I am pulling together all my articles on EVs and driving electric under one heading--as much for my own benefit as for the benefit of readers.
Our 2020 Chevy Bolt’s traction battery was replaced under warranty on 6 May 2022 by our local Chevy dealer.[more]
In following online discussions of EVs, there’s often reference to the type of traction battery used. Eric Way of News Coulomb fame is one who is comfortable talking about the benefits and drawbacks...[more]
The gods at GM have taken pity on us and showered us with the gift of a new traction battery, releasing us from our sins.[more]
We have been driving electric for more than seven years and haven’t had any problems--until now. We’re currently driving a 2020 Chevy Bolt EV, but we don’t know for how much longer: It has a failing...[more]
There may be times driving an EV when a charge is needed and there are no commercial stations nearby that’s when charging at an RV park may be necessary. Knowing this can save your bacon—or at least...[more]
Recently friends in Spain asked a question about EVs that I hadn’t given much thought. The question was in two parts. First could they “dribble” energy from rooftop solar into an EV and second how...[more]
You can—and should--do more to help Ukraine than waving a digital flag on social media. You can stick it to Putin, weaken his war machine, and drive a stake through the heart of oil oligarchs,...[more]
I was told they did when I took my 2020 Bolt EV in for a diagnostic check of its traction battery. It was a shock to me, particularly after a GM “concierge” staffer told me they didn’t do that when I...[more]
At the end of this past summer it looked like the pandemic was finally winding down. In celebration, we planned a two-week excursion to Northern California and Southern Oregon in October to see...[more]
Recently I fielded a query from friend seeking comment on a widely circulated article by Recurrent on winter range loss in EVs. The implication of the query was that this somehow implies that EVs are...[more]
With our Pandemic Peregrinations we’ve driven our 2020 Bolt EV far more during its first year of operation than we did our previous 2017 Bolt during its first year. We drove the 2020 Bolt about 50%...[more]
Darwin Falls on the western edge of Death Valley National Park is a 3.5 hour drive from Bakersfield via Ridgecrest, California and the Panamint Valley. This requires one charge stop at Inyokern in a...[more]
Caltrans has provided a great public service by installing and maintaining these stations. I’ve used them and my experience has all been positive. They work. They are simple to use. They demonstrate...[more]
I was asked by a friend how to locate the free Caltrans DC Fast Charge stations in California. As in all things EV charging, PlugShare is your friend. [more]
While we’ve had no problems with Electrify America stations elsewhere, their Coso Junction station continues to give us trouble. Fortunately, there’s now a Caltrans’ station at the rest area nearby...[more]
Sean Graham has built a tidy little web site, AllEV.info, with tons of nerdy details on EVs, especially Chevy’s Bolt.[more]
As part of our Covid-19 inspired exploration of Central California, we headed back into the Greenhorn Mountains of the Sequoia National Forest to reach the Baker Point lookout. The lookout is a...[more]
While vacationing in Morro Bay on California’s Central Coast I wanted to charge my Chevy Bolt EV overnight. Several years ago this was possible. Not so today. Morro Bay, despite overlooking the...[more]
Recently I was asked about charging a non-Tesla EV on the “East Side” of the Sierra Nevada along Hwy 395. It was a good question and I’ve decided to post my response for others who may be interested.[more]
Hotels and motels in North America offer free Wifi, parking, pools, exercise rooms, and now breakfast as enticements to lodge with them. Unfortunately, very few provide EV charging, free or otherwise.[more]
It dawned on me after we’d returned from another 200-mile Covid-19 Escape that I hadn’t written a trip report in some time.[more]
This Covid-Escape wasn’t as adventurous as most. It required an hour’s drive east from Bakersfield into the Greenhorn Mountains where we met our friends, experienced amateur botanists, at the Shirley...[more]
Since air travel was prohibited during the pandemic, we took the opportunity to explore our region of central California by car. We dubbed these our pandemic peregrinations and used our Chevy Bolt EV...[more]
My three-minute clip from Project Clean Air's Virtual Ride & Drive video filmed in Tehachapi, California. The sequence titled "The Traveler" was filmed 16 May, 2021 in the town of Tehachapi and on...[more]
The Great Western Divide Highway takes you through the heart of Sequoia National Forest and Sequoia National Monument where the big trees are located.[more]
This trip was an adventure that I’d thought about since I moved to California four decades ago. It’s legendary. Mythic even. And I never thought you could still do it until we visited the Ridge Route...[more]
I spent all day Sunday on a video shoot in Tehachapi for Project Clean Air, a local NGO. No, it wasn’t about windmills this time. They wanted to film me driving our bright blue Chevy Bolt.[more]
A local Bolt driver asked me to explain “What is the thin yellow or green line to the left of the estimated mileage?”[more]
Caltrans announced that five new DC Fast Charge stations for electric vehicles have been installed in Inyo and eastern Kern Counties. Currently, charging is free with no time limit. Four of the...[more]
Oklahoma on Top--Maybe--My, my, how things change. I’ve been tracking non-Tesla DCFC station density for the past three years as a prod for the Golden State to get its act together. [more]
Since the advent of the first Covid-19 lockdown in California in mid-March 2020, Nancy and I have taken weekly day-trips to explore our region. Fully cognizant of the need to socially distance...[more]
Caltrans’ District 9, which serves the east side of the Sierra Nevada mostly along the popular north-south tourist route of Highway 395, expects to have its DCFC stations in operation by early March...[more]
This is the way fast charging a non-Tesla EV should be. Pull up, plug in, tap a few numbers on an easily readable screen and start charging. Easy peasy. No RFID card, no credit card, no app. Plug in...[more]
Zoom presentation for eMERGE Guelph, Ontario on the environmental benefits of EVs, what to look for in an EV, and how to charge them.
