 2 charger can charge a Volt 3-5 hours from empty. What are the odds it’s empty when it gets there? Many of the other hybrids that only have a 15 mile range will charge ion half that time. They need charge cords that plug in on the lights in the parking lot. Not level 2 chargers.

Another place I go often, although not more than 2-3 times a month is 40 miles one way. It’s the Hockey Stadium. There are 2 free chargers there. Once again you’ll usually find the hybrids plugged in there as most of the BEV’s can’t take a chance that they don’t get to plug in. I sure as heck can’t. 80 highway miles in a Focus or even a Leaf isn’t going to happen even if you get to start out with a full charge.

If you drive a pure BEV that’s not a Tesla you probably have less than 80 miles of range. And while this is generally enough to get home and back from work, it’s not always enough to get home and back and then run a few errands on top of it.

If you drive a plugin because you want to clean up the environment and want others to do the same you are going to need to stop using public chargers. Just because you can or want as much free electricity as you can mooch. I’m sure that dollar a day your getting is going to make or break you.

Instead if you to get more people to follow your example you are going to need to be good stewards and let the folks who actually made the ultimate sacrifice and didn’t buy an insurance engine use those level 2 chargers.

Until more pure BEVs are sold no one is going to put large amounts of chargers out there. Not everyone out there has the vision of Elon Musk. Even GM says that they are all in on BEV’s but don’t think they need to build a charger infrastructure. And since their only BEV’s are either hybrids or have a 200 mile range why should they?

The Volt is outselling the Tesla S. And the Bolt isn’t that far behind. Pretty soon if you own a BEV with less than 200 miles of range you better hope you don’t need to charge on the road or at work.

Even Tesla’s dirty secret is that many of their chargers are ICED out a lot of the time.

The good news is there should lots of really cheap BEV’s hitting the used market here in the next year or two.

If you are  like me have never used Lyft. Use the code DOGFOOD and get up to $20 off your first ride.

If you have never used Uber. Use the code Z4JRI for $20 off your first ride.

And if you still drive a car that has a Internal Combustion Engine make it more environmentally friendly by using Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants. For more information go to www.BDPSYN.com

Thanks for reading. Leave you comments below and make sure you share and like this post with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

The Chevrolet Bolt, Buy or Pass.

When you read all the reviews about the Chevrolet Bolt it sounds like nothing we’ve ever seen before. An engineering marvel of the 21st century.

The Chevy Bolt is all of the following:

2017 MOTOR TREND CAR OF THE YEAR, 2017 NORTH AMERICAN CAR OF THE YEAR,

2017 GREEN CAR OF THE YEAR®, AWARDED BY GREEN CAR JOURNAL

But probably best of all as far as I am concerned it is,

2017 IIHS TOP SAFETY PICK WHEN EQUIPPED WITH OPTIONAL DRIVER CONFIDENCE II PACKAGE.

Add to that it gets an EPA estimated 238 miles of range on a full charge. Only the Tesla gets as much or more. And the base price of the cheapest Tesla S is almost twice as much as a Chevrolet Bolt.

But it’s not really some engineering marvel or some great design.

As for the design it’s a lot like the Honda Fit. The battery technology is not very special either. It’s just a bigger battery pack (60 kWh) than has been put in any car that size to date.

There are also plenty of cars on the market with backup cameras, parking sensors and traffic alerts and adaptive cruise control. Today you can order them on many cars midrange trim packages.

So why don’t I love the Bolt. Like almost everyone else who finds the marriage of automotive technology and electricity a compelling proposition?  I love that cars are electrifying. I also love that they have cameras, cross traffic alert and a myriad of other features designed to make driving safer. These are now a must on any future vehicle I buy. As is keyless entry and starting. Try doing a car that needs a key to start after doing one that doesn’t.

On the Chevy Bolt you can get all the latest safety and convenience options for a price. You just can’t get comfortable if you are slightly wider than your average 30 year old.

And just like the Tesla there is a trade off between battery technology and fit and finish. You can buy a Porsche Panamera for the same price as a Tesla. The Panamera is far nicer inside and out.

