National Electric Drag Racing Association

Drag racing is certainly not typically what people tend to think when they hear the words "electric car".  But the truth is that the National Electric Drag Racing Association (NEDRA) is nothing new.  The association has been around for nearly 20 years, but electric car racing has been around since the advent of the electric car.  There is however one unique thing about electric car drag racing that you might not know, they kickgas.

Truth be told, my electric Smart is not built for drag racing.  It does 0-60 MPH in about 13 seconds.  But the first 0-45 is definitely quick.  However, the 1972 Datsun in the picture above, can reach that speed in under 2 seconds.  Thanks to Mr. John Wayland of Portland, Oregon, we can glimpse the world of electric drag racing via his website http://www.plasmaboyracing.com

Drag Racing

Whether you've been to a drag racing event or if you've just seen it on TV, you're probably expecting some incredible noise.  For the last 100 years, drag racing has been associated with very large, powerful, and loud engines.  Many people directly associate the "loud" with "power".  But what if that were just a misunderstanding?

In general we know that internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles do not perform well and variable speed.  That's why the EPA gives cars a rating for city and highway driving.  Shifting gears in a transmission is necessary to get the engine into the power band (that's the point where the engine is working best).  Electric motors do no suffer from the troubles that internal combustion engines do and to boot, they have exceptional torque at all velocities.

In drag racing, torque is more important than the top speed of the vehicle.  If you have a great deal of torque, that is; turning force from a stationary position, you will do better in a drag racing.   At the start of a drag race involving two ICE vehicles, you will often hear the driver revving the motor up into the power band so that when the light turns green, he can get the best performance from the engine.

Electric cars do not have to shift gears and they have the best torque without revving the motor, so they pretty much win every time.

Under the Hood

John Wayland spoke with David Pogue on a multi-part series for PBS NOVA, called "Making Stuff".   The particular episode where the two men conversed was about "Making Stuff: Faster".  John pitted his electric car against, the muscle car that David was driving in an actual drag race.  The muscle car was a 1972 Buick Skylark with a 5.7L V8, versus White Zombie, John's vehicle of choice.  The times were 11.8 for John and 16.2 for David.

You might say that the Buick Skylark is nothing compared to a heavily modified modern drag race vehicle, but the White Zombie's electric motor drive train generates 538 hp and 1250 ft-lbs of torque.  Yeah, over 1000 ft-lbs of torque.  With the exception of the Bugatti Veyron, there's not much else out there with comparable torque.

Silent but Devastating

It's inevitable, once the new generation of gear heads gets wind of this, the move will be to the faster electric vehicle.  As of yet, and with over a century of work poured in, internal combustion it still reliant on shifting a transmission.  But that noise that is so familiar, is really just energy lost.  A truly efficient engine wouldn't make so much noise because it would be busy making power.

The future is now, and the sooner it's realized that electric motors are just that much more powerful than internal combustion, the sooner we can move on to faster and quieter.

As a consolation to the loss of the noise, you could consider that the cops won't pick up on your street race as easily.  They won't hear it.  But then it could be just as bad because anyone who's in the road wouldn't hear you coming and might be a casualty.  Not that I condone street racing.

Conclusion

Now that electric cars are coming out the shadows, we will probably see more participation in the National Electric Drag Racing Association (NEDRA).  And who knows, in the distant future, maybe our great grandchildren won't take a second look at tinkering with an old gasoline dinosaur, except in a museum.

Check out some videos of the White Zombie smoking some ICE

Lease or Buy

It never struck me as an issue that I would ever consider leasing a vehicle. On the stark advice from my father, I was never to lease a vehicle.  And so far I've not leased a vehicle.  But why should you lease or not?  There has to be at least one or two good reasons to lease, else no one would ever do it.  Or maybe people are just not well informed.  After all the odds of winning the state lottery are pretty steep and that hasn't stopped millions from playing.

Buy

I've purchased two cars new since I've been in able to purchase a car.  The first was a Scion xB 2004, the second was my Smart ED.  In between I've purchased several different used vehicles.  It never occurred to me to lease.

When buying a car, it's all yours (outside of the loan).  You can do with the vehicle as you will.  It's not a strong investment like a house, but all the money you put towards it, brings you closer to having a valuable item.  You have the option modify the vehicle, drive long distances, or not.  It's up to you (and your loan company) as to what you can do to the vehicle.

There are plenty of good reasons and arguments for buying a vehicle versus leasing.  But in at least one count, leasing might have an advantage.

Lease

I've read a great deal on leasing, but as I have never actually gone through with a vehicle lease I can't truly speak to the merits. I can however make the point that is continued from above.  You may want to consider leasing a vehicle in the case of an electric car.

The reason to lease an electric car is different from the reasons that you might lease another non-electric-only vehicle. Electric cars are "relatively" new to the market, and the technology in them is changing rapidly.  There's no absolute about whether the tech will improve definitively in the next 2 years or 10 years.  There's just not a whole lot of historical data publicly available to lean on.

When leasing a Smart ForTwo ED, you can expect to pay no more than $150 / month after $2k down.  That's roughly $7500 over 36 months for 30,000 miles.

So which do you choose if you're quite interested still, but not sure which is the better deal?

Why not have both?

Smart has made this decision easier for you.  So far Mercedes-Benz is the only company to offer a lease on the battery in an electric car.  They're also the only one's to offer a cabrio model.  But if you want to own the vehicle for the advantages of owning, but you're not sure about the battery tech and timing, you can lease the battery.

