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very jealous of EV car owners

B

BlahBlahYouToo

Lifer
http://billsleaf.blogspot.com/

reading this blog really has me envious. the feeling of driving around and not having to think about filling up must be really liberating.
my daily commute would cost me $2.40 in electricity instead of $11 in gas.

unfortunately for me...
1. i don't have a garage to plug in nightly.
2. my 80 mile commute to work is right at the upper range, so i'd be fighting range anxiety daily.

when the tech matures and i finally own a house, i'm going to equip the roof with solar panels and be completely free from power and oil companies.
 
Once they start using ultra-capacitors that can recharge in 20 minutes and give the car a 200+ mile range, I'll be in the market for one. Until then, I can't be restricted to a 100 mile range since I'm a consultant and have to drive all over the place.
 
Meh - I would also like one. 80 miles one way is too far though, you aren't exactly the target demo. I am - my commute is 26 miles one way. Cost in electricity (roughly 6kwh - or $0.75). Cost in gasoline - (roughly 1.5 gallons (with traffic)) so $5. Even with a nice TDI or biodiesel the fuel cost would still approach $2.

Now of course you gotta factor in the cost of the charger, and the battery maintenance and the extra charging, but I really don't see a downside. Li-Ion batteries are not the same as the crazily toxic Pb, though both are almost completely recycled these days. Its not like they are just chucking them in a pile with an Indian watching and crying.

Destroying the environment how? The coal or nat gas burned to make my electricity? Nope - its over 80% nuclear down here. Thats possibly environmentally destroying though I'll give ya that.
 
You don't have enough space on your roof to satisfy the electrical needs of a household much less the additional load of EV. Additionally, you are likely to charge you EV during the night, when the sun is not shinning, meaning you need some serious storage capacity and DC-to-AC conversion.

You will never escape the grasp of big oil/utilities. MUW-HA HA HA
 
bobdole369 said:
Meh - I would also like one. 80 miles one way is too far though, you aren't exactly the target demo. I am - my commute is 26 miles one way. Cost in electricity (roughly 6kwh - or $0.75). Cost in gasoline - (roughly 1.5 gallons (with traffic)) so $5. Even with a nice TDI or biodiesel the fuel cost would still approach $2.

Now of course you gotta factor in the cost of the charger, and the battery maintenance and the extra charging, but I really don't see a downside. Li-Ion batteries are not the same as the crazily toxic Pb, though both are almost completely recycled these days. Its not like they are just chucking them in a pile with an Indian watching and crying.

Destroying the environment how? The coal or nat gas burned to make my electricity? Nope - its over 80% nuclear down here. Thats possibly environmentally destroying though I'll give ya that.
Click to expand...

i'm 80 miles round trip actually.

isn't the charger free after a tax refund?
 
calvinbiss said:
You don't have enough space on your roof to satisfy the electrical needs of a household much less the additional load of EV. Additionally, you are likely to charge you EV during the night, when the sun is not shinning, meaning you need some serious storage capacity and DC-to-AC conversion.

You will never escape the grasp of big oil/utilities. MUW-HA HA HA
Click to expand...

i dont' know enough about the topic so i can't counter this.
but i did say in the future, as the tech matures.
 
I drive a Civic, it does 14km/L, and my commute is 20km one way. So it costs me about $3.60 each day.

The Leaf sounds great until you crunch the range numbers a bit. I live in metropolitan Toronto, infamous for it's traffic. Worse than Los Angeles. We also get cold winters, which requires the use of the electric heater. Optimistically, you'd get between 76km - 110km range in those conditions. Far short of the 220km maximum range.

My Civic does 700km per tank. So if I want to take a road trip, I have that option without having to rent a vehicle.

That said, I think electric cars are very well suited for city driving. Us suburbanites and country folk are just waiting for the battery technology to catch up.
 
Does the regenerative braking on the leaf restore battery charge enough to offset the battery power being used for the stop and go mileage that you are accumulating? If that's the case, would that allow you to drive in city driving conditions more than the 100 mile range, or is that 100 mile range the ideal max range? Depending on that, it might be a really interesting city vehicle, like for taxis and such.

EDIT: NM, found some answers here:
http://www.nissanusa.com/leaf-elect...dex#/leaf-electric-car/range-disclaimer/index
 
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I hear you. I am not working now, but my old job was perfect for it. 25~30 mile round trip and my employer would let me plug in during the day, so I could have a small and light LiPo battery pack. I could build a low budget car for less than 10K.
My wife has a 25 mile one way and iffy pug in capability, so that would be a serious set of batteries. She also has some requirements that I may not meet with a homebrew rig.
 
Solar setups are expensive.
~$600/235W panel + $1000 in batteries/switchgear

If you want to completely power your EV, you would need $5,000+ in a solar setup.
 
skyking said:
I hear you. I am not working now, but my old job was perfect for it. 25~30 mile round trip and my employer would let me plug in during the day, so I could have a small and light LiPo battery pack. I could build a low budget car for less than 10K.
My wife has a 25 mile one way and iffy pug in capability, so that would be a serious set of batteries. She also has some requirements that I may not meet with a homebrew rig.
Click to expand...

so you wouldn't even have to pay for the electricity it takes to get the car too and from work.
with moderate weekend usage, you'd probably pay less than $100 in electricity a year. awesomeness to the max.
 
BlahBlahYouToo said:
http://billsleaf.blogspot.com/

reading this blog really has me envious. the feeling of driving around and not having to think about filling up must be really liberating.
my daily commute would cost me $2.40 in electricity instead of $11 in gas.

unfortunately for me...
1. i don't have a garage to plug in nightly.
2. my 80 mile commute to work is right at the upper range, so i'd be fighting range anxiety daily.

when the tech matures and i finally own a house, i'm going to equip the roof with solar panels and be completely free from power and oil companies.
Click to expand...

I read another blog with someone driving the Chevy Volt and went around three months before having to fill up the tank of gas.
 
Capt Caveman said:
I read another blog with someone driving the Chevy Volt and went around three months before having to fill up the tank of gas.
Click to expand...

yup, i read owners are averaging 1000 between fillups.

the volt is cool, but it's pure EV's that get me excited.
0 dependency on big oil, 0 emissions from the tailpipe. wait, there is no tailpipe.
 
BlahBlahYouToo said:
yup, i read owners are averaging 1000 between fillups.

the volt is cool, but it's pure EV's that get me excited.
0 dependency on big oil, 0 emissions from the tailpipe. wait, there is no tailpipe.
Click to expand...

Except for all the oil required to make all the plastic in the car. All of it required to mine all the other materials to build it including the batteries. All of the oil sprayed on the asphalt roads you drive over. The oil in all the transformers needed to bring the electricity to you. Etc.. etc.. etc..
 
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