Even at the Premier trim level the Bolt seats are small. The cabin trim is basic as well. But you do get a cheap leather instead of just plastic. I’d feel far more comfortable if they chose to use IKEA to design the interior, sort of like the BMW i3.

The Bolt is a very small car. They say it feels much bigger than it really is. It doesn’t, it looks much bigger than it really is. That’s a big difference. What they really mean is that there is a fair amount of legroom for the back seat compared to your average compact car. That is true. Since the roof doesn’t slope and there is little cargo space unless the seats are folded down it does have more room than the Focus but no more than a Honda Fit. I’d probably buy the Honda Fit.

Like the Chevy Volt, I don’t need to drive this car to know I don’t like it. All I had to do is sit in it. The difference is, in the Volt I like sitting in the drivers seat. If you are a driver it is comfortable. If you ever have to be a back seat passenger and you are over 5′ 6″ you’re probably not going to like it, at all, not even for a 10 minutes drive to get lunch. My 13 year old son was 5′ 6″ last year when I wrote about the Volt 2.0, today he is 6′ 1″ (1 inch taller than I am) and he didn’t like sitting in the back seat of the Volt, back then leg room was an issue. Today he would have the same issue I did as well. You needed to put your head back in the window so the headliner didn’t hit your head.

In the Bolt both of us can sit comfortably, in the back seat. He can sit comfortably in the front seat. His 32″ waist fits fine. My 40″ waist not so much. When I first get in the car and sit down about 2 inches of my butt is hanging off the seat. Then I have to slide right till my right hip hits the side of the seat. The front seat hip room is 2. 3 inches less than the Ford Focus Electric. If you fit in a Honda Fit you will be ok with that as front hip room is almost identical.

For $15k more than the Honda it would have been nice if they had just made the car just a couple of inches wider and a couple of inches longer. Would that have added that much more if anything to the price?

They should have made the car more the size of the Mercedes B250e and less like the Honda Fit or Nissan Leaf.

The Mercedes B250e is by far the nicest Compact BEV I have driven. It’s only drawbacks are the range and it’s only sold in Compliance States.

So should you buy a Chevrolet Bolt? If you want to pay about $44k (before tax incentives with the highest trim and almost every option) for a $20k economy car that has a (according to GM) $8.7k battery pack. No, not if that is the true cost of the battery. That means you are paying a lot for an economy car. Even after the government picks up another $7.5k.

That’s probably why a lot of people are waiting for the Tesla 3 or buying hybrids like the Hyundai Sonata.  O.K., they aren’t buying hybrids, or sedans for that matter. Gas is so cheap that people are once again going down that road to getting stuck with a vehicle that in the future is going to cost them a lot for gas.

The only thing less smart is paying $20k more up front for an electric car that fits in the back of most of the SUV’s or Pickup Trucks out there.

So my recommendation is to take a pass, even though there needs to be people buying these things so that automakers not only continue to build BEV’s but also improve BEVs.

Buying this car for me would be like buying a pair of shoes that is a half size to small. They may not bother you that much at first but give it a few minutes.

Maybe the GM/Lyft partnership will buy lots of them. Although I doubt that’s going to work well. Right now when you call Uber or Lyft you usually get a pretty nice car. Some of the time you get picked up in a compact car. At least right now the odds are I will get picked up in a bigger car. Add lots of Bolts to Lyft and Uber will be my first choice. Actually that’s not fair, I have never used Lyft. I always use Uber.

If you are  like me have never used Lyft. Use the code DOGFOOD and get up to $20 off your first ride.

If you have never used Uber. Use the code Z4JRI for $20 off your first ride.

And if you still drive a car that has a Internal Combustion Engine make it more environmentally friendly by using Amsoil Synthetic Lubricants. For more information go to www.BDPSYN.com

Thanks for reading. Leave you comments below and make sure you share and like this post with your friends on Facebook and Twitter.

2017 Audi A3 e-tron, I love it, maybe.

You can’t make a sound financial argument for buying this car. It’s a $48k car before tax incentives. And since EV’s, especially plugin hybrids are finally becoming popular dealers aren’t even offering much in the way of discounts anymore.

So far the only EV I have been able to make a financial argument for is the Ford Focus EV. It’s also hard to make an environmental argument for a hybrid. Maybe in Europe it would be easier but not in the U.S.

