My Electric Ride - Week 5

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Sunday May 22, 2011 · 5:09 PM PDT

2011/05/22 · 17:09

Week 5 of Nissan Leaf ownership has come and gone. For the first time, both my wife and I didn't remember to plug in the car on Friday night. We had about 27 miles remaining and so it wasn't a big deal and Saturday is generally a light driving day. But it does bring up the fact that you do need to pay attention. I've signed up for the email reminders that the car is unplugged.

The survey requests keep coming from different Nissan about the car. Hopefully this will allow future advancements. Part of the latest survey was a discussion on an induction charging system. It's basically a plate on the ground and an additional plate added to the bottom of your car. It's not as energy efficient, so I'm not interested, but on the positive side, you wouldn't have to remember to plug in the car every night.

The numbers are below the fold and I have some pictures. I'll include them as soon as I figure out how to.

nthelurch for DK GreenRoots

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Sunday May 15, 2011 · 2:22 PM PDT

2011/05/15 · 14:22

I finally got my Electric Bill and some answers about how the whole set up works. I have PV Solar for my house, but the Car Charging port is on a separate meter and only that separate is billed at time-of-use rates. Turns out I'm selling the excess power I generate at almost 14 cents/Kwh, which is fine, but less than half of the Peak rate of 33 for the time-of-use. I doubt I can get the other meter on time-of-use, but I'll give it a shot.

I've heard this week that some owners are complaining about the remaining mileage meter and its large changes. I can understand some of the concern, but I'm not overly surprised. The car has a Miles/Kwh gauge that goes from 0 to 8 to track your current usage and shows the average which varies depending on your driving habits. If you are going up a hill, the rate drops to under 1, but going downhill you tend to be creating energy instead of using any, so the gauge tops out. Nissan has an algorithm to calculate this and they are tweaking it as they get better feedback from the cars. Hopefully they will be paying me a house call to update mine as they did for Cars.com. So far, the max I've driven on a 80% charge is 54 miles and the meter still read 12 miles remaining. I'm going to start more daily tracking including temperature and driving condition to see what kind of range I can expect in any given situation.

Let me know if you have any questions. This weeks numbers are below the fold.

nthelurch

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Sunday May 08, 2011 · 8:14 AM PDT

2011/05/08 · 08:14

I received a check from the California Center for Sustainable Energy in the amount of $5000.00 this week. Not a bad way to start the week. I'm still waiting to see my San Diego Gas and Electric bill. It's overdue, but I think that with the Time-of-Use pricing study I'm a part of, the delay isn't unexpected.

We drove the car more efficiently this week. Whereas previous weeks we were getting about 4 miles per Kwh, this week we moved to 4.4 Miles per Kwh. I think I have enough information to track this more accurately on a daily basis.

Here are the numbers for this week: 192 miles driven. $2.06 for 30.4 Kwh of charging cost. Equivalent cost of gas at today's average in San Diego was $26.18. Average weekly savings is $21.60.

From a cost perspective, I calculated the Gross Cost of the vehicle after taxes and fees at $38115.81. Reduce that by the $7500 Federal Credit (next year after I do my 2011 taxes) and the already received $5000 from California and the net cost is $25615.81. I'm selling my 2008 Honda Fit, which this car replaces for about $12000, so the net replacement cost comes to $13615.81. Divide that by the average weekly savings and the car pays for itself in a little over 12 years. Not great, but I still have to factor in the SDG&E costs or savings due to the time-of-use study.

I was reading about a San Diego Union Tribune writer's decision to not buy his Leaf now that his reserved car is here (Dealer loves this because they are able to mark it up significantly for open market sale.) At the end of the day, it just was not financially justifiable for him to buy it. I've heard this argument used a lot about the Leaf, but I have never heard it used with any other new vehicle purchase. Maybe it is just me, but I find that people tend to buy as much of a new car as they can afford (often more than they can afford.) For most people, the purchase is more emotional and frequently not very rational. For me, this was definitely an emotional purchase. Only 3 weeks in and I have absolutely no regrets.

