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]
Bob’s a techy and a serious car guy. He knows cars and likes to drive them fast--very fast.[more]
The members of the PlugShare community are an amazing group of people. Since the future charging infrastructure is not coming soon enough, (especially in oil-junkie, fossil-fuel hooked Utah),...
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]
The Los Angeles Air Force Base in California (LAAFB) has acquired 42 plug-in electric vehicles (PHEVs), the most the military has ever assembled in one place. The cars, trucks, vans and a bus will be...
Not only do Electric Vehicles provide many environmental, health, energy, and cost saving advantages... EVs also have the potential to provide many economic, technological, and labour market gains in...
The group says that the average battery-powered E.V. sold over the past year used 0.33 kilowatt-hours per mile, a 5 percent improvement over the 2011 data that was basis for the original report. Some...
No matter where you live in the U.S., an EV has lower global warming emissions than the average new compact car, which gets approximately 28 miles per gallon. Emission from EVs are poised for even...
I watched the used car ads for about a year and followed the Canadian Leaf Facebook group and eventually this past spring found a slightly used Leaf for just over $20k. The car was in almost new...[more]
My wife and I recently rented a standard (manual) shift car to drive around Ireland for a week. For decades I drove and was a fan of standard shift cars. I was saddened to leave these when nearly 11...[more]
All we can do is work to improve the quality of living for people, not only here but everywhere, and be willing to help future generations. We're not going to change the world, but if everybody just...
The Owens Valley is a desert. A beautiful desert at the base of the rugged Sierra Nevada, but a desert nonetheless. There are few towns, few people, and even fewer services. So it was more than a...[more]
The EV Show and Meet-Up was organized so Bakersfield residents were able to see and touch electric cars which are available right now. Electric cars sold per capita in the US are lowest within the...
Take the Electric Car Pledge with these electric cars being made today. Electric cars include PHEV - Plugin Hybrid Electric Vehicles and EV - Electric Vehicles.
The Bakersfield founder of electriccarpledge.com wants you to take the pledge if you support electric vehicles, plan to buy one in your lifetime or own one now.
While researching the new car market, I learned that the Nissan Leaf was the first fully-electric car available that didn't cost a fortune. It was still pretty pricey, but with the government rebate,...
Want to know where to find charging stations, how to build one at home, where to apply for electric car rebates? I will be blogging about our car adventures at...
The LEAF is a car one "fills up" at home rather than at a gas station. A few days ago I took my LEAF (to Miller Nissan in the San Fernando Valley part of Los Angeles) for a standard 1.5 year...[more]
I'm in Hawaii now but two weeks from now I'll be taking the car in for its 1.5 year service check up. The first two check-ups cost me zero $$. I love the feeling of driving knowing that there is...[more]
For Paul Gipe, a casual acquaintance from years past, his first opinion of the Chevrolet Volt was that ugliness is skin deep - it looks like the Chevy Cruze, which he does not like. . . [more]
My solar panels have long since paid for themselves by the savings in electricity costs. I have my electric car running on electricity from the sun, which costs me nothing and there is plenty of it...
Our LEAF EV is now one year old. The standard one-year service visit cost us zero dollars; no oil change, no anything. Nissan suggests changing out a passenger cabin air filter after a year, but...[more]
The lifetime fuel economy is 3.1 l/100k which compares very favourably with my 2010 Prius, which used to consume 4.8l/100k. . . [more]
EV range: about 55kms under the present weather conditions and the earliest Canadian users are reporting about an 8-15km drop in EV range due to cooler weather now Fuel consumption on continuous...[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]
In my first EV posting back in May, I guesstimated that when driven carefully a Nissan LEAF should be able to travel about 4 miles per kWh. We have now had our LEAF for a bit over two months and,...[more]
Should your LEAF have a flat tire, then getting somewhere to have the problem fixed may not be as easy as with your previous cars. To save weight and space, some new cars, including the LEAF, no...[more]
We have now had our Nissan LEAF EV for a month and things are going smoothly. Everyone we have taken for a test drive has nice things to say about the car. The LEAF does not have a tailpipe. So, it...[more]
Note: This is the first of a series of guest posts on electric vehicles--EVs. I've written about the potential of EVs in my books since 1995. As part of my work with renewable energy I've...[more]
Portion of a presentation made January 10, 2008 to Al Gore's Solutions Summit To significantly address the United State's contribution to climate change and to prepare for the diminishing supply of...[more]