One of the concerns about battery electric vehicles is the amount of degradation the battery suffers during normal use. We drove a Chevy Bolt for three years, clocking nearly 30,000 miles on the...[more]
We drive electric and have for several years now. We encourage our friends to do so as well. However, some have balked, arguing that electric vehicles are too expensive. The question is, are they...[more]
After two months of driving a 2020 Chevy Bolt for some 2,000 miles we've found that the traction battery of our car has a capacity of 64 kWh, not the 66 kWh advertised. More interestingly, the 2020...[more]
I am looking for drivers of 2020 Bolts who have kept records of consumption and State-of-Charge.[more]
GM's official Bolt EV videos lists 21 separate videos on the Bolt, its features, and how to use it. The most recent is October 2020 titled Chevrolet EV Power Panel on charging, charging networks,...[more]
Oy vey! I just concluded a three month search for what I consider a reasonably priced Chevy Bolt EV. What an experience.[more]
The long-awaited DCFC station at the Inyokern airport is finally live after years of waiting.[more]
What you need to know to lease a Bolt with year-end sales promotions. This presentation was made for friends in Bakersfield considering an EV.[more]
Leasing a car is like renting one--you're paying for the use of a vehicle that's owned by someone else.[more]
Since 2008 new cars in the US include a Tire Pressure Monitoring System (TPMS). The monitoring system includes a sensor in each wheel that sends a wireless signal to the car's computer. The computer...[more]
That sounds simple enough but 15 of those miles were on an "improved" dirt road. This is a bone rattling trip over a rutted and washed out road that gave both the Bolt and its passengers a good...[more]
Unfortunately, fires and smoke scuppered our most recent plans. So instead we headed east to Breckenridge Mountain where Forest Service web cams indicated the smoke wasn't quite so thick.[more]
The drive to Horseshoe Meadows is a trip we long for every summer. The drive up Hwy 395 on the East Side of the Sierra Nevada is one of the best road trips you can make in North America. The scenery...[more]
It's an EV driver's nightmare. We were stuck in the middle of nowhere with an Electrify America charging station that wouldn't charge our car.[more]
As part of our weekly Covid-19 get-a-ways, we headed into the Sierra Nevada above Porterville toward scenic Dome Rock.[more]
We've been taking weekly day trips from sheltering in place during the Covid-19 pandemic. On 17 July we took our most ambitious route yet in the Bolt EV. We made a 220-mile loop through the Kern...[more]
And, unlike the earlier adventure, (see Chevy Bolt 225 Mile Roundtrip with 21 Percent Charge Remaining), this trip required us to leave the paved road. The Jackass Peak trailhead was some nine miles...[more]
These are articles I or others have written about charging EVs. Of course, there's a lot more on line. Each EV model has its own user forum on line with a section on charging: charging etiquette, how...[more]
There are two situations where it's wise to charge your EV only to 80% State-of-Charge (SOC). The first situation is to prolong battery life. The second is as a courtesy to other drivers.[more]
We're a one-car family and our vehicle is a Chevy Bolt EV. So when friends decided to go backpacking in the Golden Trout Wilderness during the Covid-19 pandemic, social distancing required that we...[more]
With spring wildflowers beckoning and little chance of breaking social distancing orders, we headed to a remote site between Bakersfield and the coast famous for its spectacular blooms.[more]
With bright sunshine, spring in the air, and a bit of cabin fever, we headed west out of Bakersfield to a remote site on the Carrizo Plains National Monument hunting wild flowers. Social distancing...[more]
Short PowerPoint on leasing a Chevy Bolt EV.
