Visited the National Harbor Superchargers today with #CO2Fre and was surprised to see not any signage indicating the imminent closure. Spoke to one fellow Tesla owner as he returned to his vehicle and he had no idea about it. I took these pictures this afternoon which demonstrate there's absolutely nothing to indicate the garage will be closing this Wednesday!
On Thursday, 1 November, the National Harbor SuperChargers will be closed and removed as the property has been sold to a hotel company that wants to tear up the lot. My understanding is that the equipment will be returned to Tesla and the property owners for National Harbor have offered to allow Tesla to reinstall them in the Fleet Garage at Tesla's cost. This is a paid garage where you get a card on entry and use a pay machine to pay the card before exiting with the card. You will therefore be forced to pay $5 for only 30 to 40 minutes of parking instead of being on the honor system as it currently is. Overall, it's unclear if Tesla will take them up on this offer, or consider moving to free parking at Tanger's Mall down the street. The Springfield Supercharger will remain opened.
I, for one shall be boycotting the new hotel. It breaks my heart to lose these as I work very close by and have only been able to use them twice in my 9 weeks driving #CO2Fre.
On Tuesday, 3 February, 2015, members of the Virginia Advanced Energies Industries Coalition (VAEIC) will be gathering in Richmond, Virginia for Clean Energy Lobby Day (CELD) 2015. The event is in co-operation with Virginia Clean Cities and the Maryland, District of Columbia and Virginia Solar Energy Industries Association (MDV-SEIA)—who produce the rather repetitive and wordy Solar Flare newsletter. A number of industries in the energy sector are also sponsoring CELD, including Dominion Virginia Power, Solar City, Prospect Solar, Standard Solar, and Columbia Gas of Virginia; a complete list of sponsors is available on the official CELD page above.
Unfortunately, none of the bills under consideration in the Commerce and Labour committee solve the many problems Electric Car drivers face in the Commonwealth of Virginia, which I hope to summarize in a subsequent article. None the less, it's my desire to be a part of events like this, but usually I need to be at the job and those silly AdSense ads (sorry about those) aren't gonna pay the bills. However, due to some abuse I received at my job to which I reacted exceedingly poorly I happen to have the day off so it's absolutely my plan to be there tomorrow. That is, to drive to Richmond… 115 mi (185 km) away… in #CO2Fre Nissan LEAF… which is lucky to do 80 mi (130 km) on a good day… at 05:00 in the morning… in 20℉ (-7℃) weather… and naturally no heater…
Not only that, but in the evening I'm planning to meet some friends in Laurel, MD—land of the $35 cab to go 3.5 km (2 mi). Needless to say, if I'm to try anything as ambitious as 320 mi (515 km) in a single day, I'm gonna need some quick charging; I'm gonna need CHAdeMO.
Fortunately, thanks to the folks at NRG eVgo, various Nissan Dealers and Greenlots (not to be confused with Gringotts, though they can be just as pricy), I have some hope. First, I plan to use ECO routing to get to Pohanka Nissan in Fredricksburg, VA. From there I should be able to get straigt to Richmond, however, it's possible that the Level 2 plug at the Richmond Omni Hotel will be in use (I plan to call from Fredricksburg to make sure), so as a backup I'll hit the CHAdeMO at Mac's Service Center in Ashland, VA, which is part of Greenlots. I should therefore arrive in Richmond around 08:00, or so I hope. Fortunately, the Virginia General Assembly building should be about a 5–10 minute walk from the Omni.
I should be able to bring #CO2Fre to 100% charge at the Omni by 12:30, so if anyone needs the EVSE I'll be happy to move my car during lunch; I need enough charge to get back to Pohanka and have some left over for my next two stations. Once I'm charged at Pohanka the second time, I plan to drive all the way up to the Alexandria, VA NRG eVgo CHAdeMO. Then, it's all the way over to the Gateway Overlook in Elkridge, MD for a third CHAdeMO session.
My hope is, after the CHAdeMO in Elkridge, I should have enough energy to visit my friends in Laurel and then drive straight home. At least that's the hope…
Anyway, as I was saying, I'm planning to go down to the General Assembly on Tuesday, with a focus on a couple of environmental bills before the Commerce and Labour committee. Specifically, I'm focusing on 2 bills before the committee.
Electric utilities; costs of solar energy facilities. Authorizes an investor-owned electric utility that purchases a solar power generation facility located in the Commonwealth consisting of at least five megawatts of generating capacity to recover the costs of acquiring the facility, with an enhanced rate of return on equity, through a rate adjustment clause. The rate adjustment clause for recovering such costs may be based on a market index in lieu of a cost of service model. The measure also states that (i) the construction or purchase by a utility of such a solar power generation facility and (ii) planning and development activities for solar energy facilities are in the public interest.
The idea of this bill is to give an incentive to electric utilities which buy solar power facilities within the Commonwealth. It sets a minimum capacity of 5MW so that trivial purchases don't qualify for these incentives. The only problem is that it doesn't say much about third-party interests in terms of the initial construction of a solar generating facility. But otherwise, this seems like a good thing and something I'm happy to support.
