EV Production Statistics
Electric Vehicles (EV) are becoming part of our reality faster then we could ever imagine. But most of us is undesided on how to this news or even this is serious trend or just some gimmick. Reasons for the doubts are several and major on is the statistics. According to Forbes (http://www.forbes.com/sites/jackperkowski/2014/12/12/electric-cars-a-review-of-2014/) there are over 88 million cars produced in the world and about 160'000 electric cars sold in US. That is about 0.2% of all new car sales and the numbers are discouraging. Tesla was the pioneer in first mass produced electric car and it is promising to rump up its production to 500'000 cars a year. Assuming that EV production will double for next five years we can only hope that there would be another 5'000'000 EV's produced per year. That is only about 5% of current world wide car production rate so its seems Governments should step up to support EV deployment at more rapid rate.What I love about my Nissan Leaf
It is fun to drive and quiet. The other day I was in almost brand new Lexus and I noticed constant clicking noise of the engine. This sounded very annoying to me, after all I was enjoying the quiet driving of my leaf for a year. The noise of smoothly running Lexus engine was annoying noise for me, most likely I would not buy another gasoline car ever. And my car accelerates very quickly, I sometimes make fun of those "Look at my car" guys by living them in dust at the traffic light. I won almost every BMW and Mercedes in this showdowns, and only one Infinity Q30 with aggressive driver was able to match my acceleration.
Did I mentioned that I got the $10'000 rebates from the government and saving $170 a month on gas money? It feels very good and notion that I drive clean vehicle with zero pollution makes me happier.
Besides my older car did not have backup camera, remotely controlled air conditioner, built in GPS and Bluetooth. My kids are happy as well since we are driving this futuristic, environmentally clean vehicle. The dashboard indicators of Nissan Leaf are kind of fuzzy and goofy but they grew on me. For example there is this Tree indicator that shows you how many trees you saved, I usually get three of them. If you accelerate a lot, or in other words waste battery charge, you get about one tree. Then there is this dotted scale of acceleration/breaking indicator. I use about 3 dot's of acceleration most of the time, and please don't ask me what that means. To understand you need to drive Nissan Leaf for a while. Oh and I forgot to mention that it is roomy and can carry lots of staff. I test drive the Toyota Prius and it feels very crammed compared to Nissan Leaf.
Shortcomings of Nissan Leaf
One thing that I missed and cannot get over it is my inability to drive to my cabin in my Nissan Leaf. The cabin is located 120 miles from my home and it has been over a year I was trying to plan getting there with my EV, without success. The problem is that Barstow is an actual desert of super chargers. So between LA and Barstow there is one supercharger at about 60 mile mark. Basically I can easily get to Barstow with one stop for charge but getting back would involve tow track or portable generator. So every time I go to my cabin, I need to borrow or rent a gasoline car. Another annoyance is the remote control of Nissan Leaf AC using my smartphone APP. It is nice to know that I can turn AC on in my car from anywhere I have internet access, but it is only that, just on/off button. I wonder how hard would have been to add temperature control to this of full fledged climate control to the APP and the car. Another annoyance is when you park fully charged car under the sun, you might loose some charge. I noticed that my 100% charged battery dropped to 87% after few hours of parking on the heat of sun. This could be just software flow in Nissan Leaf battery management, and observations were done using the cars indicators. Another annoyance is shock absorbers on the back. The car seems so light that I can feel my son tapping his shoo on the back.
EV Economics and Perks in California
EV Economics
The California state will send you a check for $2500, when you buy new EV that has appropriate battery capacity, like Nissan Leaf. This process from application to receiving the check would take several months but it is straight forward and hustle free. Federal Government will allow $7500 deduction from tuxes. This one is tricky, since for you to receive $7500 check from Government you should have paid that much Federal taxes and owe no additional taxes.EV Perks
1. You can drive in carpool lane after getting clean air decals for $5.2. There is dedicated EV parking spots in many malls with Level 2 charger port
3. You get a card from Nissan that will allow you to charge your car in public stations for free for duration of two years
4. You might be lucky enough to live in area that gives discounted electricity rates to EV owners. Was not the case for me and I ended up paying twice the rate for high energy usage.
5. Some places you get free Level 2 charger, was not available in my area
6. Your mileage might vary but plan to spend about $100 extra on electricity. This is my case and I used to drive Kia Amanti and pay about $270 for gasoline. So I am essentially saving $170 a month.
7. There are some cities that offer free parking for EV's, like Santa Monica California.
8. You get two years of towing service for free from Nissan. This comes handy if your battery gets discharged
EV car charging, range and myths
EV Charging Options/Stations
There are Level 1, Level 2 and supercharger's available to replenish your EV's battery.