OBL Death not a game changer

nthelurch

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Monday May 02, 2011 · 10:47 AM PDT

2011/05/02 · 10:47

I had to get the opinion of my conservative friends about the killing of Osama Bin Laden. I had been reading the almost overwhelmingly positive press about this and thought that maybe I wasn't hearing everything. I read Joe Scarborough's comment and began to think that maybe there we won't be getting the bipartisan cooling off we hoped for.

So, the time came to ask how conservatives see it. First response: "I don't think people should be dancing in the streets and waving American flags." Second response: "The President's speech was wrong. Did you hear how much he said I in the speech. It was all about him instead of being about the troops and the mission."

I personally don't believe this is a response based on anything other than a deep seeded belief that anyone who is not conservative could not possibly do anything positive. Simple as that. The concept that liberals are necessarily evil, regardless of what they accomplish, has been such an accepted fact for so long that it is simply an unquestioned truth. Nothing will change that for a long time. For the majority of Republicans, life has become simple: Democrat/Liberal/Progressive BAD, Conservative/Republican/Libertarian GOOD. That is all you need to know.

The international shell game

nthelurch

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Sunday May 01, 2011 · 3:41 PM PDT

2011/05/01 · 15:41

We're nearing the end of the financial reporting season for the quarter. I took a look at the latest report on corporate earnings for the bureau of economic analysis. http://www.bea.gov/... It's really a startling move we see as corporate profits increase at the same time unemployment remains an issue at 9.2% and we have a burgeoning deficit.
Corporate Taxes as a percent of GDP
Corporate Taxes as a percent of GDP are extremely low historically. I've been trying to find historical information tying the value of Corporations to GDPs in first world nations. I haven't had any luck finding anything yet, so if the Kos community can point me to something, I'd appreciate it. The theory I have is that we have been systematically moving money from the public sector where the government theoretically acts on behalf of its citizenry, towards the private sector.

What I find most interesting is that we are living now in a global society dominated by large multinational corporations and yet we continue to talk about national solutions to our issues instead of global solutions. These corporations shop around for the most beneficial tax rates and so governments are basically playing against each other in a game of diminishing return. At the end of the day, we are being forced into austerity because we can't seem to get a grasp on Corporate taxation.

I don't think the changes are too difficult. Start tying the taxable corporate income to the source of revenue. If 20% of a multinational's income stream is from the US, 20% of their profit is subject to American taxes regardless of where they claim to be headquartered. It may not be the best solution, but it at least is a start and until we can find a way to get GE to pay its share, we need to do something.

My Electric Ride - Week 2

nthelurch

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Sunday May 01, 2011 · 1:00 PM PDT

2011/05/01 · 13:00

I was surprised, but heartened to have comments on My Electric Ride. I'd be happy to answer any questions people have about my experiences so far. First I'll update my week 2 costs and then hopefully answer the questions people have asked.

I only drove 129 miles this week. As of this morning the car is recharged back to the 80% level that I keep it at to increase battery lifespan. Total charging cost for the week $2.56. The equivalent gas charge for that same mileage compared to the car this is replacing (2008 Honda Fit 31 mpg city) would have been $17.67 at $4.246 (San Diego average as of today). My cost for the week is 14.49% of what it would have been. I'm averaging about 4 Miles/Kwh. I've calculated a mpg of 252mpg by the following formula ((M/kwh * $G)($/Kwh)).

nthelurch

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Sunday April 24, 2011 · 8:29 AM PDT

2011/04/24 · 08:29

I've spent $4.35 charging my electric car in the first week of my Nissan Leaf ownership experiment. I've put 221 miles on it replacing my Honda Fit that was conservatively getting me 31mpg. Average cost of Gas today in California was $4.197/gallon. I have a fully charged car. The equivalent cost of the gas I would have spent driving my old car was $29.92.

Week 1 results are amazing. 14.54% operating cost compared to an already fuel efficient car.

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My Electric Ride - Week 5

My Electric Ride - Week 4

My Electric Ride - Week 3

OBL Death not a game changer

The international shell game

My Electric Ride - Week 2

My Electric ride - Week 1