Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Nissan LEAF and Coulomb Technology Charging Stations in Lexington MA
Sometimes, something only becomes real to you when you experience yourself. Now matter how many times people tell you something, you don't really get it until much later. So it was with me today, but more on that later.
An acquaintance and neighbor here in Lexington MA (Gray Watson), who helped inspire my solar PV purchase, recently purchased a Nissan LEAF. He graciously invited me over to see it, ride in it, and best of all, drive it!!
Firstly, let me say that I enjoy the look of the LEAF from the inside more than the outside. The inside is filled with a clean interior, heated seats, heated steering wheel and nice built in navigation system. The outside...well... the picture is below and I will let you be the judge.
And where does one go when test driving an electric car? To check out the local charging stations in town. These Coulomb Technologies charging stations were recently installed in Lexington MA and you can be directed to them from the CarWings navigation system that shows all the charging points in the USA. There are three charging stations. At the moment, the stations are behind barricades because new parking meters have yet to be installed. Fortunately the barricades were not to heavy and we moved them.
Gray unlocked the charging station by passing a Charge Point America card in front of the unit. This released the J1772 electrical connector which he plugged into the nose of the LEAF. The LEAF responded with a very satisfied audio tone.
Interestingly, the parking meters are not yet installed because someone decided to increase the maximum parking time from 2 hours to 4 hours for the new EV charging spots. That is a good call because it could take the LEAF 4 hours to fully charge. Anyone for a relaxed slow dinner in town? Charging is free, but you will still have to feed the meter.
Next we headed over to the Element hotel on the other side of town. This also had a charging station but unfortunately that one didn't appear to be working. So that hybrid drivers didn't feel left out, the hotel created some dedicated hybrid parking spots. However, I suspect the low sports car under the yellow cover is not really a hybrid (but I didn't peek).
On the way home, a black Chevy Volt passed directly in front of our car. This is only the second time I have seen one here in the wild and I felt is was a good sign.
On the way home, I was appreciating the huge torque of the electric motor, the lack of any transmission (or shifting), and the surprising quiet of electric drive. It really struck me how luxurious driving an electric car feels. This is really driving as it should be. No repeated up-shifting of the transmission as you accelerate. No starter motor sounds when you begin your journey. No additional noise when you step on the accelerator pedal. So nice.
As I said goodbye to the happy new owner of the LEAF and climbed back into my 2004 Corolla with manual shift, I experienced a real Epiphany. The Corolla required all this senseless shifting and generated all this unnecessary noise and I want to return to the LEAF and drive it home instead.
People have told me for years about EVs being a better driving experience, but only now do I feel like I really get it. Next consideration, can I really afford the $35,000 for such a vehicle.
An acquaintance and neighbor here in Lexington MA (Gray Watson), who helped inspire my solar PV purchase, recently purchased a Nissan LEAF. He graciously invited me over to see it, ride in it, and best of all, drive it!!
Firstly, let me say that I enjoy the look of the LEAF from the inside more than the outside. The inside is filled with a clean interior, heated seats, heated steering wheel and nice built in navigation system. The outside...well... the picture is below and I will let you be the judge.
Also, to provide a complete solution, Gray has a 5KW solar array on the roof of his house to free himself not only from oil, but from fossil fuel based electricity as well. Very nice.
And where does one go when test driving an electric car? To check out the local charging stations in town. These Coulomb Technologies charging stations were recently installed in Lexington MA and you can be directed to them from the CarWings navigation system that shows all the charging points in the USA. There are three charging stations. At the moment, the stations are behind barricades because new parking meters have yet to be installed. Fortunately the barricades were not to heavy and we moved them.
Gray unlocked the charging station by passing a Charge Point America card in front of the unit. This released the J1772 electrical connector which he plugged into the nose of the LEAF. The LEAF responded with a very satisfied audio tone.
Next we headed over to the Element hotel on the other side of town. This also had a charging station but unfortunately that one didn't appear to be working. So that hybrid drivers didn't feel left out, the hotel created some dedicated hybrid parking spots. However, I suspect the low sports car under the yellow cover is not really a hybrid (but I didn't peek).
On the way home, a black Chevy Volt passed directly in front of our car. This is only the second time I have seen one here in the wild and I felt is was a good sign.