Gas is still pretty cheap and we don’t have an excessive problem with pollution in our city centers. You don’t have to pay a pollution tax here and you aren’t going to see an EV only zone anytime soon like you will in the EU in the near future.

Now some more reasons you might not want a hybrid, plugin or not.

You still have an Internal Combustion Engine with all its required maintenance. Oil changes, spark plugs, belts, hoses and fuel tanks, gauges and pumps. What a hassle. . Then you have the electric motor. The most efficient part of the system. Then you have a transmission and all the controllers that tie the two motors together, It’s amazing they are as reliable as they are. It’s like a twin engine airplane. Way more expensive than it has to be and when one engine system fails it won’t necessarily save you. At least in the case of the hybrid you get better gas mileage, not worse.

Let’s compare it to a turboprop  airplane. A jet engine that turns a propeller. More efficient than a jet for shorter trips at lower altitudes.  Hybrids are more efficient in the city than on the highway. If most of your driving is on the highway you should either drive a diesel (this was written before VW Dieselgate), a high mileage ICE car or a pure EV with a range you can live with.

So now that I’ve told you what I don’t like about this car and  hybrids in general why would I want to buy this car?  Lets start with I hate my Prius V. Driving it is about as much fun as doing laundry. Is that reason enough? No, maybe not.

Back to the A3 eTron. It’s cute, it’s fun to drive and most of the time you drive it you won’t be using any gas. That is if your daily commute is less than 20 miles a day or you can plug in at work. My drive to work. 20.2 miles. I can charge at work. Did I say I only drive to work 1 or 2 days a week. The rest of the week I’m driving about 15-20 miles a day running errands and driving my son to and from school.

So what’s holding me back. The $50k price tag for a hybrid. Why wouldn’t I just buy a Chevy Bolt? I haven’t driven a Bolt yet but $40k for a Top of the line Bolt that has little if any of the comforts of a German car. That’s what. Even a Basic VW Golf has more style.

And there is one other really big thing holding me back from buying any current EV. The Tesla 3. Just the threat of the Tesla 3 has many automakers promising pure BEV’s that will have 200 miles of range and come in around $35k.

Tesla Stock Down! Cheap Gas Kills EV Car Sales, or Does It?

Will lower gas prices have a large effect on EV sales?

To a certain extent but there is a way that car makers could diminish the cheap gas advantage.

The Tesla has never been a car whose sales have been driven by high fuel prices. It’s appeal has been in performance and technology as well as status and muted luxury.

Anybody who has driven an EV loves the real world acceleration. By real world I mean 0-30. The burst of energy to change lanes or get on the freeway.

The average car takes much longer from a full stop to 30 MPH than an EV. From 30-60 it’s about the same time but the gasoline car spend from 30-60 catching up.

0-60 in 4 seconds is nice but in an ICE car that requires tens of thousands of dollars and an average MPG of around 12 MPG everyday to do that the very fews times you need that power. You just don’t need or can’t really enjoy your 700HP vehicle as much as you would like to.

Your 2 seat loud and obnoxious sports cars are the proverbial 12 inch penis. Impressive looking but not to many places that can handle all of it.

The only place cars like those have any use other than getting you a superficial mate are on the track. And they are actually more likely to get you tickets than they are a mate if you are not that good looking anyway that you need to buy the car to have women look at you.

Add to that most people with cars like that never take them to a track like many Jeep or 4×4 owners never take them off road and you have probably explained why most Americans think they are broke and don’t like to pay taxes.

Car makers have to stop only building tiny compact EV’s as well. While they might get the job done they aren’t impressive at all, don’t tell me that size doesn’t matter. Small might be able to fit in any parking spot but only the city dweller sees that as an advantage.  We don’t live in Europe.

Most Americans don’t fit in a Smart EV or Fiat EV.  We are large people. Many of us are over 6 feet tall and many are over 200 pounds. Or both. We need cars we fit in.

In order to get more people into the cars they need to be real world cars. The e-Golf and Mercedes B-Class are a nice start but they are still too expensive for only having 80 miles of range.

The new cars being announced with 200 mile ranges will start selling if you really build enough and sell them outside of the few CARB States.

