End Of The ICE-Age

[SnowStorm]

Plenty of agendas and questions no doubt but I'm not interested in that here.  I just like electric cars and think they are the best long term answer.  Why shouldn't I?  I've worked with electrons all my life (as did my dad).  And I'm sick of changing oil!

 

Now here's a new first - after 61 years a gasoline station converts totally to electric charging.  Go down the road a few years and you'll round the corner to your favorite gas station only to find all the "pumps" only dispense electrons!  :rant:  We'll be driving around town looking for gasoline the way we used to look for diesel. :stirpot:

[plus 3 golfer]

Plenty of agendas and questions no doubt but I'm not interested in that here.  I just like electric cars and think they are the best long term answer.  Why shouldn't I?  I've worked with electrons all my life (as did my dad).  And I'm sick of changing oil!

 

Now here's a new first - after 61 years a gasoline station converts totally to electric charging.  Go down the road a few years and you'll round the corner to your favorite gas station only to find all the "pumps" only dispense electrons!  :rant:  We'll be driving around town looking for gasoline the way we used to look for diesel. :stirpot:

Looks like a great place to sit in your car for several hours while you wait for a partial kWh fill up.

[ptjones]

Plus3Golfer" The price one has to pay to save the planet. "  IIRC Al Gore said we would be destroyed by Global Warming/Climate Change by now and he fly's around in a Personal Jet , I guess he doesn't really believe it either too. :)

Got a reference?

 

Or are you just repeating something someone said....

 

Frank

NASA deleted the press release from FEB. that I and a friend saw on FOX NEWS but I did find this on the NASA site; https://climate.nasa.gov/blog/2893/nope-earth-isnt-cooling/   Interesting they didn't say anything about the Solar 11 year cycle.

 

Plenty of agendas and questions no doubt but I'm not interested in that here.  I just like electric cars and think they are the best long term answer.  Why shouldn't I?  I've worked with electrons all my life (as did my dad).  And I'm sick of changing oil!

 

Now here's a new first - after 61 years a gasoline station converts totally to electric charging.  Go down the road a few years and you'll round the corner to your favorite gas station only to find all the "pumps" only dispense electrons!  :rant:  We'll be driving around town looking for gasoline the way we used to look for diesel. :stirpot:

Not in our lifetime. :)  I'm changing my oil at FORD for $30 and checking everything too, probably should watch them to see if that is true.  I've been changing oil every around 30k miles and oil analysis said I could go longer at 235k miles now. :)  Maybe you won't need to check your oil but battery lose of capacity is a big deal. I might get a Escape Plugin, we will see early next year.  :headscratch:

Edited September 30, 2019 by ptjones

[fbov]

... The guy in MD will be out of the charging business in a year.

Unless he's in a good spot for short-term parking, like in a restaurant district... but a niche market nonetheless. 

 

... I and a friend saw on FOX NEWS ...

A scientist would understand signal-to-noise ratio. My apologies for the mistake. 

Frank

Edited October 1, 2019 by fbov

[ptjones]

Unless he's in a good spot for short-term parking, like in a restaurant district... but a niche market nonetheless. 

 

A scientist would understand signal-to-noise ratio. My apologies for the mistake. 

Frank

No Worries,  :) A lot of miss info out there. We really don't know anything for sure.

 

Paul

[plus 3 golfer]

I looked at the Takoma Park gas station converting to EV charging on google maps and virtually nothing noteworthy around but a lot of cars evidently waiting for RS Automotives to repair.   It's an older residential area on the outskirts of DC.  So, I googled MD EV vehicles and charging initiatives and the MD Public Utility Commission issued an order in 2019 based on utilities input to establish charging stations to anticipate the growing demand for EV .  I didn't read the entire order but utilities can own a % (IIRC 50%) and there are some ratepayer subsidies of charging stations.  

 

"In today’s decision, the Commission noted that it is in the public interest to approve the modified pilot programs, which test a limited EV charging deployment at a reduced cost to lessen exposure by Maryland ratepayers. The utilities noted that their proposed offerings do not place all costs associated with the proposed charging infrastructure on ratepayers....The Commission gave the green light to the utilities’ plans to provide rebates to customers for the costs of chargers with advanced, or “smart,” functionality."  Like I said it will take a socially mandated program to build the infrastructure because as the Commission says "it is in the public interest to approve the modified pilot programs."  It wouldn't surprise me, if RS Automotives got incentives from MD / PEPCO (local utility) under this order or other programs to build the charging station.

Edited October 1, 2019 by Plus 3 Golfer

[SnowStorm]

As to charging, a few more thoughts:

1. First, remember that most charging is done at home.  Public chargers are only needed for long distance travel.  Its not valid to think of every gas pump getting replaced with a public charger.  Most of us will rarely use one.  Totally not true of gas pumps!
2. Electricity is far more distributed than gasoline.  Its everywhere - all the time.
3. Charge rate capability keeps going up.  Aren't we up to 350kW?  Yes, they have to get installed, cars have to be built that can take it but that will come.  You'll get 200 miles of charge in 12 minutes.
4. I'm rather tired of all the comparisons between total EV trip time on road trips versus a Mustang or Model T or whatever.  Have you ever seen a comparison between charging at home (essentially zero extra time) versus all the time spent going to a station and buying gasoline?
5. What "social mandate" built Tesla's 1604 charging stations with 14,081 Superchargers?  There may be mandates but I'm not sure they're required.
6. You can make your own electricity.  For the many us whose cars sit at home most of the time, you can do it with 5kW of solar panels that cost $3,000 plus a 5kW inverter.  Very simple if you don't  connect it to the grid.  Free power "forever".  Try that with gasoline.