Below are some links I created for a group here in Bakersfield that's interested in leasing a Chevy Bolt EV.[more]
The following are short answers to a list of questions raised by a group here in Bakersfield for a Zoom video conference call.[more]
And why not? The San Andreas Fault is one of California's defining features and it was on the way, so why not drive a winding portion of it in our sporty Chevy Bolt EV.[more]
In the fall of 2018 I published a surprisingly controversial article ranking states and provinces by their non-Tesla, DC fast-charging station density relative to population. The article, California...[more]
In a region of California with a dearth of DC fast-charging stations, the owner of Love Truck Stops plans to install three 50 kW DCFC stations at a new truck stop in Boron, California. The station on...[more]
A Volta free Level 2 charge station was spotted at the Capitola Mall by Liz McDannold while on her rounds. Apparently the station has been in operation since the spring of 2017.[more]
For planning trips in our Chevy Bolt we now use A Better Routeplanner exclusively. We found it more consistently accurate--or nearly so--than any other routeplanner we've tried.[more]
Flamboyant Dutch personality Vincent Everts interviews Jason Rapp at the Fully Charged Event in Austin, Texas., Jason is the American side of the duo that developed A Better Routeplanner (ABRP)....[more]
One of the big advantages of driving electric is charging your car--"filling up"--at home instead of going to a gas station. For most people, 90% of their charging is done at home. To charge at home...[more]
While prepping for an upcoming talk to the local chapter of the Sierra Club about electric vehicles I stumbled on our local utility's web site promoting EVs.[more]
In Top 3 Advantages of EVs, an article on Cleantechnica, Johnna Crider cites DOE's Saving on Fuel and Vehicle Costs web page for some numbers on how it's cheaper to driver an electric car than a...[more]
CalTrans' District 9 has confirmed that construction on the first of four DC Fast Charge station locations has begun. District 9 serves the East Side of California's Sierra Nevada, including Hwy 395...[more]
One of the first things you notice about driving an electric vehicle is the absence of engine noise. The cabin is quiet until you're going fast enough to hear road noise or the whoosh of the wind...[more]
I've noted in several articles that electric vehicles are simply more fun to drive than conventional vehicles. Once you drive one, you'll understand. [more]
Electric vehicles are cheaper to operate and maintain than conventional cars, in part, because they have fewer moving parts. They are also cheaper to fuel than gasoline or diesel-powered vehicles.[more]
The simple answer is yes, they are only for Tesla.[more]
Plug in America's Electric Vehicle State & Federal Incentives also includes regional air quality and electric utility subsidies for buying or leasing an EV or installing a home charge station (EVSE).[more]
Yes, heated seats in an Electric Vehicle are a must. And a heated steering wheel too, if you can get it. This is particularly true for limited-range EVs like the early Nissan Leaf, but it remains a...[more]
We've been driving electric for five years and we've seen tremendous improvement in both the cars and the charging network in that time. This trip was proof of that. Everything worked as expected....[more]
Electrify America, a Volkswagen subsidiary, is building hundreds of charging stations across North America as part of its settlements for the Diesel-Gate pollution scandal. Each EA station includes...[more]
Here in California it costs costs a little less than $0.06 per mile for us to charge our Bolt EV at home. Elsewhere in North America it may cost half that to charge at home. The cost to drive on...[more]
While touring Central Europe with a Rick Steve's group I didn't see a single wind turbine (my specialty), but I did come across some electric vehicles--my current passion--and one DC fast charger.[more]
As part of its penance for the diesel-gate pollution scandal, Volkswagen is building a continent-wide network of DC fast charging stations for electric vehicles under the brand of Electrify America. [more]
Short answer: High number--the station is relatively reliable; Low number--station is unreliable. Drivers want to avoid stations with low numbers.[more]
CalTrans' District 9 office in Bishop, California has finally awarded the contract to build DC fast-charging stations as part of CalTrans' 30-30 program. [more]
Sometime in the past week PG&E has installed the transformer for the Electrify America station in Bakersfield, California. [more]
Recargo's California Energy Commission contract to build eight DC fast-charging stations from Buellton, California to the San Francisco Bay Area on Hwy 101 has "expired."[more]
I was talking to a Chevy Bolt newby and in the course of the conversation I found that they knew another Bolt driver who charged off-peak using a cheap 120-volt timer you can get at any big box store...[more]
We are approaching the two-year anniversary of leasing a 2017 Chevy Bolt EV. This is a good time to take stock of any degradation in the Bolt's traction battery capacity and how that compares with a...[more]
Experienced EV drivers always have a Plan B for charging on the road, and for good reason. Charging network reliability, especially for non-Tesla EVs, can be spotty at best even in "green"...[more]
As noted previously, there are no public non-Tesla EV charging stations on the East Side of the Sierra Nevada from Mojave, California to Gardnerville, Nevada on US 395--a distance of more than 300...[more]
I am a slow learner, but I've come around to Sean Nelson's view that Android Auto is an indispensable tool for the Chevy Bolt EV. Nelson drives a Bolt in Canada's British Columbia province. And he...[more]