Natural Gas Conservation and Ratemaking Efficiency Act; cost-effective programs. Requires the State Corporation Commission, when determining whether a natural gas conservation or energy efficiency program is cost-effective, to base its determination upon an evaluation of a portfolio of programs as a whole and not upon an evaluation of a program or measure on an individual basis.
The idea here is that we want the elimination of non cost-effective programs to be based on whether their elimination would make the whole package of incentives and benefits more cost-effective rather than subtracting one element and because it's removed some other benefit is hindered and thus the net effect could be worse than keeping the seemingly single less-effective subsidy in place. By allowing the State Corporation Commission to take the entire package into account, it's hoped that conservations programs can be added and removed with a guaranteed overall net benefit. This is why I support this bill.
Of course, these bills aren't the only reason I'm trying to make this insane trip to Richmond, Laurel, and back again. In July, I'm planning to go to my 5×5 joint High School reunion, up in West Hartford, CT, a 360 mi (580 km) journey with, hopefully, no 4½ hour stop-over like in Richmond. Now that's gonna take some planning!
Denis drives a Chevy Volt and is always prepared to give folks advice about electric cars. Feel free to email him at virginiavolt@yahoo.com; he's more than happy to answer any questions as a Volt driver about how great it is to drive an electric car. He has a wonderful information sheet he loves to share with folks that I should likewise share here at some point. He often encourages me to write a similar sheet for CO2 Fre, but then, isn't this website enough?? ☺
In my interview I quoted my estimated mileage cost as 1,500 miles per month and a household electric bill on the order of $25. My regular readers may remember my excitement for and analysis of the current Dominion Virginia Power Time-of-Use (ToU) power rates two years ago. Since then, I've picked up my Nissan LEAF and driven over 34,000 miles in 21 months of ownership and have a much better handle on how much it costs to drive electric. As I announced that October, I went with the Schedule EV dual meter rate plan.
Now, MOM's is a very EV (Electric Vehicle) friendly business. Employees even get a $5,000 rebate towards a qualified electric car like the Nissan LEAF. Part of MOM's commitment to EVs is that at most of their stores, including Herndon, they have free EVSEs where a patron can charge his electric car. So I went over to MOM's and introducing myself and explained my situation. That's when I met extremely affable and helpful store manager JP Exon who was more than happy to have me leave CO2 Fre plugged in over night while I waited for Dominion to install the second meter. I needed the EVSE at MOM's because I drive almost 70 mi (113 km) a day, which is most of my Nissan LEAF's battery pack. Because a wall outlet could only charge my car to about 90% of the amount used in a day in the 12 hours I'd have it plugged in at home, it meant I had to use a full, Level 2 EVSE with at least 3.8kW power. Thank goodness, therefore, for MOM's!
So in early December of 2011, my EVSE was disconnected, after just over one month of at-home charging, and I started to plug my car in every night at MOM's in Herndon, then walk home. In the morning, when I couldn't get a ride, I'd walk all the way back and then drive my car to work only to do it all over again the following night. This went on for weeks while Dominion dragged its feet about installing my second meter. As the year drew to a close, and Dominion still hadn't scheduled my second meter install, I started getting anxious. After a number of calls and e-mails they finally installed my second meter just before the end of the year and I could finally plug in at home again.
As you can see from the chart, my power spikes at around 01:00 (1:00 am) because that's when the Super-Off Peak rate begins. There's a small component before that when I want want to get a little extra charge to cover a severly depleated pack but for the most part I start at 01:00 (1:00 am) and finish by 06:00 (6:00 am) on weekdays, just before Peak rates begin, or 05:00 (5:00 am) on weekends, just before the regular Off-Peak begins.
One interesting aspect of my ToU data is there's always a gap at 02:00 (2:00 am) when Daylight Savings begins. The data has blanks for the two periods from 02:00–02:30 (2:00 am to 2:30 am) and 02:30–03:00 (2:30 am to 3:00 am). Interestingly enough, when we gain an hour by going back to standard time, there's no corresponding double entries for those same hours. What my power utility and EVSE are doing then, I have no idea.
For any reader interested in the full, massive data set of charging events, please send me a note and I'll be happy to share it.
