I own a leaf. I drive it around Atlanta. I blog about it here.
Please pardon all the obnoxious css3.
So, I walk up to my car and I'm pressing the unlock button on the door like usual. I do it a couple times without any response, and some momentary confusion sets in. Why won't my car open? Well, it wasn't my car! I happen to glance in the backseat and I see a child's car seat. The reality sets in. An identical Leaf to mine parked a few spots away from me. With how rare Leafs are (or were?), I always just assume the black Leaf is me. What are the chances?!
So, three months after buying my orphan leaf, the electrician came out yesterday and installed my level 2 charging station in the garage of my condo. The installation has been a couple months in the making because I had to get it approved by my HOA, and work out payments for electricity usage. So far, it's working well, looking nice, and I love it! :)
I had to stop by the Tag and Title office twice to get it sent because on the first time I wasn't in the system yet (?). But here it is, my HOV-allowing Alternative Fuel Vehicle tag:
One thing I'd like to know -- that I didn't think to ask at the Tag and Title office -- is whether you can drive in the HOV lane if you're using the temporary tag issued to you for use until the real thing comes in the mail.
It was such a nice day out that I took the dog walking around in search of geocaches. We visited four, found two, and gave up on the other two. It turns out that my city has an okay-looking city park. Who knew?
"So, it's all electric?" The officer seemed fascinated and concerned at the same time. He pulled me over on I16, a very boring, straight interstate in south Georgia, for driving 1mph below the minimum required by law. I knew his concern was for my safety when he said, "I just don't want to see you get run over out here." His curiosity led to a few questions, some advice about my destination, and then he walked away, asking me to go a bit faster. However, I needed to go 92 miles on this battery charge, and the hilly, off-interstate roads were not kind to my range on the day before, during the trip down. From my short experiences, the Leaf gets the best range going around 40mph. He drove away after asking me about where I was headed, and I turned my emergency flashers back on and picked it up to 41mph, for him.
As you start to climb a hill going 70mph, you see the instantaneous efficiency numbers drop to about 2mi/kwh (48 miles of full-battery range) and you can't help but cringe on the inside. I'm still unsure of why the Leaf does best around 40mph. The impression that I've been under is that wind resistance doesn't take a huge toll on the Leaf's low drag coefficient until about 60mph. My current, best guess is that it's due to the (zippy!) 1-speed motor being tuned for inner city travel, not highway travel.
That wasn't my only run-in with the police, either. I stopped to charge at one dealership in Macon, GA that didn't make its security people aware of my presence (it was kind of short notice). The security lady called the cops after seeing me walking around getting ready to leave. Luckily, I quickly explained why I was there, and their confusion at my presence turned into anger directed at the dealership management. Sometimes you won't be able to give much notice that you're stopping, and I bet situations like this one will crop up more. Hopefully, they put processes in place to handle it. It ended up being a nice encounter, as they started asking me some of the typical questions about the Leaf. I should feel lucky I guess that I had two run ins with the police over the weekend, and both were positive.
Anyways, back to my trip for some numbers. I started driving around 1pm on Friday, and arrived at my destination, about 200 miles away at around 5am. It took me 15 hours of hilly highway travel for the 200 miles down. The return trip was slightly better. I took the interstate the whole way, and did 250 miles in another 15 hours. Most of that time was spent waiting on charge, and I tried to fill it with movie theaters, food, and naps, but it still got very boring waiting for my car to charge. You might be thinking, "Jesus, 15 hours? Why does it take so long? And why did you do it, knowing it would take so long?" First, I blame the up-and-coming infrastructure. Level 2 charging stations were taking me between 3 and 5 hours to top my battery up, and that took up the majority of my time. If there had been just one level 3 charger ("quick chargers") on my route, I'd have shaved several hours (of boredom) off of my trip time. I knew this going into my trip, but decided to go anyways for the hell of it. There was a "wild west" kind of feeling mixed in with an adventurous, old-people-wouldn't-do-this kind of feeling. I got to do something new, visit with the girlfriend some, and overall it was a positive experience, if only to be done once. One day, when I'm old and being driven around by family in a jetson car, I can repeat the story of how "it used to take me 15 hours to drive 200 miles in an electric car. And it had wheels!" Also, I hope to repeat the trip as soon as Level 3 chargers become more widespread, and compare results.
Total distance traveled: 450 miles
Total estimated time spent traveling and charging: 30 hours
Number of times stranded: 0
Cost for fuel: $0
The Nissan Leaf is always connected over cellular networks to 3G, and uploads vehicle statistics to a service that Nissan is providing, Carwings. You can then log into the website and view your vehicle's statistics.
Why would vehicle statistics matter to the driver? It's true, driving any gas-powered vehicle, you aren't too concerned about things like miles-per-gallon, because:
The Nissan Leaf gets an EPA estimated 99 miles per gallon. To determine the equivalent miles per gallon, the EPA goes by energy, not cost. That is to say, they have analyzed the energy contents of a gallon of gas, and determined that 33.7 kilowatt hours of electricity is equivalent to one gallon of gasoline. This seems logical as a baseline because the price of gas varies, but the amount of energy inside it does not (or should not, I guess).
Completely ignoring the EPA for a second, though, a kWh of electricity currently costs 12 cents (or less on the Georgia Power Plug-In EV plan). The EPA estimate says that the Leaf goes 100 miles on 34kWh. That translates into $4.08 for 100 miles (at 12 cents/kWh). A gallon of gas is currently about $3.80, so let's translate this into Wallet MPG: If I spent the same on electricity as I do on a gallon of gas, I can go about 93 miles according to the EPA estimate. 93 miles per gallon — that's the bees knees. This is a number that will change with gas prices. If gas prices go up, my 'wallet MPG' will improve.
#January 24th, 2012 11:47 CommentsNissan has a post about donating two quick chargers (level 3s!) to Atlanta. Currently, driving more than a 100 miles means stopping and using a level 2 charger somewhere, and waiting several hours for your car to charge. Using a level 3 charger would bring that wait time down to 30 minutes, which to me is like a long stop at a gas station. Needless to say, I cannot wait until these things get installed. I am having trouble finding out exactly where they'll be installed (one in Midtown and one in Downtown), but I hope to try them out soon enough!
In other news, I am trying not to waste my 30-day marta pass, and am using the train for my work commutes this week. So, don't expect anything too interesting for awhile.
#January 23rd, 2012 23:08 CommentsTo give a brief overview of charging options, I’ll use my car as an example, the Nissan Leaf. It supports three charging types:
The Atlantic Station parking spot for EV charging is its own little area, right out in the open. Two separate groups of people that were walking by stopped, and approached us with a few questions while we were pluggin up the car. I remember they asked basic things like, “What kind of range do you get?” (100 miles estimated), and “Is it electric only?” (yes) A third person got really close to the driver side window with a camera and acted as if there was no one in the car as he took his picture(s). I’ll admit it was slightly creepy, but mostly awesome in an unexpected way. I’m glad people are interested in EVs so much.
Being currently free (!), this was a good experience for a first public charger. Atlantic Station kept us entertained while we juiced up.
#January 17th, 2012 19:00 CommentsI got a 2012 Nissan Leaf SL this weekend:
More than one person has said that I should start a blog, and start cataloging any hardships endured, and windfalls gained from EV ownership in the Atlanta area. This is an attempt at quickly getting something like that together.
#January 15th, 2012 19:00 Comments