My wife Nancy's friend Virginia was visiting. Virginia has a relative she hadn't seen in many years on California's central coast in Arroyo Grande. We have a friend in adjoining Grover Beach. The two...[more]
As a former Hoosier and as an Electric Vehicle advocate I keep an eye on EV development in the state of Indiana. Yes, Indiana is the home of the arch-conservative vice president and former governor...[more]
While funding for CalTrans' District 9 DC Fast Charge stations under the state's 30-30 program has been approved, the stations have yet to go out for bid. Bids likely will be released in July 2019...[more]
Denny's on Hwy 58 in Tehachapi has been slated for a ChargePoint DCFC station for some time. As of two weeks ago there was no sign of activity. Today there was a chain-link fence closing off a...[more]
I haven't had trouble using Android Auto, but others have. Here are some simple instructions that seem to work for me.[more]
I've added a series of new pages answering frequently asked questions about EVs. These can be found under the Electric Vehicles section of this web site. The pages are listed under Frequently Asked...[more]
There are four route planners I've used for planning trips in our Chevy Bolt. I've reported on my experience with EV Trip Planner, Green Race, and Chevy's own Energy Assist App. The first two are...[more]
I previously reported on my experience using three different EV trip planners. See Energy Consumption Estimators, Trip Planners, and the Chevy Bolt EV. Since then I've been experimenting with A...[more]
We recently completed a round trip from Bakersfield to Furnace Creek in Death Valley National Park in our Chevy Bolt. We've done this trip many times in a gasoline-powered car, but this was the first...[more]
We've now made the trip a few times in both the Nissan Leaf and the Chevy Bolt. As with our trips to Kernville, actual consumption has varied for each trip and has varied with the results of four...[more]
We've now done the trip several times and we can look at the variability in consumption relative to estimates by EV Trip Planner, Chevy's Energy Assist app, and A Better RoutePlanner (ABRP). [more]
Our family car--our only car--is a Chevy Bolt. When we want to drive somewhere, we drive the Bolt. The Bolt is a battery-electric vehicle (EV). It runs on electricity. You can't just pull up to a gas...[more]
Everyone who has a cell phone knows that batteries don't last forever. For drivers of electric vehicles (EVs), or those considering one, the first question that comes to mind is, "How long will the...[more]
Long-time Sierra Club activist Harold Wood and his wife Janet bought a Chevy Volt about a year ago. Wood, a Visalia, California authority on the life and times of John Muir, the founder of the Sierra...[more]
Our 2017 Chevy Bolt EV is about 18 months old. The windshield wipers were beginning to streak so I decided to replace the wipers. Despite that the replacement wipers for the windshield were not...[more]
As Tony Williams says, "plan the drive and drive the plan."[more]
All new large commercial projects along major travel corridors should install ultrafast-charging stations for electrical vehicles. These will serve the developers own commercial interest as well as...[more]
Since we and friends each leased a Chevy Bolt in November 2017, we've watched prices rise and stay high. Several of our friends and acquaintances have considered a Bolt, GM's first mass-produced,...[more]
Proposition 6, the measure to roll back an increase in gasoline taxes, failed in California's midterm election. Projects that depended upon the tax increase, such as CalTrans' 30-30 program, will now...[more]
While a friend was visiting from Canada, we took her on a road trip from Bakersfield, California to the coast via Mount Pinos in the San Emigdio Range. This is an easy trip in a gasoline-powered car....[more]
The most recent version of Electrify America's web site includes DCFC stations planned and those "coming soon." The online maps don't show sites on the East Side of the Sierra Nevada. [more]
Community activists have raised a solar pavilion in the small town of Lee Vining that they plan to use for charging electric vehicles (EVs). Dubbed the Pioneer Pavilion, the project is part of an...[more]
We leased a Chevy Bolt EV in early November 2017. I've been driving the electric vehicle daily since then. We've also taken it on several round-trip excursions of 300 to 600 miles. I know enough...[more]
Mammoth Lakes electric vehicle advocates have joined together to form the Eastern Sierra chapter of the Electric Auto Association with the hope of spurring the installation of non-Tesla EV charging...[more]
Despite its reputation for being electric vehicle (EV) friendly, California lags behind other North American states and provinces in the density of non-Tesla EV fast-charging stations relative to...[more]
Raejean Fellows, president of the Electric Auto Association, has begun a petition calling on the Mammoth Lakes ski resort to install public EV charging for its non-Tesla customers driving electric.[more]
In mid August we took our annual vacation to Toulumne Meadows in Yosemite National Park. We drove the family car. Nothing special about that per se, we've been doing it for years. What was different...[more]
Ok, it wasn't four-wheeling, but it was off-road. Today I took the Bolt off road with the Kern Chapter of the California Native Plant Society. The objective was watering a group of Bakersfield Cactus...[more]
EV nerds, rejoice. You can see some of the communications between various parts of Chevy's Bolt EV and its central computer--the brain that runs the car.[more]
Since I've been driving electric I've been itching to drive across the Sierra Nevada to Independence, California from our home in Bakersfield. We love the "East Side" and it's our escape from the...[more]
After receiving a question about how to find some basic information on the Bolt, I thought maybe I should post a little introduction to the dash displays--there are two: the driver's display and the...[more]
