Saturday, June 3, 2017

May 2017 Drive Report; I Need A New Job!

Well the month of May realistically should have been divided up into two months.  The first 10 days was very Spring like with enough rain to smash the average rainfall for the month. This was a good thing because the rain then stopped and the Sun came out as if it was making up for its absence this year.  We hit temperatures 20+ degrees over the norm including a 14 day dry streak recorded at Seatac. Not sure but I venture to say that they have never seen 14 straight dry days in the month of May, EVER!

First off, I checked the Chevy site again and ran the lease calculator again and from what I can figure, Chevy is still not passing any significant amount of the federal tax credit to lessees.  But the issue is that I have no idea what the residual will be because no one is willing to tell me. So that means

1) The residual is so high, everyone is embarrassed to say it (One in CA mentioned something in the upper 20's but that was months ago and terms change constantly and there has been nothing revealed recently!)

2) The lease deals are so bad, no one is leasing.

Either way, my plan of being a 2 EV house is being derailed and I am running out of time.  Yeah, I know its hard to believe when you are in month 7 of a 36 month lease but...

Anyway, I realized the gasser is going to be here longer than I had hoped so I used it so the battery would not die and got new shoes for it too blowing up the TCO but the Corolla went 556.0 miles costing $36.94 (6.64 cents per mile) while averaging 39.9 miles per gallon.  I still reserve the luxury of only using the Corolla when high mpg's are likely.

The LEAF went a "bit" further at 3287.4 miles costing  $23.86 in home juice or less than a penny a mile (.7 cents to be exact) helped by 455.593 Kwh of NCTC charging. There were a few short stints of L2  mixed in but generally did not add up to much. The reality is when averaging over 100 miles a day, there was just no time for L2.

What I did all month; 
Charging while working!

Now you might say the 30 kwh LEAF gets 110 miles on a charge so what's the problem?  Well,  when we consider that the month had 8 days where I drove 20 miles or less, you can guess what the rest of the month looked like.

One thing I realized is the conception of people who charge near home are taking advantage of a free thing is not always the case. I used Tumwater several times and my local Nissan dealer twice, both of which are less than 9 miles from my house but when a day consists of jobs in Gig Harbor, Bonney Lake and then Centralia (I don't have the option to change the order), sometimes charging near home is simply required...

Either way, I am on pace to exhaust my 45,000 miles a "bit" early so I need to (In order of importance)

1) Get another EV ASAP!
2)  Buy the LEAF
3) Drive the gasser more
4) Get a new job!!

Then again.... Driving the gasser more shouldn't even be on the list!  ;)

12 comments:

  1. I appreciate your blog.
    I believe you encourage many to drive EV more.

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    1. Thanks Jacob! Besides being a challenge, its also a bit of a diversion from the mundane routines of life and its kinda fun!

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  2. I agree with Jacob and I always look forward to reading about your adventures and experiments and other EV related musings.

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  3. Robert Sti!!makerJune 4, 2017 at 9:11 AM

    Don't worry about the miles. It won't matter if you buy the car either now or at the end of the lease.

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    1. Well, still a long way from that. I could still drive the gasser more although I really hate doing that but my lease is essentially at zero interest so no reason to buy early. Besides the more time that passes, the more likely a discount off the residual will happen.

      But the reality is how much degradation I will see. I am basically treating the car as if it will be gone after 3 years and that might come back to bite me. We shall see!

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  4. Thanks Dave for keeping us informed and sharing your EV adventures!
    My question today is when you're charging at level 2, how many miles per hour of charge can you gain? At 6.6 kWh charge rate. I figure outside temps and weather/road conditions make for plenty of variables. Just curious what I could expect to gain plugged into a 240V, 50A RV outlet charging at 6.6 kWh.
    One more thing. Do you see the charge rate tapering off much on level 2 as the battery nears full?
    Kevin in Boise

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    1. Well my primary use of L2 is at home and not in a position to monitor the charge. I guess I could with LEAF Spy but have yet to check it out. But as far as I know the taper is pretty steep. If I had to guess, I would say it will charge at full speed past 94-95% (Keeping in mind, it will only charge to 97% as full)

      As far as miles gained. You are going to see roughly a 90% efficiency at the most on L2 (might be slightly lower in some circumstances but no more than 1-2%) So plan on 6 kwh gained. Use your own miles/kwh reading to calculate the distance but 24 miles per hour is probably a good starting point

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  5. Thank's for answering in detail! I can see that a 175 mile trip to Jackpot, NV will take careful planing and patience.
    Kevin in Boise

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    1. Yep but it can be fun as well. Look at your charging options with the idea of possible activities in the area. Food, sights or simply getting the circulation in gear turns a travel delay into a benefit of the mind and body. It does not have to be a all or nothing thing!

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  6. Thanks Dave.
    I really enjoy your blog.
    Keep up the good work!

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  7. Hello!! I'am glad to read the whole content of this topic and am very excited.Thank you.
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