On the way home, I was appreciating the huge torque of the electric motor, the lack of any transmission (or shifting), and the surprising quiet of electric drive. It really struck me how luxurious driving an electric car feels. This is really driving as it should be. No repeated up-shifting of the transmission as you accelerate. No starter motor sounds when you begin your journey. No additional noise when you step on the accelerator pedal. So nice.
As I said goodbye to the happy new owner of the LEAF and climbed back into my 2004 Corolla with manual shift, I experienced a real Epiphany. The Corolla required all this senseless shifting and generated all this unnecessary noise and I want to return to the LEAF and drive it home instead.
People have told me for years about EVs being a better driving experience, but only now do I feel like I really get it. Next consideration, can I really afford the $35,000 for such a vehicle.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
Volt Battery Only $2400, See, I told you so.
UPDATE: As for the $2400 Volt battery. Chelsea Sexton contacted GM and they said this was some sort of warranty only price for the dealer and not available to the general public.
So we are still left to guess the price of the Volt battery.
Well, so much for all those people saying that the Volt battery costs $12,000 or more. You can buy it directly from GM for $2400. Nice.
But I suspect there is more to the story.
So we are still left to guess the price of the Volt battery.
Well, so much for all those people saying that the Volt battery costs $12,000 or more. You can buy it directly from GM for $2400. Nice.
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
EPA Efficiency For Electric Vehicles
As more and more electric vehicles start getting through the EPA testing process, it is becoming clear that some companies know how to make efficient electric vehicles and some do not. Leaving aside questions about the EPA process, and reducing all the EPA numbers down to one number (combined MPGe), some trends can be observed.
Weight matters but it is not everything: We all know that weight is bad for both racing and fuel efficiency, yet some manufacturers have not gotten the "light weight religion" yet. Consider the 5300 pound Fisker Karma for example and it position relative to the trendline shown on the graph. Sure at 5300 lbs, there is no way the Karma will be efficient, but from the looks of the graph, if Telsa, Ford, or BMW had built it, even at 5300 lbs, they would have gotten a lot higher MPGe.
Perhaps the most direct comparison in weight terms is the Ford Focus EV and the CODA sedan which both weigh about 3700 lbs. Ford manages 105 MPGe where as CODA only manages 70% of that at 73 MPGe meaning the CODA really likes to chow down on charge.
Purpose-Built EVs Better, some notable exceptions: Generally, EVs that have been purpose-built, as opposed to adapted, have better efficiency. The from-the-ground-up built as EVs, Volt, LEAF, and Tesla Roadster all have excellent efficiency, where as the conversions of SMART, CODA, and AZURE Connect all have very low efficiency. But perhaps this has more to do with the technical acumen of the companies involved than whether on not the EV shares components with an ICE sister vehicle.
There are some remarkable EVs that were not purpose built as EVs. The Mitsubishi "i" (or i-MiEV) is the second most efficient (112 MPGe) EV available and it is a conversion from a popular "kei" car sold in Japan, although the US version has modifications to pass US crash tests. The third most efficient vehicle, the Ford Focus EV (105 MPGe), is perhaps more remarkable because of its larger size and practical hatchback design. Now if only Ford would set a more reasonable price and start selling them. Perhaps most impressive at 102 MPGe is the BMW ActiveE. As a conversion, the vehicle is very heavy (4000 lbs), yet manages to edge out the much lighter Nissan LEAF which achieves a respectable 99 MPGe. The reason the BMW is most impressive is that they are planning to build a 2700 lbs BMW i3 which, given the efficiency of the ActiveE, may blow the doors off the competition in terms of efficiency.
Looking Ahead: Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute in his book called "Reinventing Fire" describes a vision of so-called Revolutionary+ vehicles which combine lightweight design with electric drive trains. One extreme example of that thinking is the Edison2 eVLC test vehicle that recently got a 245 MPGe EPA rating due to its low weight (1140 lbs) and low drag (0.16). While not a production vehicle, it hints of what is possible. A more likely candidate for the showrooms is the BMW i3 (formerly MegaCity) supposedly coming in 2013. At a weight of 2700 pounds, it is about 600 lbs lighter than the Nissan LEAF and will undoubtedly yield impressive MPGe ratings.
PS: As author John Voelcker often points out, MPG is a non-linear scale and it is really better to use some form of "consumption" metric in this type of data analysis. The graph below shows the same data but in terms KWH/100 miles. Note that smaller number are better.