We again put our Chevy Bolt through its paces with a 540-mile round trip from Bakersfield to Santa Cruz to visit friends.[more]
In short, it worked as advertised. For us this opens up trips to hotels and motels throughout California that were once restricted to Teslas only.[more]
In a conversation with the campground host about our electric vehicle he mentioned that there was a "charger" at the new Forest Service District Office in Kernville.[more]
Long overlooked by California's electrification effort, the vast area east of Bakersfield will soon be getting its first public DC fast charging (DCFC) stations for electric vehicles (EVs).[more]
We leased a Chevy Bolt EV (electric vehicle) in November 2017. Since then we've taken the car on several road trips of varying distances. Based on these trips, I've tested the accuracy of three...[more]
My friend Gordon Nipp drove to Fresno from Bakersfield in his Bolt. [more]
For my wife's birthday, I offered Nancy an all-expenses paid trip to Ridgecrest, California, including dinner at a French restaurant. Such a deal, I know. How could she refuse?[more]
Construction is nearly complete on four Level 1 Telefonix electric vehicle (EV) charge stations at the Amtrak station in Bakersfield, California.[more]
I've been chomping at the bit to test our 2017 Chevy Bolt's range and we did so on a 186-mile jaunt to the mountains between Bakersfield and Los Angeles.[more]
We met Wirth in the square in front of the rathaus or city hall. We were elated to find that he not only would drive us to his parents but he'd rented a Renault Zoe electric car for the trip from car...[more]
While discussing a recent road trip with a Canadian colleague, the question arose of how much we were paying to charge on the road.[more]
Mike Brigham, a Bolt driver in Toronto, Ontario reports on the importance of knowing how to use Chevy's App to remotely unlock the vehicle.[more]
The stations will go out to bid in early September and they have until June 2019 for completion. Consequently, they will miss this travel season and possibly part of the 2019 travel season.[more]
We made another run to the coast from Bakersfield in our 2017 Chevy Bolt. This was a business trip. I had a half-day lecture to give at CalPoly in San Luis Obispo. So there was no dawdling to take...[more]
A few weeks ago I had U-haul install a 1.25-inch hitch receiver on our 2017 Chevy Bolt EV to mount a bike rack.[more]
17 March a small group caravanned from Bakersfield to the Desert Tortoise Preserve's new parcel adjacent to the Springbok solar power plant near Cantil, California. The plant is located just north of...[more]
12 March I drove our Chevy Bolt to the ChargePoint station at the Palmdale Water District (PWD). I had an interview with the executives there, and, conveniently for me, they had recently installed a...[more]
I've taken our Chevy Bolt, a battery electric vehicle (EV), on three road trips in our three months of ownership.[more]
On 12 February 2018 we drove our Chevy Bolt to Grover Beach from Bakersfield, California, a distance of nearly 150 miles. I'd been anticipating this drive for several months. It was a first for us to...[more]
In my first extended trip in our 2017 Chevy Bolt EV, I drove down to the Los Angeles Airport (LAX) Marriott for a conference, a one-way distance of 120 miles. Unlike my previous experience driving to...[more]
Motoring along at night returning from a meeting and suddenly I hear a thump, thump, thump. Geesh. We only had the car two months and now a flat tire.[more]
We returned home after a two-week Christmas holiday. We found the Bolt where we left it. Always a good sign here in Bakersfield where cars disappear from the owners' drive way on a regular basis. [more]
Because of the increased interest in electric vehicles (EVs) here in Bakersfield--the oil capital of California--I am posting a few photos of our home charge station.[more]
On 9 November 2017 we leased a Chevy Bolt EV for about the cost of a cell-phone plan. We chose the base model, the LT, with fast-charge option, heated front seats, and heated steering wheel. In our...[more]
The good news is that our brand-new Chevy Bolt EV is back from the service department. The bad news is that after only eight days in our possession it had to be towed from our house to the Chevy...[more]
My colleague and early Canadian EV adopter Mike Brigham reported 30 November that he spent an unplanned night in North Bay, Ontario when a DCFC station wouldn't charge his Chevy Bolt EV.[more]
We leased a 2015 Nissan Leaf in late 2014. This was our first electric vehicle (EV). We liked the car, but we returned it to Nissan when the lease expired. We've now leased a Chevy Bolt. Why we did...[more]
This October we passed the one year mark of driving two electric vehicles (EVs). Now is a good time to take stock of how many miles we drove on electricity in 2016-2017.[more]
With a slew of new electric vehicles (EVs) on the horizon, dealers are trying to move existing electric cars off their lots. One long-range EV, the Chevy Bolt, can be had in California for the price...[more]
We returned from a short holiday to find someone had stolen some minor stuff from our Chevy Volt, including 20-year old cloth shopping bags! But they also walked off with our Jesla mobile charge...[more]
We’ve chronicled our experience leasing a 2015 Nissan Leaf, a battery electric vehicle (EV), for the past three years. Now we’re nearing the end of the lease and the question is what’s next?[more]
Below is a short summary of the EV Trip Reports I’ve posted to MyNissanLeaf.com. They can also be found on my web site www.wind-works.org under EV Trip Reports. There’s more commentary both on my web...[more]
Rowell saw the bus, recognized its significance, and took a series of photos. He says the electric bus was on its way back to Porterville after a promotional tour of the Los Angeles area.[more]