They will outsell the Chevy Volt which still isn’t a 5 passenger car. The rear leg room is still to small. And the battery down the middle is just as bad as the Ford and their batteries across the truck or cargo bay. They will not find many new buyers. They will just keep many of the buyers they have. Unless they change to a flat battery pack under the floor.

The greatest thing about owning an EV, or even a Hybrid,  is rarely or ever having to stop to buy gas. Even if the price of gas is $1 per gallon. The approximate equilibrium price of gas to electricity as fuel for cars.

It really is nice to come home at night and just plug in your car instead of having to wait in line and pump gas.

The worst part now about driving any car is filling up the gas tank. It’s rare that I ever get the gas station to myself. Then after waiting in line for 5-10 minutes, I have to get out, swipe my card and spend 5 minutes looking at the guy next to me that cut in front or committed some breach of gas station etiquette.

With an EV you just pull into the garage, plug in and walk into the house and go about your normal business. You wouldn’t even think of buying a phone where you had to go to the store and buy new batteries every few days. Then through the dead batteries on the street like the emissions form your tail pipe.

With the advent of the 100 mile plus battery, which is enough for most peoples daily commute, that will be shortly followed by the 200 mile battery, the plug it in at night car that can work for 100% of your daily driving needs will be all you really need.

Add to that, no more oil changes, tune ups and all those other regular maintenance items that an internal combustion engine car has and you will be hooked.

That doesn’t even included all the environmental benefits.

A 200 mile range, 5 seats and a price tag of $30k in a sporty car like a VW Golf or Kia Soul might just be what it takes to get this evolution in transportation to catch on.

It will be interesting to see how Tesla responds to these challengers that are now taking the 200 mile advantage away from Tesla.

I don’t think it will be long before my 12 year old son looks at driving a gasoline powered vehicle like he does someone smoking a cigarette. We know smoking is hazardous to your health and does cause cancer. The same thing is true of ICE vehicles.

We are just not willing to admit it yet as we love our cars.

The automakers are just starting to give us EV’s we can love.

Thanks Elon. You’re the guy who got this party started. Hopefully you keep leading the way and not letting the Big 3 kill the EV like G.M. did in the past.

I don’t think the big automakers are going to rest unless you stumble and fall.

I don’t think Apple and Google will really be a threat to the Big 3 like Tesla. For some reason you’ve got them really scared even though you only build less than 10’000 cars a month.

I might just have to buy Tesla stock now that it back down to the Moon instead of Mars, a place you want to go. Once the price comes back down to Earth people wont think your shooting for the stars.

 

 

 

 

The 2016 V.W. e-Golf, my opinion.

This weekend my wife wanted to go to Los Angeles for the weekend. While we did the Star Tour and some of the tourist type things, one of the reasons for me to go was to drive a couple of EV’s.

Living in Arizona and not a C.A.R.B. State I can’t just go down to the local dealer and test drive any EV. Even the EV’s like the Focus and Benz really don’t ship many cars to non CARB States.

So here is my take on the e-Golf. It’s a really nice car. It drives like a Golf. Nice tight handling, nice ride and quite. It has a very tight turning radius. There is no torque steer like the Focus or Rav4 EV.

You can find the main differences on the V.W. website but here are the main ones.

SE. Cloth seats, no nav and slow charging (3.6kW) even on level 2 and no DC charging.

None of these things would stop me from buying the $7k cheaper vehicle if the only places I needed to charge was work or home. If you don’t need to add range quickly and the 70-80 miles of range is all you need then go of it.

With one exception, and for me it’s a big exception. It doesn’t have cruise control.  If you want to get the best range out of car then a cruise control is the best way to get it.

A few other things it missing besides the luxury upgrades. There are no steering wheel controls at all. No phone or radio controls at all.

I does interface with Apple Car Play and Google ver nicely. So there really is no need for the onboard navigation or any of the other proprietary radio garbage of most automakers.

If my choice was a Nissan Leaf S or the e-Golf SE I think I would choose the e-Golf. If I could buy a Leaf SV or SL vs the e-Golf SEL, I would buy the e-Golf SEL.

I still think the Ford Focus EV is still the best value out there for what you get but it does have its drawbacks.

