EVs are just superior

So I am for my first set of charging stations and since most of the way there is by free flowing freeway the range stays around 80 to 70 miles. Once I hit heavy traffic in Corona it add up actually, and then I hit a set of free flowing and stop and go traffic. As long as I maintain 60 mph there isn't a dramatic drainage on the batter. I then switch over my destination to the charging station in Santa Monica and I generally get a razor thin margin i.e total range exceeds distance by maybe 1-2 miles. But from there on it expands to about 15 by the time I make it there. This has been pretty consistent for a month now so crossing my finger it doesn't change for quite a while.

Since the i3 is my only car it is also normal for me to try to do things I previously did with a gasoline powered car, like going to the beach in Del Mar. The drive was smooth and nice and the navigation system took me though Del Dios then Via de la Valle alongside Lake Hodges. I spend some time near the coast then tried to head back through the 101 but Encinitas had a huge street fair so I diverted back up the 5 and turned onto the 76. This is where I crossed the 4k miles mark, 5 weeks into owning the car. This kind of trip makes one appreciate more passing a little bit more time while the car is charging. Lesson learned as next time I will bring a surfboard and surf while this is happening. The spot I charged at was nice and devoid of the usual weekdays work crowds. I paid $6 to get 11 kwhr through the Blink network. Freeway driving at 60 seems to deplete the range a bit faster but the ECO Pro route choice lets me go where the regenerative breaking is most effective. I started at 80 ...

I will most likely cross the 4k miles benchmark this week-end. I also let myself drive in comfort mode then as errands and the like only consume a few miles and maybe ten at most. I printed out a few flyers I always keep in my car as well as a stick it notepad with a pen so I can leave notes whenever necessary and waiting my turn at the crowded free stations. But then again I have a quite a few hours to wait since I am at work then and it is worth it. Starting Friday night I charge at home and use the standard 110V outlet... and most of the charging is done at night. Saturday nights I sometimes head out to San Diego and charge there using a Blink station I know, but the trip is much shorter than what I do everyday to Santa Monica i.e 50-60 miles each way.

So I worked from home the day after that last charge at the VW dealer since it is a privilege we can use sporadically and to regroup for a strategy after that experiment. I zoomed in on a park that offers a few free charging stations, then at a few others in the blink network. The following morning I went for the park first, and there was a spot left, alas the 2 charging ports were in use. I was down to 12 miles of range and I noticed the Ford hybrid plugin next to me (Cmax) was almost full so I unplugged it but left a note to the owner with my number saying I would be back to plug them back in and for them to text me asap if they needed that. My goal was to let it charge a couple of hours and plug them back in. When I came back the owner left me a note back and was thankful I notified them with my info. Looks like EV owners are a nice crowed indeed. I went for lunch and reparked the car and noticed someone was already charging at my previous spot within 20 min of me leaving, so I left...

So the VW dealer I started charging at had a surprise in store for me yesterday. All in time for Earth Day 2015.  It was all a low key footprint I was leaving there, in basically 2 neglected level 2 plugs I scouted and started charging at. Then I noticed a VW plugin also there yesterday, but besides that most days the place was deserted and unused and I was the one who started to use it regularly. They sell electric cars too and VW seem an ally of BMW in promoting those cars and creating the infrastructure for them, so it is a logical step for a dealer to have a bunch of chargers and promote them. But apparently we may be also facing price gouging once the amount of BEVs reaches a critical threshold vs. the infrastructure. And I would deifne gouging as charging for electricity more than for an equivalent in gasoline... I might as well bring my own gasoline generator and start it up next to my electric car while I am parked on the street for free. Once I finished my charge per charg...

Experience operating an electric car for the long range seems to be some kind of street learning experience, with no clear manuals and the user basically on their own. Of course there are manual entries for all the features of the car but it took me to find another post to understand why my evening charge had less range than in the morning. This morning for example I arrived at work with 15 miles to spare, after 100.1 miles driving continuously. In the evenings I generally only get 95. But starting yesterday I learned about how to setup a departure time and let the battery be cooled prior to departing. I noticed my range closer to 98 miles and didn't want to risk going all the way simply because there is almost no stations south of Corona in a 35 miles no man's land. Be stuck there and I will most likely spend the night. I am finding myself craving for stop and go traffic... it eliminates range anxiety as the indicated range quickly skyrockets at the tune of 1.5 miles every mil...

So I dumped my gasoline car for a BMW i3, and it was a journey into the unknown from the first day. This will document my experiences as a way to show pure electrics are not only useable.., they are perfect for very long range commutes. I wanted an electric car for a while now... I tested an EV1 back in 1998 but didn't qualify to the stringent GM's fake standards, since they hated that car and wanted it to be burned and destroyed as documented in "Who killed the electric car". So I waited and then appeared a Tesla but its stratospheric price tag and reliance on brute force more than anything (i.e very very large battery) made it unappealing to me. Enters the i3... just as I am learning to fly planes and get to appreciate cutting edge aerospace components (not that general aviation planes are cutting edge, far from it, but I digress). So in the middle of March 2015 I make the jump, and what a jump it was, in cold water with no prior experience nor any guarantee, a chan...