Mike Brigham, the force behind Toronto's SolarShare, loves his Chevy Bolt EV. "The range estimates on the car seem to be incredibly accurate," says Brigham. "The last trips between a charge totaled...[more]
We’ve leased a 2015 Nissan Leaf since the fall of 2014. In October 2015 we bought a 2013 Chevy Volt off lease, making our household all electric.[more]
For various reasons we haven’t been able to take our Nissan Leaf, a battery electric vehicle (EV), out on the road until this past weekend. I was speaking at the March for Science in Tehachapi 22...[more]
It’s a deal almost too good to be true: Get paid to drive an electric car. [more]
John Rowell likes to push boundaries. Rowell, the man behind EVSEadapters.com pushed his Nissan Leaf, a mass-market electric vehicle (EV), to the end of Mineral King National Park and had to coast...[more]
At long last there is another DC Fast Charger (DCFC) in Bakersfield. For many years the only DCFC station in the Bakersfield metropolitan area was at the Nissan Dealer in Gasoline Alley.[more]
On 1 November Thilo Wirth rented a Renault Zoe from Cambio car sharing service for a trip from Cologne to Miehlen, Germany. The Zoe is Renault’s version of the Nissan Leaf, a mass-market electric...[more]
We recently passed the two-year mark on our 2015 Nissan Leaf, a battery electric vehicle (EV). The event was a good time to take stock of how much the Leaf’s traction battery has degraded during that...[more]
I have revisited my harsh criticism of the Chevy Volt. In the summer of 2011, I was asked to test drive the car for Automobile Magazine as part of a photo shoot among the wind farms in the Tehachapi...[more]
Drivers of electric vehicles (EVs) over the Tejon Pass on I-5 that plan to use two new DC Fast Chargers (DCFC) should have contingency plans. Depending upon the vehicle they are driving, they may...[more]
On 8 September we drove our 2015 Nissan Leaf from Bakersfield to Grover Beach, California using only DC Fast Charging (DCFC) stations.[more]
The trip was in part to visit a friend and in part to test the performance of two new DC Fast Chargers (DCFC) in the Tejon Pass. [more]
Completion of the US Green Vehicle Council and Cleantech Institute’s network of CHAdeMO DC fast charging stations will make north-south travel in the Southern San Joaquin Valley easier for...[more]
Recently we took a train trip to San Francisco and on to Corte Madera by ferry. For lack of something better to do, we drove to a number of Electric Vehicle (EV) charge stations in the vicinity.[more]
The recent settlement between the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Volkswagen (VW) for its diesel engine fraud could more than triple the number of electric vehicle (EV) fast chargers...[more]
The recent settlement between the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and Volkswagen (VW) for its diesel engine fraud could transform electric vehicle (EV) charging in the state. As a certain...[more]
EV advocates urge CARB to immediately convene an advisory group for maximizing public input into how the settlement money will be spent in the public interest. [more]
It’s amusing to watch the blogosphere go wild with certain memes. (We used to call them themes.) The latest is that Germany is going to mandate all cars must be zero emission vehicles by 2030. [more]
This is the first of—we hope—a series of DC Fast Charging stations to be installed this month under US Green Vehicle Council’s contract with the California Energy Commission.[more]
The previous version required reading the instructions, watching a video on line, and--if you were smart—a practice session or two before you needed it on a road trip with a line of Nissan Leafs...[more]
The general observation of other Nissan Leaf owners is true that the more you use the Leaf the better the traction battery capacity appears. Whether this is actual improvement in the traction...[more]
Previously, Norway and the Netherlands have also begun discussing whether to limit sales of new gasoline and diesel cars to reduce air pollution.[more]
Rumors are swirling in Germany that Volkswagen (VW), under pressure to reach a settlement with US and California regulators by March 24th, is considering the creation of two mitigation funds and...[more]
We arrived with 55% charge remaining as opposed to last year’s 51%. We returned home with 34% State of Charge, slightly more than the 32% SOC during last year’s trip.[more]
Proterra, the high-tech startup, demonstrated its all-electric bus for Golden Empire Transit (GET) staff today. The company hopes to sell GET, the transit company serving Bakersfield, two electric...[more]
There was no signage and parking was at a premium. If nothing is done, these stations will be next to useless. They will be constantly ICEd and no one will be able to get in and charge.[more]
How much has the car's battery capacity declined since we leased it and will it recover when warm weather returns?[more]
We drive 2015 Nissan Leaf, an Electric Vehicle or EV. Both before and after we leased the car, I carefully researched the kinds of EVs available and what would be best for us. I learned a lot from...[more]
Wherein we again learn the importance of avoiding dependence on a GPS, on the value of paper maps, and on driving conservatively.[more]
Electric vehicles (EVs) probably don’t cause cancer, but that doesn’t stop some people from saying that they do. I came across a bizarre version of this meme a few months ago at a social gathering...[more]
Who doesn’t want a metaphorical peak under the hood of their Electric Vehicle (EV)? Leaf Spy, a smart phone app, talks to the computer in Nissan’s Leaf and displays the data it finds there—data...[more]
When you drive an Electric Vehicle (EV), most of the time you charge at home. For those times when you don’t, you need to know where you can charge. The pre-eminent choice among drivers is Plugshare,...[more]
Presentation to the Sierra Club's Buena Vista Group, Bakersfield, California 5 December 2015.