One thing I've noticed over time, watching how my itemized electric bill has changed over the past 21 months is how in general, at least in the short term, my costs for driving CO2 Fre have more or less been steadily decreasing. So while my fuel cost was $28.32 in January, 2012, my most recent, July 2013, cost only $23.61. So while I may have averaged $25 per month early on, I'm now paying slightly less. The following table summarizes all the Riders associated with my Electric Bill and how they've changed over time:
| Description | Rider | Initial | Current | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Table 1: Schedule EV Distribution Constants | ||||
| Basic Customer Charge | EV | $2.90 | $2.90 | Unchanged |
| On/Off Peak | EV | 2.5200¢⁄kWh | 2.5560¢⁄kWh | Increased on 2012-12-01 |
| Super Off peak | EV | 0.0000¢⁄kWh | 0.0360¢⁄kWh | Charge instituted 2012-12-01 |
| C1 | EV | 0.0110¢⁄kWh | 0.0000¢⁄kWh | Phased out on 2012-12-01 |
| Peak Shaving Increment | C1A | 0.0000¢⁄kWh | 0.0070¢⁄kWh | Instituted 2012-05-01 at 0.0100¢⁄kWh; Decreased 2013-04-01 |
| C2 | EV | 0.0250¢⁄kWh | 0.0000¢⁄kWh | Phased out on 2012-12-01 |
| Energy Efficiency Increment | C2A | 0.0000¢⁄kWh | 0.0460¢⁄kWh | Instituted 2012-05-01 at 0.0240¢⁄kWh; Increased 2013-04-01 |
| Schedule EV Supply Constants | ||||
| On Peak | EV | 10.7690¢⁄kWh | 10.7690¢⁄kWh | Unchanged |
| Off Peak | EV | 1.4290¢⁄kWh | 1.4290¢⁄kWh | Unchanged |
| Super Off Peak | EV | 0.6840¢⁄kWh | 0.6840¢⁄kWh | Unchanged |
| Transmission | EV | 0.9700¢⁄kWh | 0.9700¢⁄kWh | Unchanged |
| Fuel | ||||
| Fuel Charge | A | 3.2890¢⁄kWh | 2.9420¢⁄kWh | Decreased 2012-07-01 to 2.6970¢⁄kWh; Increased 2012-10-15 to 2.7060¢⁄kWh; Increased 2013-07-01 |
| Other ESS Rider Constants | ||||
| Biomass Conversion | B | 0.0000¢⁄kWh | 0.0230¢⁄kWh | Instituted 2012-04-01 at 0.0120¢⁄kWh; Increased 2013-04-01 |
| Bear Garden Generating Station | R | 0.1460¢⁄kWh | 0.1470¢⁄kWh | Decreased 2012-05-01 to 0.1420¢⁄kWh; Increased 2013-04-01 |
| Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center | S | 0.3730¢⁄kWh | 0.4660¢⁄kWh | Increased 2012-07-01 to 0.4740¢⁄kWh; Decreased 2013-04-01 |
| Base Rate Credit | BRC/BRX | -0.1320¢⁄kWh | 0.0000¢⁄kWh | Decreased 2012-10-15 to -0.1850¢⁄kWh; Ended 2012-12-31 |
| Transmission | T1 | 0.0000¢⁄kWh | -0.2670¢⁄kWh | Instituted 2012-08-01 to replace Rider T |
| Warren County Power Station | W | 0.0000¢⁄kWh | 0.1560¢⁄kWh | Instituted 2012-04-01 at 0.0660¢⁄kWh; Incremented 2013-04-01 |
| Tax Rate Constants | ||||
| Sales and Use Tax | Surcharge | 0.0500¢⁄kWh | 0.0610¢⁄kWh | Increased 2013-01-01 |
| Consumption Tax (< 2.5 MWh) | Tax | 0.001520¢⁄kWh | 0.001520¢⁄kWh | Unchanged |
| Consumption Tax (> 2.5 MWh; < 50 MWh) | Tax | 0.000970¢⁄kWh | 0.000970¢⁄kWh | Unchanged |
Given that, here is the breakdown of my monthly electrical usage:
On 30 October 2012 I finally became a member of the EV Project. My good friend and absolute favorite elecrician, Sean Ryan, came out that day to add a second circut to my sub panel and install the free Blink charger from ECOTality. Obviously I'm biased but not a better electrician could I ever recommend, so thank you Sean!
Now the Blink unit is a great charger, apart from perhaps a overly flimsy connector. With it, I can schedule a charge on the EVSE and leave the LEAF set to always charge when plugged in. And I can schedule the EVSE timer remotely so if I need to make a change I don't have to walk down to the car, turn it on and fiddle with the timers. The only problem is the LEAF doesn't realize it's plugged in and then sends me pedantic and eroneous text messages to tell me to do so; so bad is this that when I do forget to plug in I neglect the message because more often than not it's in error. When I get up the next morning, let's just say the shock and horror on my face would make you think I was in the scariest movie possible.
Of course the disadvantage of being able to schedule a charge remotely is that the Blink EVSE is always on. In itself this isn't a problem but the unit is even on during Peak Time-of-Use rates. As you can see in Table 2, since the install I've consistently had to pay about a dollar a month to cover the cost of the EVSE's daytime power. Since this is power I'm not actually taking advantage of, it's called Vampire Power, indicating that it's power being sucked out of my wall in order to feed a hungry device.Interestingly, last week I plugged in CO2 Fre to find my Blink unit in a constant rebooting loop. I called ECOTality to let them know about the issue and since then I've been using my Clipper Creek CS-100 again, so at least the Vampire Power should be low next month. But now that I'm back on the car's timer, I need to be extra cautious to press the charge timer disable button when I want to charge at a public EVSE.
