Sunday, March 30, 2014

Nissan Dealer Charger Updates

Yesterday on my way to a job in Montesano, I swung by Oly Nissan to check out the changers to their DC
Fast Charger.  They had installed a Chargepoint Interface and according to it the cost to charge was $3 minimum or $10 a day!

$10 a day??? Can that really be their decision?  Since it was 6 AM,  the business was closed and a lot LEAF was plugged into the station with an "Out of Order" sign attached.  Now wondering if the sign is hung every night when they close to discourage after hour charging?

Now the 180 º turnaround is not without some explanation.  Ray from Magic Nissan in Everett  states Nissan gave them the option now that the "One Year" Pilot program was ending (Oly actually only participated a few months...)

of

1) Taking over the charger along with maintenance, cost, etc.

2) Allowing EvGo to manage it with a 4 year maintenance program.  This probably requires (no one knows for sure since I am unaware of any dealer anywhere taking this option) an Evgo subscription which costs (in some areas) $4.95 to connect and 20 cents per kwh

3) Allowing Chargepoint to manage it with a one year maintenance program and allowing the dealership to set pricing

Now Magic Nissan is offering free charging to its customers and I have reached out to Oly Nissan to see if they will be doing the same. I wont charge there if they are not simply because they are so close to my house, I would only charge to grab a boost enough to make it home.  So probably wont pay to get a few kwh.

**UPDATE** did some email with Steve at Oly Nissan and its still free for customers to charge and the service dept will be issuing special cards for us.  better to use the card I already have but if it works, I guess I cant complain!

Saturday, March 8, 2014

TCO; Feb 2014 Drive Report

Take out the last week of  February and I would not have done gas at all but a week of North Seattle jobs along with Redmond, Everett and Bellevue mixed in and the LEAF enjoyed a mini vacation.  I did manage to gas it for 404 miles at roughly $37.00. My last fill up (and ONLY fill up for the month) was for $26.50 and went 197 miles on the tank so will carry over $13.50 in cost to March.  My cost per mile in fuel was 9.2 cents per mile. TCO for the month was 16.9 cents per mile with the only additional cost for the month being insurance. Again the primarily freeway driving with minimal urban stop and go allowed me to excel in efficiency averaging just a hair under 39 MPG.

Now previously I was adding my mileage reimbursement from work as I got it but have decided to actually add it in when it actually happened so its more applicable to the running TCO I am tracking. That and the Feb statement from Puget Sound Energy did not come out as quickly as anticipated making the delay between all the pertinent info coming in to just a few days unlike previous months when is more like a week.

The LEAF drove 1248.3 miles using 340 KWH of which just over 19 kwh was courtesy of AV making my financial responsibility covering the final 321 Kwh.  Cost of LEAF at tier 2 rates (80 Kwh) was 10.0889 cents/kwh or $8.07  leaving the balance of 241 kwh at tier one @8.2067 for $27.85.  Home charging cost was $27.85 working out to 2.23 cents per mile and there was no public charging cost. The bill statement ended Mar 3, but will still calculate all of March's driving with the next statement as always since its a few days and fractions of a penny we are talking about.

From work; The LEAF was reimbursed $57.91 from work at either 34 or 35 cents per mile (tied to local gas prices) and billed $68 for insurance, $245.75 for monthly lease and $71.75 for Seattle Seahawk custom license plate (but may have been applied last month)  and this brings lifetime TCO to 23.49 cents per mile driven.

The Corolla received $166.77 and was billed $31.25 in car insurance making its lifetime TCO 109.47 cents per mile

Next Month will be a drastic change with the ongoing new client launch that will increase our regional business by a third (still not sure how the logistics will work with this!) I just spent a week working in the Seattle District (I am in the Tacoma District) and after a week, have already exceeded Feb's gasser mileage. But we are starting the Tacoma District Monday of which 80% of it is well within the LEAF's reach.

My LEAF's charging almost accounted for half my household's electrical use but a short month along with a few trips out of town helped along with the battery in my programmable thermostat dying while we were gone. I had it set to 55º but came home and it was in the mid 40's cause the battery died during the heaters off cycle. (guess it better than coming home to the house being 90 º)  That was fun. Funny thing is that my gas bill did not change more than $2 which I thought would be less  since its gas heat but then again... its hydrocarbon based fuel which means SCREWED AGAIN!!

Until next month!