If you plan to take your Electric Vehicle (EV) on a road trip in North America today, you must take along a portable charge cable. Like a spare tire, a portable charge cable is an essential piece of...[more]
In October of 2014 we leased a 2015 Nissan Leaf, a battery-powered Electric Vehicle or EV. After one year of operation we can tally what it has cost us.[more]
Toward the end of October we passed the one-year mark with our 2015 Nissan Leaf, a battery-powered Electric Vehicle (EV). It was time to tally it’s operating cost.[more]
Electric Vehicles (EVs) are simply cleaner than driving cars powered by fossil fuels, regardless of whether they use gasoline or diesel fuel.[more]
Electric Vehicles (EVs) use electricity stored in traction batteries to drive the wheels. There is no Internal Combustion Engine that burns gasoline or diesel. There is no tail pipe in an EV and,...[more]
EVs are more efficient in their use of fuel than cars powered by what insiders know as an Internal Combustion Engine or ICE. Because they are more efficient, EVs use fewer natural resources over...[more]
In late October we tried a new route from Bakersfield to Grover Beach where we visit a family friend. . . The new route pushed the boundaries of what our 2015 Nissan Leaf is capable of—and our...[more]
In what amounts to one of the auto industry’s greatest displays of Chutzpah, VW demanded the same subsidies for its diesel engines as was being offered to Electric Vehicles (EVs).[more]
I've posted two charts of two charging sessions. Both report similar findings. The car charges at its maximum capacity--6 kW to the traction battery--for 2.5 hours before it begins tapering the...[more]
Environmentalists should insist that regulators force VW--willingly or unwillingly--to abandon the internal-combustion engine and switch to EVs now for our sake as well as for the future of VW. It’s...[more]
EVs are making rapid progress if you don't have to search out charge stations in major cities around the world and instead just come across them in the urban fabric.[more]
While Nancy and I were guided around Nice, France by our colleague and good friend Bernard Chabot last week, we stumbled across this Peugeot Electric Vehicle (EV) charging.[more]
The California Energy Commission (CEC) issued a document July 27, 2015 that called for proposals to complete California's portion of the West Coast Electric Highway.[more]
Wherein I learn some important lessons: Don’t get overconfident with an EV; Don’t believe LA valets about their knowledge of EVs; The value of quick charging; Plan carefully; and—as always—allow...[more]
I've pulled the statistics out of the article Star-Crossed Trip: Bakersfield to LAX & Return and put them here.[more]
Fourteen years before General Motors (GM) introduced its EV1 and a quarter-century before it recalled and eventually destroyed nearly all of them, a GM division built an electric car only to see it...[more]
Bakersfield's first urban public charge stations are nearing completion. The four stations at Bakersfield Community College's Weill Institute are located in downtown. [more]
We’ve been contacted by EV drivers a few times about charging at our home here in Bakersfield, but none have showed up. That is, until John Rowell from Exeter called.[more]
As we’ve become more experienced, we’ve become bolder. On this trip we used our new Jesla EVSE—a portable charge cable—to charge quicker, and we took some shortcuts we avoided on the first trip. We...[more]
We planned another excursion in our 2015 Nisssan Leaf, an Electric Vehicle (EV). This time we planned to join friends for dinner in Visalia to the north of Bakersfield in the heart to the San Joaquin...[more]
We've now made four trips from Bakersfield over the Tejon Pass via the Grapevine and back. This is enough trips to account for variations in the weather and some variations in driving style. As noted...[more]
We had a good time and it was great to talk shop with such an experienced crew. Gary, Tom, Jason and his wife, Dori drove up in Gary's new Tesla. They joined Mike Bornstein, his son, Stefanie, and...[more]
Our friends had organized a morning visit to the Ardis Walker house and museum of western history in Kernville. Walker was a prominent and colorful local figure in Kern County from the 1960s until...[more]
We wanted to drive our 2015 Nissan Leaf to Ridgecrest and have dinner with our niece before her assignment at the Naval base was completed.[more]
This tabular estimator is based on Tony Williams Nissan Leaf Range Chart. This simple spreadsheet uses Williams' estimates of how much electricity a Nissan Leaf consumes in level, steady-state...[more]
My meeting to discuss Electric Vehicle (EV) infrastructure in Kern County was canceled, leaving my day free. So I turned to Nancy and suggested we drive our 2015 Nissan Leaf to Tehachapi for lunch....[more]
The City of Tehachapi has completed installation of its Electric Vehicle (EV) charging station. The two, Level 2 EVSEs are located in the parking lot adjacent to City Hall. The station, part of the...[more]