On 2 November 2012, CO2 Fre celebrated her first birthday! 🎂 For that entire year, apart from a fortnight spent visiting the favourite landing spot of the TARDIS, the birthplace of the Beatles and home of Nessie—for the first time in my life I got to watch Doctor Who live: Asylum of the Daleks and Dinosaurs… On a Spaceship!
Yes, this author is a huge Doctor Who fan and runs a mailing list, a facebook group and a meetup site dedicated to it. Let it not be said I'm only interested in Electric Cars and I'm well aware and have been psyched about the fiftieth anniversary special, and have been since around the twenty-fifth and Silver Nemesis! And for the record, Peter Capaldi is going to be the best Doctor ever. All that said, my heart will now and forever still be with Project Kronosphere.
In any case, since my first 19,000 mi (31,000 km), I've added another 15,000 mi (24,000 km) for a total of over 34,000 mi (55,000 km). And of course 19,000 mi (31,000 km) divided by 12 months comes to about 1,500 mi (2,400 km) per month of average driving, which is where my favorite statistic derives its other value.
Folks, this is a round-about way of getting to a correction I wanted to make in my broadcast interview. I somewhat erroneously stated my annual electric cost was near $200. Clearly $25 × 12 months is $300, not $200. But then, as you can see from Table 2, I actually pay a little less than $25 per month, and thus less per year, which is why I was thinking about $200. In fact, if you sum the last 12 rows of the table, you get an exact cost of $261.21, closer to $300 than $200, to be sure, but then that's what I meant by near, as long as near classifies about 31%. ☺
Back in October of 2011 I estimated my annual cost to run CO2 Fre would be $486.66. As you can see above, however, it's turning out to be substantially less than that. Part of the discrepancy stems from not taking into account vacations like my UK trip or CO2 Fre's stint in the D.C. Auto Show earlier this year. Falling Electric Fuel costs have also contributed, but the main effect is that I just drive less in my EV than I did in my old ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) Vehicle. I do probably drive just as much or even more around town with my LEAF, but when you cut out the odd trip to New York or Asheville, NC, you cut out a lot of the miles I used to drive in my old car. Those kind of trips are just too impractical in my LEAF. I could, to be sure, probably make it to Rehoboth Beach, all be it with about a 5 hour layover on the way, maybe 2, but the number of 5 hours stopovers to get to New York are just not practical. Maybe with more CHAdeMO, this'd be different—and thanks to eVgo more CHAdeMO is coming to the area, and quickly—but for now, my range is about 70 mi (113 km) one-way from my home for any comfortable day trip. But even then, I'd not be charging at home so those costs wouldn't be reflected in my Dominion data.
I just hope even if you can't see my segment on the Arlington Weekly News that everyone, whether you have an EV or not, try to make one of this year's International Plug-In Day events! This is your Northern Virginia PiD Captain, signing out—take care and let those electrons roll!
Generous readers, I'm happy to announce it's that time of year again! Time to show your friends, neighbors and general passers by our shared love for Electric Vehicles. Yes, it's International Plug-In Day, the day we all go out and display our love for cars powered by the ubiquitous plug.
This year, Plug-In Day is a two day event, and here in the greater Washington, D.C. area, we're taking it to the neighborhoods! So mark your calendars, 28 September 2013!
Because we have 2 days of events, we've decided to have regional events on Saturday and one huge event in downtown DC on Sunday. We hope everyone can show their support at their local Saturday event and then everyone come down to Washington for the regional event Sunday on the steps of the U.S. Capital.
Hello from your Herndon Event team captain! As the organizer of this event, I hope it to be the biggest of all the regional events. This is the only gathering scheduled for Northern Virginia. As such, I hope folks from Arlington, Alexandria, Loudoun, Prince William, Manassas and even Stafford Counties and Cities can make it out to western Fairfax to join us in sharing our love for EVs. Come and commiserate over our failed attempt for equal taxation regardless of propultion and the $64 tax we now have to pay for as both hybrid and electric vehicle owners. We're planning to have LEAFs, Volts and Tesla Model S a plenty to show, as well as all kinds of electric vehicles. Learn about Dominion Virginia Power's Time-of-Use Rate Schedules and the Green Option for energy credits. And teach folks about the around 50% Personal Property Tax discount for Electric Vehicles in Arlington, Prince William and Loudoun Counties. (Sorry fellow Farfaxians, we still have to pay full price for our tax in our unprogressive county.)
For the regional Sunday event, we're extremely fortunate to be getting permission to have our display right in front of the U.S. Capital building, on Third Street SW, in front of the Reflecting Pool and near the US Botanical Gardens. This is thanks in no small part to the work of Maryland's Senior Senator Barbara Mulkulski (D). This website would therefore like to express their personal thanks to Senator Mulkulski. We're working on sixty spots to display our EVs so that visitors to the Capital can see just how affordable, obtainable and ubiquitous Electric Cars have finally become!
