Crossing 13.5k and the new normal
My conversion to gasoline free is now complete. So much that I decided to only make a new entry at more significant milestones, like now which is also 20,000 km, or halfway across the planet.
The serenity of complete engine silence and lack of vibration seems to have conditioned me to realize the utter violence and assault on the senses of the gasoline vehicles outside, especially the diesel monsters.
3500 more miles and it barely was any achievement. I still average 200 miles a day and the battery is as effective as ever, with 115 miles of range every morning and about 108-110 when I drive back, due to the altitude difference between Murrieta and Santa Monica.
The car is also very utilitarian lately, with a coffee table and other large items being transported. My work is moving to a new location to I can grab a whole lot of free stuff there offered to employees and bring back all the way to the inland empire.
In Santa Monica it seems the 3hr limit at the free charging stations seem to be enforced somehow as I find the chargers free most of the time I get there just before noon.
That city is definitely the most EV friendly, down to free metered parking for BEVs. I hope it stays that way for a long time.
EVs IMPROVE the quality of life. The pollution is so brutal that I can smell it when I drive in the LA basin. Maybe it is because the Inland Empire is not so polluted just east of the Ortegas that deflect most of the smog, or because driving a BEV with a high quality cabin air filter and no native oil or gasoline contained within its confines made me used to the luxury of a life with less black goomp from the ground.
EVs should be promoted and no matter the naysayers claiming they are just cousins to the "oil derivatives" and that the electricity they use is derived from fossil fuels, they are STILL 6-10 TIMES more efficient at leveraging each unit of energy to go from A to B than ICE relics.
And my experience now proves beyond any doubt how much better driving an EV is for the quality of life of the driver and those around him.
Here's some pics I took driving to scenic vistas all gas free...
The serenity of complete engine silence and lack of vibration seems to have conditioned me to realize the utter violence and assault on the senses of the gasoline vehicles outside, especially the diesel monsters.
3500 more miles and it barely was any achievement. I still average 200 miles a day and the battery is as effective as ever, with 115 miles of range every morning and about 108-110 when I drive back, due to the altitude difference between Murrieta and Santa Monica.
The car is also very utilitarian lately, with a coffee table and other large items being transported. My work is moving to a new location to I can grab a whole lot of free stuff there offered to employees and bring back all the way to the inland empire.
In Santa Monica it seems the 3hr limit at the free charging stations seem to be enforced somehow as I find the chargers free most of the time I get there just before noon.
That city is definitely the most EV friendly, down to free metered parking for BEVs. I hope it stays that way for a long time.
EVs IMPROVE the quality of life. The pollution is so brutal that I can smell it when I drive in the LA basin. Maybe it is because the Inland Empire is not so polluted just east of the Ortegas that deflect most of the smog, or because driving a BEV with a high quality cabin air filter and no native oil or gasoline contained within its confines made me used to the luxury of a life with less black goomp from the ground.
EVs should be promoted and no matter the naysayers claiming they are just cousins to the "oil derivatives" and that the electricity they use is derived from fossil fuels, they are STILL 6-10 TIMES more efficient at leveraging each unit of energy to go from A to B than ICE relics.
And my experience now proves beyond any doubt how much better driving an EV is for the quality of life of the driver and those around him.
Here's some pics I took driving to scenic vistas all gas free...
LA has very few diesel cars. Most of the pollution is from industry, homes and power generation. It is right to criticise consumption, such as one person driving a gas guzzling SUV but nonsense to call diesels monsters.
ReplyDeleteI happen to like EVs and have extensively tested both i3 variants - the truth is the i3 is not very aerodynamic and above 40 mph it is much noisier than a 2001 1.2 TDI Audi A2. It also pumps out more CO2 in the UK because we burn coal for electric production and because it uses more energy than teh light weight and better aero A2.
UK power production averages around 500g CO2 per kWh and that does not include grid losses (8 to 15%), charge losses (15 to 33%).
Most countries do not have access to clean electricity. But they can use renewables. Jathropha can be grown to make bio fuel on land NOT used for crops. In fact it can improve soil so crops can be grown:
http://povertynewsblog.blogspot.co.uk/2008/08/kenya-to-produce-diesel-fuel-from.html
Diesel has its own set of problems starting with soot and particles that enter the lungs and cause cancer. Even "clean diesel" is a poison. The arguments against EVs are mostly regarding the fact that the electricity might be dirty. But many also forget that BEVs are an order of magnitude more EFFICIENT than the best diesel and therefore require a fraction of the energy to go from A to B. Even by conservative estimates the i3 gets 120 mpg which is a good 2-3 X more mileage than the most thrifty diesel. And the way I drive mine I can claim probably 200 mpg+
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