If you are in the market for an EV and live in a State or near a State where the e-Golf is sold it’s definitely worth checking one out. I think you will like it.

It has plenty of room for a 6 footer in the front seats. A couple of kids in the back or an adult or two for a short ride to get lunch.

If you also want a peppy little car to zip around in that fits in some tight spaces and can cram a bunch of cargo in the back with the seats down this car might be for you.

Does D.C. Quick Charging Matter.

For me and many others the answer is no. For some absolutely. But very few. If you need DC Quick Charging you should think twice about buying electric.

There are several different rates of charge out there for EV cars and Plug-in Hybrids.

This is the rate at which when plugged in the battery will replenish it’s charge or refuel so to speak.

If you own a gas burning car you probably never thought about this. You pull up to a pump and in 5-10 minutes you are on your way with a full tank of gas. If you have a 10 gallon gas tank like my Prius it might take longer to swipe your credit card and get approval before the pump turns on.

If you drive an SUV with a 30 gallon tank It may take 3-5 minutes. The maximum rate at which fuel may be dispensed in the USA is 10 gallons per minute. Costco claims that they change their fuel filters when the flow rate falls below 8 gallons per minute.

So now let’s transfer some of this knowledge to EV’s. A pure BEV (battery electric vehicle) has a 24 kWh (kilowatt hour) battery or that’s how big it’s “fuel” tank is. The fuel being electricity.

Most BEV’s today with the exception of the Tesla and Toyota RAV4 EV have batteries that size or smaller.

The capacity of the chargers in BEV’s and Plug In Hybrid EV’s  start at 3.3 kilowatts, which is the norm for 2011 and 2012 Nissan Leafs, later base-model Leafs, and all 2011 thru 2015 Chevy Volts.

Later model year Leafs above the base model increased that rate to 6.6 kilowatts, and the 2016 Chevy Volt is up to 3.6 kilowatts, which, GM says, is enough to recharge its 18.4 kWh battery overnight using a standard 120V home outlet.

Now it’s still a bit more complicated. The speed at which your car can accept the electricity is not the same at which the outlet and charger can deliver it. Many of you already know this if you have tried to charge an iPad with an iPhone charger. If you use an iPhone charger on an iPad it could take more than twice as long to charge it. The charger actually converts the AC current from the wall socket to DC current that the battery needs. The iPad charger does it at a greater rate. And so the same thing with the onboard charger that comes with most EV’s.

Then there are the charging cords and “The Brick” that come with the EV. The Ford, Leaf and Chevrolet come with 110v chargers that plug in to your standard 15 AMP wall socket. Using this charger can can take almost 18 hours to recharge a car that has about a 10% charge left.

If you are like many Nissan owners you probably sent your charger in to a company to have it upgraded to handle a 220v connection on a 30 AMP outlet like your dryer runs on. I did.

But it still doesn’t charge as fast as if you are plugged into a 40AMP dedicated outlet with a EVSE Charger made to handle the higher electrical load. What can take the 110 charger 18 hours can be done by the 30AMP charger is 9 hours and the 40AMP charger is 5 or less hours. As long as you have a 6.6kW converter on your car.

The 110 charger works for me 80% of the time. I actually didn’t use anything but that charger for the first 5 months I owned my car.

Now I use my 220v charger more often because I am using more miles per day. When I drive 70 or so miles a day it goes on the 220v. It also goes on that to get the lowest price electricity in the shortest amount of time.

I also have a house with my own garage. If you have to fill up at work or at public chargers you probably want the highest capacity charge connection available. There are DC chargers out there where if your car is capable you can charge your battery up to 80% in less than 30 minutes. The problem is these chargers are few and far between and many aren’t well maintained. I don’t think a person with a 24kWh battery is going to need one.

If you have a Tesla or large battery like most car makers are saying they will have in the future then you at least need the highest capacity charger and EVSE you can get your hands on.

Like airlines you need to choose a car that has the right range and battery capacity to do the route that you are going to use it on. Batteries are not just costly but heavy. Carrying around extra costs in range and dollars.

Most people will not charge on the road. They will charge at home, work or both. If you drive over 80 miles a day and can’t afford a Tesla the DC Quick Charge probably won’t be your answer. A car like a Volt will be.