At each event, we hope to have opportunities to test drive our electric cars including, in Herndon and Washington, CO2Fre, yours truly's very own Nissan LEAF. So come one, come all, see how easy it is to plug in your car at the 2013 International Plug-In Day events! And if you'd like to show off your car, just click on the link at the start of each event to register with the Plug-In Website. Hope to see you there, and thank you!
As ridiculous as that sounds, that's what the average charge time for a Nissan LEAF or Chevy Volt is when compared to a Toyota Prius. The math is simple when you consider the Prius may be getting 50 mpg or more (I got up to 66.6 mpg when I rented one while CO2 Fre was being repaired a couple weeks ago). Compare that to about 4.0 mi⁄kWh in the average LEAF or Volt during Winter when our batteries are straining to keep their capacity. When you consider LEAF and Volt both fuel at about 3.3 kW it's clear that 4.0 mi⁄kWh×3.3 kW is 13.3 miles per hour of charging.
Now, if that same 50 mpg Prius was fueling at a rate of 13.3 miles per hour, or 0.222 miles per minute, with each 50 miles representing one gallon of fuel, then 50 miles would take 50 mi÷0.222 mi per minute or 225 minutes (3¾ hours) to fill just a single gallon! Since there are 128 fluid ounces in an American Gallon, dividing 225 by 128 gives 1.758 minutes for each ounce or the reciprocal 0.5688 ounces per minute.
And a 30 mpg car wouldn't fuel much faster (the more fuel efficient a car the less gasoline it needs per mile and thus the less time required to fill up enough to go that mile). If we replace 30 mpg in the above equations we get:
(4.0 mi⁄kWh)×3.3 kW÷(30 mpg) = 0.9387 oz per minute.
And that's with a Level 2 charging station; at a standard, Level 1, US NEMA 5-15 wall outlet, 1.44 kW, the fueling rate diminishes to a mere 0.2458 oz per minute for the Prius or 0.4096 oz per minute for the 30 mpg Internal Combustion Engine vehicle.
If cars really took that long to fuel, no-one would question the EV Driver paradigm of park-and-fuel. No-one wants to spend an hour to go just 10 or so miles. Most cars sit for hours doing nothing, when they could be fueling. Consider instead of going out of your way to get that ¼oz of fuel for every minute you wait when you'd much rather simply go where you need to go and trickle in your fuel while you're off doing other things, wouldn't you?
Many will read this and say that's why electric cars will never be practical. But you miss the point. Now you're imagining a small, fuel pump at every parking spot dribbling in fuel while you're at work, shopping, catching a movie, whatever. Of course such slow gasoline dispensers don't exist. But that's not true for an EV. Remember, there are over 12,000,000 NEMA 5-15 or 5-20 electric plugs throughout the United States—there're only about 30,000 gasoline stations by comparison. An electric car can trickle in fuel at any one of these outlets so park-and-fuel isn't just a pipe-dream, it's actually quite practical, and very inexpensive. After all, standard electrical outlets are ubiquitous, not so gasoline pumps.
So really the only question is, why are so many places, like job sites and malls and movie houses so reluctant to allow EVs to charge given we can only fuel at less than a fluid ounce per minute equivalent and at only pennies per hour? Sadly, this is chiefly due to misinformation about what it cost to charge an EV and miscommunication that we EV drivers are quite willing to pay those costs for the convenience of not idling our EV without multitasking a charge.
Allowing this basic, trickle charging access to an EV could mean hours saved trickling that same electricity, waiting, with nothing to do. Because that's not the way EVs are supposed to be driven. Park-and-fuel is all we ask, at whatever price. Please don't waste our time waiting for the pumping of ½ oz of fuel per minute. Thanks.
Having driven CO2 Fre for over a month now, I feel I can now safely make some recommendations for change that would make my life infinitely easier.< Some of these things I've been writing about long before I purchased my Nissan LEAF; I knew going in some sacrifice would be required for the greater good. That's not to say there aren't great things like the burgeoning Charging Infrastructure and wonderful LEAF features to help get me through the day! But there's always room for improvement and if you don't speak up, nothing will get done.
Granted, the LEAF SL has a TEPCO plug and CHAdeMO support, so it can theoretically be charged from 0% to 80% in twenty-five minutes. But CHAdeMO stations are few and far between currently and even with with the 350Green announcement of 47 new Charging Stations in the Baltimore and D.C. regions, if I recall only 5 of those will be CHAdeMo.
Fortunately, 350Green chose CHAdeMO as the Level 3 standard they and aren't going with the the odd-ball SAE proposal currently floating with the J1772 plus two prongs below it for the direct current connection of Level 3. On the one hand, CHAdeMO is the de facto standard because it has the most stations and the most cars that can accept it. But right now, those numbers aren't big and if the SAE comes up with something cheaper and car manufacturers or EVSE makers decide to take a risk on following the official recommendations, it's possible over time CHAdeMO could be the BetaMax over the SAE's VHS.
