EVs are just superior

Almost 3 months and now 10k. The novelty is gone in a way as the car is doing all my previous gasoline car was enabling me to do. The bonus is of course very minuscule energy expenses, as chargepoint is free and the City of Santa Monica provides me with free charging and free parking, as well as a few dealers along the way. In fact it would be very hard for me to go back to a gasoline car, ever. Last week a couple of service actions were done, one of them being upgrading my charging unit so it can now go to 7.4 kW, and the dealer loaned me a 328i. It felt way different and I missed the better cruise control as well as single pedal driving of the electric, not to mention overall better performance due to full torque at 0 rpm and no gearbox.

Friday I got to fully recharge the car and somehow noticed my range was indicated as 86 miles on the way back. I also parked it closer to the 10. The car loves stop and go traffic... it makes regenerative breaking very effective and extends the range, while the speed it taken care for me by the cruise control, so all I have is to steer and relax. As I say my range stay in the 80s I entered the first station after the dreaded no man's land between Corona and Murrieta, covering 40 miles, and noticed the behavior became similar to what I experience going in. I previously calculated the effects of the altitude change and determined going to work gives me an extra 1 kWh of boost, while going back would mean losing that. In theory that means only a loss of 5-6 miles of range, but I always was scared to not recharge before Corona and then make that trek across a vast expanse of 40 miles devoid of any level 2 salvation... Until now... after 2 months I felt I knew the car enough to try it. ...

Generally mountain driving and bev seem mutually exclusive. Based on my calculations in an earlier post going all the way to my property in the mountains, at a cool 5000 ft up, would skim 5 kWh just to get up there. And then you add the horizontal distance: 70 miles. But I haven't been there in 3 months so the need to check that my humble shed and its contents weren't vendalized become pressing. And as this 3 days weekend unfolded I finally decided to be foolish enough to try the feat. First I checked what stations were available and found out a grand total of 6. 5 in Ramona and 1 in Santa Isabel. Probably the blink network so I grabbed a code at www.blinkcode.com just to be ready. Initially I aimed for Santa Isabel as it was the closest but a lookup on blink's site showed nada there so I redirected my trajectory to go to Ramona first. The drive was similar to when I went to San Diego but then I followed the 78 starting at Escondido. I was happily surprised to arrive in Ram...

So I got a nice sight yesterday when an old RAV4 EV from 2004-2005 used the paddle legacy charger at the Park I am using. The woman driving it parked it sideways in front of my car as there are only 2 spots in front of 3 outlets counting the legacy one, go figure. She told me she still gets 90 miles in a charge and didn't change her battery pack yet, which is a good indication on the durability of it. Besides that charging went very well, as during the afternoon I found all 4 outlets deserted. I guess per Poisson's law things happen in burst, some days being crowded and some others with plenty to choose from. Still resolving the issue of why my drive back home is way less efficient than the one going in... but I what if it has something to do with the altitude? Murrieta is roughly at 900 ft ASL while Santa Monica almost at 0. That means the kinetic energy I get going into work is: Height is 900 X .3 = 270 meters Weight of the i3: 1300 kg Gravity acceleration: 9.81 m^s^s Force n...

Although it was a few seconds, but it shows me plugging in my i3. Charging it in Santa Monica I talked a little while on camera to the reporters and explained to them my motivation in owning an electric car, and they were also a bit astonished to know I am commuting such a distance to work in my EV. One of the other people there was a Santa Monica city representative and we also got to chat, as I explained to him I religiously stick to the 3 hrs limit on the charging time when he noted my car is seen often around. I an say the same of the guy in the Fiat 500 that got also shown. As long as we are social and kind to each other I see no issues. Today for example I unplugged myself after the 3 hrs limit, even if I noticed the person I left a note to plug me in after them only did so maybe 1/2 hr earlier. I had only 29 miles of range but I unplugged myself and plugged a blue Nissan Leaf that was waiting. Lucky for me I went to the other bank of chargers and found both unused! So I got to p...

Crossed the 6000 miles mark after 7 weeks, which is also close to 10,000 km for readers outside the US. The i3 is definitely operational as a very long range commuter provided there is decent charging along the way.

This may comes as a surprise to some but so far my experience with mostly public charging, given my very long distance commute, has been positive. Most EV drivers seem to follow proper etiquette as is common of most self respecting minorities aware of their trailblazing importance and given some common sense I am able to find chargers and adjust to some constraints, One thing EVs do is make you walk a bit and certainly contribute to your health in this sense too. Another is the serenity that accompanies the drive. No more vibrations and none of the smells associated with the black goop from the ground. The human mind can always adjust to a new reality, and sustainability as well as reliance on alternative energies that will only provide us a meager fraction of the extravagance oil did is embodied in cars like the i3. Oil is like a treasure in the basement humanity has found and that stored millions of years of accumulated sunshine. Once gone we will need to make due with a very low ene...