Gary Giddings, creator of an early State of Charge meter for the Nissan Leaf will join the Electric Vehicle Owners of Bakersfield and the Southern San Joaquin Valley at the Golden Corral for brunch...[more]
On Friday 22 May we embarked on our Electric Vehicle (EV) adventure to Los Angeles via the “Grapevine” to take in a concert of the LA Philharmonic and visit friends.[more]
As part of our continuing exploration of the Nissan Leaf’s range, we took a one-day get-a-way and drove up to scenic Kernville deep in the heart of the southern Sierra Nevada.[more]
We had about a dozen cars, so there's a dozen drivers there. Leafs, MiEV, two BMWi3s, a Ford, Rav 4, and a Tesla. There was quite a line up of vehicles--the Tesla attracting the most attention...[more]
The California Energy Commission has updated the locations of DC Fast Chargers in the Southern San Joaquin Valley. [more]
Meanwhile, there are no DC Fast Chargers in Mojave, or anywhere on the east side of the Sierra for drivers of consumer-oriented EVs, such as the Nissan Leaf. The nearest fast charger to Mojave is in...[more]
On 5 March Nancy and I undertook our first true road trip in our 2015 Nissan Leaf. Our destination was Grover Beach and ultimately San Luis Obispo.[more]
The Electric Auto Association (EAA) submitted comments 16 March 2015 to the California Energy Commission on DC Fast Charger installations for the build out of the West Coast Electric Highway. [more]
EV owners who’ve tackled the Grapevine on I-5 with today’s consumer-oriented EVs know how difficult the route is, necessitating long layovers in Lebec and again in Valencia. That is about to change. [more]
We recently completed a 550-mile trip to Grover Beach and San Luis Obispo from Bakersfield in our Nissan Leaf, an electric vehicle (EV). It’s not as far as many have driven, but it’s far more than...[more]
There’s an urgent need by owners of consumer-oriented EVs for a DCFC station either at the base of the Grapevine or at Lebec. Similarly, there’s an urgent need for a companion station in Valencia. [more]
When we got our recent bill from Pacific Gas & Electric Co., I thought I’d take a look at hour our Electric Vehicle (EV) was affecting our consumption.[more]
For those of us who live in the San Joaquin Valley, getting to and from Los Angeles in an Electric Vehicle (EV) is a challenge. Southbound, the last charging stations are in Bakersfield. Then it’s a...[more]
The City of Tehachapi plans to install a Level 2 commercial charge station near City Hall sometime this summer, says Chris Kirk, assistant city manager. When installed, the station will double the...[more]
It was a beautiful day and there was a report of abundant wildflowers on the road to Woody. Glenville is beyond Woody and we thought we’d test our Leaf’s range once again in the foothills east of...[more]
On Sunday Nancy & I drove our car to Tehachapi from Bakersfield, California. That in itself isn’t significant. Thousands of cars and trucks climb the 4,000 feet from the San Joaquin Valley to the...[more]
Recreational Vehicle (RV) parks with NEMA 14-50 receptacles are popular with drivers of Electric Vehicles (EVs) where no EV-specific chargers exist—as is the case between Bakersfield and Mojave,...[more]
Ok, it wasn’t quite mail order. Most of the transaction was done over the phone and via email, but we bought a car, an Electric Vehicle (EV), in a very untraditional manner.[more]
We’ve been driving our 2015 Nissan Leaf for two months now and it was time to take it on a road trip—a short one, mind you, but one long enough to test our range anxiety. We set out Monday morning to...[more]
Electric Vehicles (EVs) are different from the cars we’re accustomed to. They use electricity stored in the traction batteries to power the vehicle. They don’t use gasoline or diesel fuel. As a...[more]
We’d been planning to buy a plug-in hybrid for some time. Just seemed to make so much sense on so many levels. They emit less air pollutants by being so much more efficient than conventional...[more]
It was fairly simple really. Tesla was out. Too much money. At more than 100,000 the Tesla is well out of reach for most middle-class families--certainly for us. That narrowed the choices down...[more]
Our 2015 Nissan Leaf S (the base model) with the Quick Charge option was delivered to Bakersfield by tractor trailer on October 20, 2014. The Leaf is an all electric, four-door hatchback. It's an...
We installed two types of "charge station" or more correctly two types of EVSE (Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment) at our home. The first is ClipperCreek's 40-amp EVSE with J1772 EV charge connector...
It worked. Ollie Danner’s Electric Car Pledge and his organizational skills are the reason we’re now driving an EV or Electric Vehicle. It wasn’t a direct route of course. And just signing his...[more]
Tuesday I drove a Chevy Volt through the wind farms of the Tehachapi Pass. This was part of an interview and photo shoot by Automobile Magazine about the Chevy Volt and the potential role renewable...[more]