A lot of the problems we see today will just sort of melt away.  Remember, 20+ years to make the transition.  That's a lot of time and a lot of new technology we don't even see yet.  Just look back 20 years and see what we had for EVs and chargers!

[SnowStorm]

Its snowing like mad in Virginia right now but the ICE keeps melting!

For Chrysler the ICE-Age ends in 6 years!!!!

Let's just hope the new Airflow sells better than the original!

[SnowStorm]

SnowStorm's ICE Age is finally ending.  We bought a Tesla Model Y on Monday.  A crazy story about how we stopped at a store just to "have a look" (had never even been in one) and ended up taking delivery of one they had on the lot that resulted from a double order that never got cancelled!  It had interior/exterior colors we liked and even the tow hitch we need.  The other options from Tesla were either a used one at literally the same price or wait for a new one for like 6-9 months! It was buy it now or it will be sold to someone else.  The whole thing was a bit surreal.

 

The Enterprise is staying with us for sure (expect we'll keep it indefinitely) so I'll still be around.  We can now get rid of our big towing SUV and perhaps the Fit as well.

 

The ICE keeps melting!

[homestead]

Congrats!

[takingittothemax]

On 6/8/2022 at 10:54 PM, SnowStorm said:

The Enterprise is staying with us for sure (expect we'll keep it indefinitely) so I'll still be around.  We can now get rid of our big towing SUV and perhaps the Fit as well.

 

The ICE keeps melting!

 

Congrats (belated) on your purchase. Did you sell the SUV and Fit? And how many miles are the C-Max and Model Y doing?

[SnowStorm]

We recently sold the camping trailer so the SUV is next.  The Y can tow 3500 pounds so that will handle the occasional tow of a utility trailer and small boat.  C-Max is at 246k miles - still doing great (except for that long dead audio problem).

 

The Y is fantastic on efficiency with a lifetime average (at over 7k miles) of 235 watt-hrs / mile.  I'm sure 9 years of hybrid driving has helped!  Charging at home costs 3 cents / mile and there's a free level 2 charger I can conveniently use long enough for about 300 or so free miles per month.  Conversely, Tesla's chargers, though fast and super easy to use,  cost 3 times home charging (one I found is 2X, others 4x or more) but we'll rarely need them.

Its the first car I've had with "traffic aware" cruise and I love it, all the way to a stop.  And, BTW, once engaged, you can scroll the cruise speed all the way down to 0 in 1 mph increments!  Yes, you can "cruise" along at 1 mph.  Not sure what its good for but fun to try out!

Then there's Autosteer.  Keep a hand on the wheel (at least every 30 seconds!), continue to watch the road like always and the car does the steering.  Even on narrow 2 lane roads with patches of new pavement without lines it is amazingly capable.  It may sound like its not that valuable since you still have to watch all the time (like manual steering) but after hours of driving you are less tired.  It removes a lot of mental and physical tension.  Like a lot of things, you have to get used to it but I now use it 90% of the time.

The touchscreen user interface is not a favorite for sure (in fact, a lot of screen design details are down right awful) but you don't get a choice so I put up with it.  It is a lot easier when Autosteer is active and there are a ton of voice commands as well.  The big screen, though, is great for satellite view of navigation!

Then, of course, you have acceleration!  I don't even have the "boost" option but a short punch on the accelerator can cause a passenger to have an "expletive deleted" moment!  Silky smooth power is really fun to drive!

[ptjones]

Well you did it. Congratulations! Curious it looks like it's about 2.6 cents per mile here at home for my FEHP, I guess electricity is cheaper here.  Also the FORD adaptive cruise seems similar to your autosteer. Sounds like you are having fun with yours. I'm lucky in that I have 5 FREE level 2 charging stations near me. I use one that is 3 miles away from work so I drop it off in the morning and ride my bike to work and back when it's charged up. I look at it as a twofer get free charge and get some exercise too, If I'm lucky I can go a month without paying for charging. ? Some level 2 charging stations have started charging $1-$1.5 per hour so we will see how that goes. It isn't worth it if you pay more than $1/20 miles, gas is cheaper.

 

Paul

[oldbeyondmeasure]

Just wondering if you guys are figuring charging losses into your cents per mile calculations? I have a 2017 C-Max Energi that seems to hold about 5.5 kWh in the plugin battery. I am using a 110 volt charger that came with the car, which isn't very efficient. To add 5.5 kWh to the battery takes about 7.5 to 8 kWh at the meter, so the Level 1 charger is only 70% efficient. 

So doing really crude math, my car gets about 3 miles per kWh delivered at the electric meter. At the full price of electricity in most of Southern California, that works out to between 10 and 13 cents per mile. Because I have solar panels on the house, I don't pay that full cost, so I am fortunate. There are also some EV rates available from the utilities but I have not looked into them. But the bottom line is that I do not think I can come close to 2.6 to 3 cents per mile, even if I installed the Level 2 charger that I presume you are using, as even Level 2 chargers have losses. What secret sauce am I missing?

[jzchen]

I didn't do any math, but we were on TOU when we last charged our C-MAX Energi at home.  Same goes for our current Honda Clarity PHEV.  Thing is, my son's college has many charging stations which are free, so long as he has a parking permit for the semester, so he/we charge there, (4 hours max Level 2 6.6 kW, or 1 hour max DCFC at 50 kW, technically 1 session per 24 hours but we found once a day is close enough to avoid a ticket).  Can't beat free, although I must admit we are lucky that the school does not charge him beyond parking permit fee...