A BEV with a 80 mile average range like most out there today are really urban commuter vehicles. They are not road trip cars and never will be Quick Charge or not. At highway speeds they get about 1 hour at full charge, not 80% charge. At 80% you’d be stopping every 40-45 minutes if there were chargers that close together. Then another 30 minutes filling up. Who has that kind of patience. On the other hand like a Tesla with about a 200 mile range at 80% and a 30 minute break every 3-4 hours on a road trip that makes sense.

If you live or work where you can’t charge at all don’t buy a BEV. If you can charge at home, work or both get the highest capacity converter on the car you want. Then if you need or occasionally need a relatively quick 5-9 hour charge  get a 220v EVSE charging cord for when you need it.

If you want to drive BEV as often as possible but can only charge at 110v get a Plugin Hybrid like a Volt.

In the next year or two when the carmakers introduce 200 mile 40plus kWh batteries your going to not only want but need the largest capacity electrical connections you can get to take advantage of the large battery capacity they will have. What good is a 100 gallon tank if the pump only delivers 1 gallon per hour.

And speaking of only pumping one gallon per hour. That’s actually pretty good for electricity.

My Ford has a 96 eMPG. If it takes about 5 hours to fill my battery at the fastest charge rate that means at it’s fastest charge rate I’m only pumping 1 gallons worth of electricity in 5 hours. The gas version of my car would need about 3 gallons of gas to go the same distance.

That’s why I fill up every day instead of every 3 or 4 days. But since I’m using electricity and filling up at home my electricity is equal to $1 a gallon gas.

If you own a Tesla most of this advice goes out the door. You have a big battery with the onboard capacity to charge quickly. The only limitation is your home electrical system.

What if everyone started using electric cars?

In the U.S.A., what would happen if everybody started driving electric cars?

About 9 million fewer barrels of oil would be used each day.
If you  have a car that gets 28MPG and drive it 10k miles per year, you would use just over 300 gallons of gas and produce 5.6k  pounds of CO2.
My Ford Focus Electric gets about 4 miles to a kWh. The worst coal produces 2.17 pounds of CO2 per kWh. So 10k miles per year produces 5.4k pounds of CO2.
So whats the big deal? Looks like a wash, right? No. It takes about 6kWh to distill one gallon of gas. So burning the coal to produce one gallon of gas produces about 13 pounds of CO2. Multiply that by 300 gallons of gas and you get another 3.9k of CO2 a year just making the 300 gallons of gas.
So by eliminating the gas engine and the process of refining oil into gas, you eliminate a duplication of effort and excess CO2 production.
You also eliminate the extra toxic pollution from burning gas, and the production of gas produces all kinds of toxic substances on top of the toxins burning coal produces.
Produce the electricity with natural gas and you get less CO2, but, there are  still many bad side effects in the production of natural gas. Fracking uses lots of clean water and turns it into toxic water.
Produce the electricity with solar or wind and get rid of all the by-products of combustion of fossil fuels. Then the only pollution is from making the solar panels or generators.
Lets also take a look at how gasoline gets to market.
Oil is extracted from the earth and transported long distances by ship or pipeline. By ship requires burning more fuel to move the oil over long distances.
Once the oil is refined, it gets put on a tanker or pipeline again, to get to it’s next destination. More fuel is burned for transportation. And all along the way there are many opportunities for leaks and spills. That doesn’t even include the potential leaks, spills and disasters at the point of extraction. The Gulf of Mexico, Exxon Valdez, waste from tar sands piling up on the south side of Chicago. The list goes on and on.
Most Americans have electricity in their home. Most Americans drive less than 50 miles per day. All they would need to do is plug in their cars at home each night like they plug in their Smartphones. You don’t need to add a huge new infrastructure like you would for hydrogen.
If every car in the USA were electric we would use 374 million less gallons of gas per day. That’s 811 million less pounds of CO2. Wait, we figured that the CO2 burned in gas was close to the same amount used to produce the electricity needed by burning coal. OK, that’s a wash.
But, if it takes 6kWh to produce 1 gallon of gas and 2.17 pounds of CO2 is produced per kWh then the amount of CO2 produced is actually 6 times 2.17 or 13 pounds of CO2 produced or 13 times 374 million gallons of gas. Thats 4,862,000,000 more pounds per year of CO2 than our hypothetical all EV Nation needs. That’s a massive difference.
What else could go along with that. No oil changes. No air filters. No spark plugs. Fewer brake pads. That’s just a few benefits. No pollution controls needed on an electric car. No emissions inspections. I’m sure you could find a few more.
So lets sum it up.
Air polution, less.
Water pollution, less.
Noise pollution, less.
Oil Spills, less.
Carbon Monoxide deaths, less.
Burn Victims, less.
Lower Hospital Costs.
Fewer wars? Probably not?
Where’s the down side? Fewer gas stations? High School kids can’t put sugar in the gas tank of their  ex-girlfriend?
Next year almost every carmaker has at least one if not more hybrids that can actually run on electric 90% of the time.
If you can afford a car that is partly or fully electric you should buy one.
It’s time to actually conserve the resources we have.
It’s time to stop polluting our air and water.
This is not a political issue anymore. It is a financial issue. It’s cheaper to burn coal to make electricity to drive a car than to make fuel to drive a car.
It’s cheaper to  drive an electric car than pay for hospital costs for people with diseases related to air pollution or water pollution.
If you want make solar panels and wind power the political issue, go for it. It is still 3 times the cost of coal if you don’t price in the pollution and medical costs caused by coal. We are maybe 3-5 years away from cost parity with coal.
We are probably 3-5 years away from your next car being electric as well.
Maybe it’s time for electric companies to embrace people putting solar on their roofs instead of fighting it. But that’s a subject for another post.