The comments about the MPGe chart still hold true with the Fisker Karma looking even worse than before.
Weight matters but it is not everything: We all know that weight is bad for both racing and fuel efficiency, yet some manufacturers have not gotten the "light weight religion" yet. Consider the 5300 pound Fisker Karma for example and it position relative to the trendline shown on the graph. Sure at 5300 lbs, there is no way the Karma will be efficient, but from the looks of the graph, if Telsa, Ford, or BMW had built it, even at 5300 lbs, they would have gotten a lot higher MPGe.
Perhaps the most direct comparison in weight terms is the Ford Focus EV and the CODA sedan which both weigh about 3700 lbs. Ford manages 105 MPGe where as CODA only manages 70% of that at 73 MPGe meaning the CODA really likes to chow down on charge.
Purpose-Built EVs Better, some notable exceptions: Generally, EVs that have been purpose-built, as opposed to adapted, have better efficiency. The from-the-ground-up built as EVs, Volt, LEAF, and Tesla Roadster all have excellent efficiency, where as the conversions of SMART, CODA, and AZURE Connect all have very low efficiency. But perhaps this has more to do with the technical acumen of the companies involved than whether on not the EV shares components with an ICE sister vehicle.
There are some remarkable EVs that were not purpose built as EVs. The Mitsubishi "i" (or i-MiEV) is the second most efficient (112 MPGe) EV available and it is a conversion from a popular "kei" car sold in Japan, although the US version has modifications to pass US crash tests. The third most efficient vehicle, the Ford Focus EV (105 MPGe), is perhaps more remarkable because of its larger size and practical hatchback design. Now if only Ford would set a more reasonable price and start selling them. Perhaps most impressive at 102 MPGe is the BMW ActiveE. As a conversion, the vehicle is very heavy (4000 lbs), yet manages to edge out the much lighter Nissan LEAF which achieves a respectable 99 MPGe. The reason the BMW is most impressive is that they are planning to build a 2700 lbs BMW i3 which, given the efficiency of the ActiveE, may blow the doors off the competition in terms of efficiency.
Looking Ahead: Amory Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute in his book called "Reinventing Fire" describes a vision of so-called Revolutionary+ vehicles which combine lightweight design with electric drive trains. One extreme example of that thinking is the Edison2 eVLC test vehicle that recently got a 245 MPGe EPA rating due to its low weight (1140 lbs) and low drag (0.16). While not a production vehicle, it hints of what is possible. A more likely candidate for the showrooms is the BMW i3 (formerly MegaCity) supposedly coming in 2013. At a weight of 2700 pounds, it is about 600 lbs lighter than the Nissan LEAF and will undoubtedly yield impressive MPGe ratings.
PS: As author John Voelcker often points out, MPG is a non-linear scale and it is really better to use some form of "consumption" metric in this type of data analysis. The graph below shows the same data but in terms KWH/100 miles. Note that smaller number are better.
The comments about the MPGe chart still hold true with the Fisker Karma looking even worse than before.
Year | Manufacturer | Model | City/ hwy/ comb. | City/hwy/comb. | Cd | Wt. | ||||
(kwh/100miles) | (mpge) | (lbs) | ||||||||
2011 | Tesla | Roadster | 29 | 32 | 30 | 124 | 112 | 119 | 0.35 | 2723 |
2012 | Mitsubishi | i-Miev | 27 | 34 | 30 | 126 | 99 | 112 | 0.35 | 2579 |
2011 | Nissan | LEAF | 32 | 37 | 34 | 106 | 92 | 99 | 0.28 | 3366 |
2012 | Chevy | Volt | 36 | 37 | 36 | 95 | 90 | 93 | 0.28 | 3781 |
2011 | Smart | ForTwo | 36 | 43 | 39 | 94 | 97 | 87 | 0.38 | 2077 |
2012 | Azure Dyn. | Transit | 55 | 54 | 54 | 62 | 62 | 62 | 3985 | |
2012 | BMW | Active E | 33 | 107 | 96 | 102 | 4000 | |||
2011 | Fisker | Karma | 65 | 52 | 0.31 | 5300 | ||||
2012 | Ford | Focus | 31 | 34 | 32 | 110 | 99 | 105 | 3691 | |
2012 | CODA | Sedan | 44 | 50 | 46 | 77 | 68 | 73 | 3670 | |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)