Level 1 charger...
Is basically 120V regular outlet that you can plug you EV in. This is my choice and I been charging this way for over a year. My daily commute is about 50 miles and that leaves me with 45% charge every day. The full charge cycle for Nissan Leaf from Level 1 charger is 22 Hours, but charging from 45% to 100% takes about 12 hours.
Level 1 charger Pros:
1. Cheap, no purchase necessary
2. Convenience, priceless! just remember to hook up to a charger after coming home and you will Have 100% charge in the morning, assuming you start charging at 45% and allow about 12 hours of charge time
Level 1 charger Cons:
1. If your battery charge level drops to 35% or below than you have to visit supercharger to get it to 100% again, otherwise your charge levels will dwindle over the week
Level 2 charger...
is 240V or two phase outlet connection, essentially. This "charger" does not come with Nissan Leaf purchase and should be bought separately for $300-$800 range. Essentially it is a glorified electronic switch attached to your household two phase power source. The charger circuit is inside the Nissan Leaf and all this charger does is making sure power is ON/OFF at correct time of power connect/disconnect cycle.
Level 2 charger Pros:
Can charge your car from 0% to 100% in 4 - 6 hours.
Level 2 charger Cons:
1. Will cost you $300-$800 to purchase
2. Dual phase outlet might be required. That means Electrician + City inspector + time + money
Supercharger
This is the king of the chargers and with the price tag of over $100K it is out of reach of most drivers and usually manifests itself as paid or public charging station. I have seen this DC charger deliver 100 Amp at 390V DC, or 39 KWt power.
Supercharger Pros:
Can charge your car from 0 to 80% in 30 minutes
Supercharger Cons:
1. There are very few and far apart
2. It takes 30 minutes to charge, boring... Also consider the case when you are in line to charge after another car. That is 1 hour wait for a charge.
3. It adversely affects your battery life, you have been warn by Nissan. No technical details though...
EV Range
My Nissan Leaf is rated to have range of 80 miles but with careful driving you can get 100 Miles out of it. Basically the city driving is less draining on the battery then highway. You quickly learn that highway driving at high speed (around 75 MPH) is very taxing on battery charge level. Also as curious effect you learn the relief of the roads. For example there is a hill near my work where I get 1% charge due to regenerative breaking while racing downhill slope. Also I noticed that it takes me 25% charge to go to work and 16% to come home at average, even though I take the same road. To achieve the best mileage you should always drive in "B" gear instead of "D", since the "B" gear allows more aggressive regenerative breaking.
My friend: "Hi, are you OK? Do you have enough charge or should I bring out the power extension?". In my defense I can say that I never asked for one.
Me: "No thanks, I can drive 100 miles on my current charge"
My friend: "How is your toy?"
Me: "Come on, its very nice car. I can bit Mercedes and BMW in acceleration easily"
My friend: "Sure you can, because it is electric car" in a tone as if it is a bad thing
But I don't blame him. It takes some guts and careful calculation to buy an EV in current market. In his defense I can say that He is seriously considering buying one.
EV Myths
One of most annoying misconceptions of EV, Nissan Leaf, is that some people do not take it seriously and think it is a toy. It is not a toy for sure but very reliable futuristic car with nice set of advantages over regular gasoline car. One of my friends teases me every time we meet an conversation goes something along this lines:My friend: "Hi, are you OK? Do you have enough charge or should I bring out the power extension?". In my defense I can say that I never asked for one.
Me: "No thanks, I can drive 100 miles on my current charge"
My friend: "How is your toy?"
Me: "Come on, its very nice car. I can bit Mercedes and BMW in acceleration easily"
My friend: "Sure you can, because it is electric car" in a tone as if it is a bad thing
But I don't blame him. It takes some guts and careful calculation to buy an EV in current market. In his defense I can say that He is seriously considering buying one.
EV Drivers Anxiety
This is temporary condition and will disappear in few months. To put you in perspective let me tell you about my anxiety attack when I was new to the Leaf. So the first day I was driving from work to home I had about 50% charge left and was not sure if I can make it to home. So I was watching my charge level like a hawk and surprises were mounting by the minute. I turn on the headlights and my percentage dropped few points. Then the AC chewed up about 5%, and I kind of panicked since I had about 35% charge left half way home and had no Idea if that will be enough or I will be stock at freeway. So I end up driving home with my windows down, sweating and cursing my decision to buy an EV. The perspective of 22 hour Level 1 charging or 4 hour Level 2 charging was not appealing at all. And at that time I did not know where were Superchargers located.
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