Having driven CO2 Fre for over a month now, I feel I can now safely make some recommendations for change that would make my life infinitely easier. Some of these things I've been writing about long before I purchased my Nissan LEAF; I knew going in some sacrifice would be required for the greater good. That's not to say there aren't great things like the burgeoning Charging Infrastructure and wonderful LEAF features to help get me through the day! But there's always room for improvement and if you don't speak up, nothing will get done.
The chart above demonstrates how of the most popular EVs today, the LEAF takes the longest to charge from depleted to full:
As can be seen, the LEAF is slower by an hour even over the Tesla Model S and is clearly the slowest to charge of all; it's even twice as slow as the Focus Electric and Chevy Volt. Of course, in terms of the amount of mileage you get from charging any of these cars can differ greatly so to be fair, compare them to the total pack size:
Obviously, the Model S has a lot more battery than the Nissan LEAF but still only takes about 6½ hours to charge. And since most cars in the sample range in capacity from about 16 kWh to the LEAF's 24 kWh, yet most of these have much shorter charge times, it's clear that Nissan underestimated the competition.
Having driven CO2 Fre for over a month now, I feel I can now safely make some recommendations for change that would make my life infinitely easier. Some of these things I've been writing about long before I purchased my Nissan LEAF; I knew going in some sacrifice would be required for the greater good. That's not to say there aren't great things like the burgeoning Charging Infrastructure and wonderful LEAF features to help get me through the day! But there's always room for improvement and if you don't speak up, nothing will get done.
I've written about this numerous times and even created a Facebook Group for it. Put simply, there are two basic reasons I would pay a pretty penny for the 6.6kW charger. The first has to do with situations like the one where I had to spend three hours at Rosenthal's Nissan/Mazda waiting for enough electricity to get home. With a 6.6kW charger, that would have been a mere ninety minutes. Put another way, with the 3.3kW charger, you only get about 10–15 miles (15–25 km) of driving per hour of charge. Since my driving average comes out to 4.0 mi⁄kWh (6.4 km⁄kWh), this comes out to 11.52 mi (18.54 km) for me. With a 6.6kW you double that! And that means 45 minutes out at a nice restaurant like the Cracker Barrel in Manassas next to the IBEW Local 26/JATC ChargePoint stations would net about 20 mi (32 km), more than enough to get home on a near-depleted pack; with only 10 mi (16 km), I feel I'd be pushing my luck!
The other reason has to do with the new Dominion Virginia Power Time Of Use rate. Specifically, by going to a 6.6kW Charger under Schedule EV, I estimate I could be saving $80 per year in electricity costs by limiting my charge time to the hours 1–5 am. Now, if the 6.6kW charger costs $1,000 to retrofit into a 2011/2012 LEAF, as I once suggested I would still pay it gladly. Sure, it would be a 12½ year return on investment, assuming current electric rates, but the time I don't have to spend at places like my local Nissan Dealer or Panera waiting for a sufficient charge to my car is quite valuable too. By some estimates this could be as much as $40 per hour for a skilled software engineer such as myself, and at that rate it doesn't take long to equate an hour wasted waiting here, an hour wasted waiting there and before you know it, you've wasted a grand.
Come one, come all and check it out as we gather our LEAFs at Nissan of Chantilly!
Date: Saturday, 10 December 2011
Time: 12:00 to 16:00
Host and Honored Guests:
Everyone is invited to check out the plethora of Capital Region LEAFs as we gather to recount stories of our adventures in the world of EV Driving!
Come to the Washington, D.C. premier of Chris Paine's latest documentary, Revenge of the Electric Car tonight at the E Street Cinema at 7:45. If you missed it's first showing in Silver Spring, MD earlier this year, now's the perfect opportunity to see the best film this year!
And as a special treat tonight there'll be a special panel after the film that the EVA/DC will be holding where you can get special insight into the latest in Electric Vehicle news, advocacy and information. Finally, join us outside for a tour of some of the group's member's own EVs, including the Smart ED and, hopefully, even CO₂ Fre, my very own Nissan LEAF.
So come on down to the E Street Cinema and see automotive future in the making!
Any state outside of the blessed 5 (AZ, CA, OR, TN, WA) were left in the dark; then we heard that we in the South East could order in December and then, the day before my friend Olivier (Gudy) took possession of his Nissan LEAF, were told Nah, No LEAF for You and that I'd have to wait 8 more months to order my LEAF while Texas and Hawaii had already ordered. This pushed my delivery past 1 July 2011 which caused damage which is impossible to remedy in that I was forced to loose HOV access to I66, one of DC's main arteries since you needed to have registered your car by that date in order to qualify for Tier 2 Clean Fuel Plates. Instead, all I can get is a Tier 3 Clean Fuel plate which only allows me to use HOV on the Dulles Toll Road. Yet, we thought we may have an advantage in that we'd be first to get the 2012 model year. But you know what the 2012 model year is? It's the same as a late 2011 Model Year car (when you could get the Cold Weather Trim) but for $1500 - $1900 more — for exactly the same car! I had asked, and even offered to pay up to $1000 more for a 6.6kW charger. I warned you that was the Ford Focus Electric killer option! But no, you didn't offer that in 2012. You don't even offer the car in Green yet. 