Mazda MX-5 ND or Tesla X?

With the release of the new Tesla X why a I writing about the lowly gas powered Mazda MX-5 also known as the Miata?

Well, today I attended a Ride and Drive that Mazda invited me to. I’m not sure how I got on the list but since I own a 1999 Miata and a Mazda 6 as well as having  owned a 2011 Miata the odds are pretty good I’m on a mailing list somewhere.

The event was not well attended. In the 2 days and 12 hours they had about 160 people according to a couple of the employees I asked. BMW gets almost 10 times that number at their Ride and Drive events.

That could be because BMW lets people drive all their cars. The MX-5 has a small but very loyal following.

But the reason I am writing this isn’t because I think the Miata is a great car. It is. What it isn’t is an Electric Car.

Since I have owned my Ford Focus Electric car I am pretty much spoiled. EV’s are a just more fun. If what you want is instant performance and a fun driving experience you really need to go out and test drive one of the many Electric Vehicles out there.

Not a Hybrid like the Prius or Honda Accord where the electric motor is an afterthought but a car where the electric motor is the primary source of power. One where the gas motor, if it has one charges the batteries and you get all that instant torque.

There are quite a few today and many being added in the near future.

While most of us mortals can’t afford a Tesla and it’s Insane Mode along with its insane price there are many EV’s now days for less than 30k and even lest than 25k after tax breaks.

Walk in to your Chevy Dealer and try the Volt. Don’t like Chevrolet. Ford has the C-Max and Fusion Energy as well as the all electric Focus.

BMW. The i8 and i3.

While Volkswagen might not be trustworthy with their diesel technology they do have the eGolf. Maybe they will release their hybrid Golf in the States soon now that they can’t sell their diesels.

In the next few years even with cheap gas people will learn that electric cars are fun. They have lower costs to maintain and 90% of the time you will never burn gas in the Extended Range models.

If you are in the market for a new car give one a try. If you are in the market for a used car many are now hitting the used market and at ver reasonable prices.

Don’t try one because they are the environmentally responsible option. Try one because they are fun. Lots of fun. So much fun I have a Mazda for sale. Maybe two.

My next car will be a Telsa 3, That is unless there is another car make that can make an electric car I really like. Something like a Mazda 6 even a eGolf with a 200 mile range with a 35k or less price tag. At that price I wouldn’t even need a tax break. Just those HOV Plates.

 

Don’t let that test drive in a Prius keep you from trying and Electric car.

There is a trend of Prius owners who are not buying a new Prius Hybrid when they are ready to sell their old car. Why?