So am I annoyed? Yes, unbelievably so! But do I love my red, zero-emission, CO2 FRE LEAF, yes! Unbelievable so. But the one does not negate the other.
I've been looking into setting up a meetup for all you Northern Virginian, Washington D.C. and Southern Marylanders to gather and talk shop about their brand-spanking new Nissan LEAFs. Although I considered using Meetup.com for this like I do my Reston Writers Roundup where I share my work on Project Kronosphere, I decided that since Facebook would give this too me for free, that's the best place to begin this organization. So hop on down to the Capital Area Nissan LEAF Owners group and help me plan our first official meeting! Not on Facebook? We also have a Yahoo! discussion and planning mailing list at Capital Area LEAF Owners!
Of course, if you don't want to do this through the behemoth that is Facebook, please suggest another site in the comments as I'm truly agnostic about the how or the where save that we'll typically meet in Northern Virginia since my beloved EVA/DC typically meets in Southern Maryland.
The day after I took delivery of the first Nissan LEAF first Electric Car on the East Coast first Nissan LEAF on the East Coast first 2012 Nissan LEAF first Nissan LEAF sold in Virginia first Nissan LEAF sold in Fairfax County best priced Nissan LEAF arbitrarily numbered, high-priced, nothing special other than being mine, every-day, fully-loaded Nissan LEAF (come on, Carlos, je parle français, et mes ancêtres sont libanais aussi), I got this kind letter from Nissan:
Jeffrey, the excitement of driving a part of automotive history is almost here! Your Nissan LEAF™ is scheduled to arrive at your local dealer soon. Once you take delivery of the vehicle, your initial $99 reservation fee will be refunded. If you have any further questions about the delivery process, just contact your Nissan Dealer.
Oh, thanks Nissan. I'll let my yesterday self know that right away; doctor Strange will take care of it for me! Now, where is my $99 again?? It wasn't on my sales receipt. And for the record, the $99 was refunded on my credit card along with the charge for $5,000 I put on it when I bought my LEAF.
This morning I took possession of the very first Nissan LEAF sale on the Eastern Seaboard, and also the very first 2012 model year LEAF. Don't believe me? Well neither do I, but I haven't heard from anyone disputing the title so I'm claiming it as my own!
Having owned this car for the past 5 hours, I can say it is frankly driving bliss. Sure, the cost was exorbitant and it's missing its Zero-Emission graphic due to a snafu at the dealership, and I'm still unable to order new clean fuel plates, but man, what a sweet, sweet ride!
…well, if you call a 1.79% annual rate loan money.
Though no doubt that rate's better than any Nissan Motor Acceptance Corporation can give me. My plan is to pay it off within 3 years, if not sooner, by simply direct depositing my Net Pay (after allotments) straight into the loan, which should come out to about $867 per month in payments, give or take a bit. At this rate, I can have the $20,000 loan paid off in a mere 2 years. Not that I have to pay it off so quickly since my loan term is 60 months (5 years) and still charges the same rate. Mind you, the Personal Property Tax on the LEAF still scares me and having this debt hanging over me is not a fun prospect, but we'll face that as we come to it.
Paying off half the car with a loan allows me to keep some of my savings, which is good in case there's an emergency of some kind. And the interest paid under this accelerated plan is just $300 - $400. What still remains is to move most of cash payment out of the savings account and into an account where I can draft a personal check for the other $20,000 or so, as well as set up direct deposit to make payments to my loan automatically. Then there's getting an insurance policy and ordering new plates and finally all pieces should be in place.
Only one month to go…
Yes, you heard me correctly: my Nissan LEAF is expected to arrive the second week of November, 2011. Some time between Tuesday, 8 November 2011 and Monday 14 November 2011, just in time for Thanksgiving and the holidays and well in time for the 2011 tax year! It also comes about 50 weeks after I ordered my EVSE, much to my chagrin, but c'est la vie, c'est la guerre.
Many, many thanks go to Justin Maynard at Nissan of Chantilly for cluing me in on the delivery week since I can no longer access my customer dashboard. LEAF number 5061 is on its way!
At 9 o'clock in the morning on Sunday I strangely received a text message from a surprising source. You see, since July of 2011 (as well as during a brief period in December 2010) I've had my e-mail set up to forward all messages from Nissan to my iPhone as text messages to keep me as up to date as possible with respect to the progress of my potential future ride. Some of these messages have been bsnal, though the one telling me I could order in July was a real treat.
Thus, I was quite delighted to receive a message from Nissan indicating that my Owner Portal had opened up. As soon as I could, I logged into my dashboard and saw to might delight the last panel opened on my customer dashboard. Unfortunately, I don't have a picture of this for you because…
You see, when I tried to put a deposit on a LEAF back in the late afternoon of 20 April 2010, I decided to be proactive and set up an account on the Nissan Dashboard site in preparation for the reservation site activation. When the message finally came for me to activate, I logged into the account I had created and associated with my mailing list e-mail, but my reservation panel wasn't opened. I tried to get the panel to activate but it just wouldn't budge. I had to click a link in the original e-mail which took me to the dashboard would have forced me to create a new account. Unfortunately, because my desired login name was in use (because I'd just created that account), it wouldn't let me use that name.
I called Customer Service for the LEAF and they admitted it was a flaw in the design and there was nothing they could do. Clearly, in the quest to create a turn-key solution for their customers, they neglected to use the standard website practice of allowing a user to either create a new account or log into an existing account. The woman from customer service thus advised me that if I wanted to make a reservation, I'd have to create a new account. I asked Nissan Customer Service if I did this, how I could switch the reservation account to the account I originally intended, the one I'd created earlier that day. They told me it was impossible.
So irate I was, and so desperate I was to get my order in, I hastily choose the rather rude name FuckYouIAmTimeHorse just so I could access my dashboard and put a reservation on a car.
Despite the unfortunate situation with the naming for my account on the Dashboard, Customer Service had assured me this account wasn't permanent and I could still choose my own, custom name when I set up my owner's portal. And so I waited…
Fast forward to Sunday, 25 September 2011. Having received my text, and read the e-mail on the phone, I attempt to visit the Owner's Portal site. Of course, like before I'd previously set up an Owner's Portal account in anticipation of this day so I was eager to finally, once and for all, hook my LEAF up into the proper account and user name.
I clicked the link in the e-mail on my phone to go to the Owner's Portal page, but, unable to either hook it into my existing account or assign the account the proper account name, I was stuck. I thought maybe it was a limitation of the iPhone, so I tried my Linux server. Still no dice!
Clearly it was another case of a turn-key solution that forced new account creation rather than allowing the option of logging into an existing account. This was all the more insidious for the fact that Nissan may have other customers with existing cars on an existing Owner's Portal account: there be no way for these customers to link their cars into a single account either.
So, although I was able to see whole new areas opened up on my Customer Dashboard, I couldn't properly activate the Owner's Portal site. I was absolutely thrilled that I could finally see my future car's Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), but I just couldn't get it associated with the right account. Sigh. I'd have to wait until Monday.
Monday turned out to be a rather busy day at work so I couldn't call Nissan customer service until on the drive home from the job site — hands-free, of course!
So I call up customer service and I get in contact with my old on-line chat customer service friend, Jesse. At first, Jesse's like you made your bed now lie in it. You created the rude name, now you gotta live with it. This made me incensed, and rather than using my polite protocol of just referring to the name as rude, I said it out loud and angry, no doubt much to the shock and surprise of my co-workers as I was leaving the office that day!
Jesse and I chatted and chatted and we went over my entire customer service history. At first they didn't have any records going back before the Electric Drive event where my video was misplaced for a week. Eventually, Jesse started coming over to my side; he was earning a 5-star rating!
Jesse did some research and after much digging and earning a sixth star, eventually came up with a solution. After hemming and hawing about how to make absolutely sure we moved the right car to my proper Owner's Portal account, we finally came upon an identifying factor and low and behold, Jesse worked a miracle and a seventh and final star! My car was now listed under my official Owner's Portal page! Hooray!
Relieved to finally have this issue resolved, Jesse presently had some final warnings for me of which I should take heed or face my own peril. Yes, the vehicle was now on my Owner's Portal site. Yes, I could now activate CARWINGS. Yes, I now had everything ready and all the information my dealership would need to take ownership of the car, hopefully, in the scheduled month of November.
But from that point forward I am now forbidden from ever visiting my official Customer Dashboard again!
I would never again see that friendly, last box, or be able to view my preferred dealership or, most importantly, my expected arrival date! All the information I have about my car from this point forward is through the Owner's Portal. Unless I get an e-mail indicating a more precise date for the delivery of my car, I have to fly blind. So I'm relying on you, my fellow late-July orders, and my friend Justin at Nissan of Chantilly to keep me apprised of any new developments in the batch of cars that hopefully will contain my Cayenne Red LEAF among them.
But as all things must eventually pass, so to can opportunity prosper. On Tuesday I was finally able to set up CARWINGS, as you can see from the image below. Progress, my friends, as my first, true EV moves ever closer. And in perhaps a mere 8 weeks, I'll be driving zero-emission — and my LEAF will have Wings!
Of course, all this assumes I take possession of this enigmatic LEAF. Then again, I could just wait for next year's model. After all, I still have the original Customer Dashboard account I created back in April 2010…