Have you ever driven a Prius? I have. A brand new one at that. A 2015 Prius V with every available option on it.

O.K. It’s really not a bad car. It’s actually a really nice car. It’s very roomy, especially the back seats. Even with me driving (I’m 6 feet tall) with the seat all the way back the back seat passenger has plenty of leg room and the back seats partially recline. Something most cars cant do.

It gets an average or 38 MPG. Compared to my Mazda 6 that averages 30 MPG doing the same kind of driving. The Prius V also can carry more cargo. I can get 4 18x18x16 boxes in the back of the Prius with the back seats up. I can’t even get one box in the Mazda. The boxes are to tall to even get them in the opening. The Mazda will fit 3 golf bags. The Prius V is all about the cargo room. That’s why my mother bought it. That and she really likes Toyota’s, she’s had one for the last 15 years. A 2000 4Runner. It was a very reliable and a great SUV for all those years.

Back to the Prius. The back seats are way more comfortable than a Rav 4. That’s probably why so many Taxi Companies buy them.

It also has one feature I really love. Adaptive Cruise Control. This is a great feature for driving on the highway. Set the speed limit you want and it keeps you a safe distance from the car in front of you.

But, yes, there is a but. I enjoy driving the Prius about as much as I enjoy driving a forklift. Yeah, I have one of those. It’s also a Toyota. The Prius is an appliance. It does what it’s supposed to do. It gets you from point A to point B efficiently.

It’s not fun to drive. It’s not peppy when you accelerate. And it’s not as cool looking or as nice an interior as my mid trim level Mazda 6.Both have fake leather but the Mazda has more soft touch plastic surfaces.

While the Mazda is not really a fast car with only a 2.5L engine it is really fun to drive. The Mazda does 0-60 in about 8.9 seconds. The Prius will get up to 60 in your lifetime, It also sounds like it’s going to blow up if you floor the gas pedal. What it does do really well is sneak up on people. If you are a teenager or the Von Trop Family you can get it down the block without making a sound without having to push it. As long as you don’t go over 15 MPH.

For some reason Mazda is not well received by the public yet it is highly praised by the automotive press. I really enjoy my Mazda 6. They have exceptional gas milage with their Skyactive engines and are fun to drive. There’s a lot of the Miata DNA in all of them.

As for the Green Cred of the Prius. The difference between 30 MPG Mazda 6 and 37 MPG Prius V is only $188.00 per year if you drive 12,000 miles per year and gas costs $2.50 a gallon. And the Prius costs almost $10,000 more than the Mazda out the door with comparable features. If you drive lots of highway miles you’re probably better off with one of the many Diesels out there. I really like the VW Wagon if a diesel is what you need.

Are you confused yet? I started out by telling you don’t let driving a Prius turn you off from buying an electric car. That’s because out of my 5 cars I like my Ford Focus Electric the best out of all of them.

Why? I find it is the car I choose to use the most. Not just because it has the lowest cost per mile of all my cars. Not because it can fit 2 adults, 2 middle schoolers and both their back packs, trumpet and snare drum. And not because it looks pretty cool with it’s 20 inch wheels.

It’s quiet. Really quite. It has instant torque when you hit the “gas”.  It handles well and is really a pleasure to drive getting groceries, picking up the kids at school and driving to work and back. Especially during rush hour as it’s ZEV status gets you HOV lane access plates if you are by yourself which I am most of the time.

Even if I didn’t get HOV plates, it is the most fun to drive. It’s almost as much fun as my Miata.

So if you are looking at a second car, go rent an electric car. A Leaf S or Ford Focus Electric can be had for about $20k or so new after tax credits and even less used.

The only way to see if one of these will work with your lifestyle is to rent one or drive one for a week or so. One or two days is not enough to let you realize that you really don’t get range anxiety when you own one.

If you really need a car that can travel 300 or more miles once in a while look at a Chevy Volt or Ford Energy. These cars have a reasonable all electric range where most people will hardly ever have to put gas in the tank if at all.

And the part you will like most about a car that runs in electric mode all or most of the time, they are fun to drive.

The most fun to drive all electric car is a Tesla. But if you wait till the affordable Tesla comes out in the next few years you will miss all the fun you could be having now.