The technology in electric cars is changing quickly, and none so apparently as the cost and capacity of the batteries.  So to avoid the trouble associated with the potential for a poor decision, you can have both.  Additionally, since it's in both your interest and that of Smart for you to lease the battery, most dealers have been instructed to let you know that the battery lease on the Smart ED knocks $5000 off the purchase price.  That means that the base model is only $20k, and the cabrio is only $23k.  And if you finance externally, you can get up to $2k more off.

It stands to reason that in a few years when battery technology improves, with a Smart ED you could get a new more capacitous battery and pay nothing extra.

Conclusion

There's something that no car dealer will tell  you, even possibly those that sell electric cars.  The cost of an EV over the first 5 years is about 50% less to maintain than an gasoline car. But then you'd know that if you read last week's post.

For those who are skeptical yet still of the electric car, I'd recommend going with a lease.  But if you're like me and are quite sure that EVs will be around in 10 years.  I'd say get the leased battery only, and wait for the upgrades.

If you've fortunate like me, you also probably live in Silicon Valley and have access to the same dealership where I got my Smart ED.  I recommend Beshoff Motorcars and the Smart Center of San Jose.  They're quite laid-back and friendly.  Ask for Eric Johnson or Harry O'Leary

Nearly Zero Maintenance

It's definitely not always the first question that I get, but once the conversation gets more serious, the EV-curious will always ask about maintenance.  To which I will have to consistently repeat myself, that there is nearly zero maintenance. The most amicable manner of looking at the Smart ED, is that if you lease it for three years, there will be no maintenance.

Parts

Most people balk at this statement, and then they press me for more information. They say things like, what about the tires or the brakes?  If you were fortunate to get long-lasting tires, then you will likely see 50,000 miles before you need to replace them.  Brakes on an ICE are a bit different than an EV.  Unless you're the type to brake long before you need to stop, you're probably burning the brakes at a normal rate.  EVs use regenerative braking and so their brakes tend to last quite a bit longer.  I've managed to get to 1 mph crawl, without touching my brakes and without seriously annoying the vehicles behind me.

There is no oil to change, there is no transmission fluid, there is no radiator fluid, there are no belts, no alternator, no starter motor, no exhaust manifold, no filters, no fuel pump, oil pump, or water pump.  There is a motor, a controller, and batteries.  The simplicity is superb and ideal for a society keen on making things easier for themselves.

Costs

If you have experience with owning cars, you're probably well aware that it's far more then the sticker price, whether used or new. Edmunds.com has a system call the True Cost to Own that identifies the cost of a vehicle over the initial 5 years of its life.  Typically for an ICE vehicle the cost of ownership is roughly twice the price in that time. Electric vehicles are still pretty expensive to purchase, even after the rebates and tax incentives, and bring the initial cost up.  But if an EV were priced similar to an ICE vehicle of similar size, the True Cost to Own is much less.

Just imagine that when you buy your next vehicle, that the additional costs of maintenance and fuel is almost negligible, compared to the price of the vehicle.  Based on information gained directly from Edmunds.com here's the cost differences.

Price of Toyota Rav4 2014:      $26k,
TCO over 5 years:                    $44k
Percent of price in Maintenance: 70%  ~~ $18k

Price of Nissan Leaf 2014:         $31k,
TCO over 5 years:                     $36k
Percent of price in Maintenance: 20%  ~~ $6k
(info based on ave of 15k miles / year)

Edmunds doesn't have a comparison for the Smart ED, but based on the numbers above here's what it might be.

Price of Smart ForTwo ICE 2014: $14k
TCO over 5 years:                          $24k
Percent of price in Maintenance: 70% ~~ $10k

Price of Smart ForTwo ED 2014: $20k
TCO over 5 years:                          $24k
Percent of price in Maintenance: 20% ~~ $4k

Look at that, the price is the same.  Makes you wonder which car you might get, eh?  Granted after all the incentives available for the Smart ForTwo ED, the price comes down a great deal.  It could be as little as $11k and the the total would only be $15k.

Conclusion

The incentives for electric cars may not always be around, but the cost the own them will only get better.  It's not that hard to imagine that once the range and refueling times have changed for the better, that it will be a no-brainer to decide on an electric car.  Until then, I'll still be driving electric.

Every Day is a 'Spare the Air' day in an Electric Car

When you hang around a bunch of electric car enthusiasts, you get a great deal of feedback from like-minded people.  Yesterday, I joined my fellow enthusiasts for the first of many Earth Day events in the month of April.  The members of the Electric Auto Association of Silicon Valley have attended most of these Earth Day events for many years. It was a great day to show the public the advantages of driving electric.

It was only in 2008 when I joined the Electric Auto Association, but the club had been official for 41 years at that time.  Back in 1967 the symposium of people who were meeting for the sake of electric vehicles decided to form what today is a club of over 2000 members through the United States.  And although it has held on this long, it was no easy ride.

At the turn of the last century (early 1900's) one-third of all horseless carriages were electric. But the advent of the internal combustion engine would soon curb the progress of the electric car. It was primarily a range problem and, in the nearly 100 years to following the range of electric vehicles did not improve.

Air Quality

Today however, the message of the electric car is finally making headway.  One of the slogans of the EAA is

"Every Day is a 'Spare the Air' day in an Electric Car

It was very apparent in the 1950's and 1960's that automobile pollution was causing problems.  My dad told me of the Smog Days that he experience growing up in Southern California at that time.  He lived in the Foothills North West of Los Angeles where there were days when the mountains were hidden by the pollution.  There were predictions that any child born between 1968 and 1980 would have life-long respiratory problems due to the smog.

Even today we are still concerned with the quality of the air, as rightly so.  It's not just a nice feeling to know that you're driving a vehicle that produces no emissions, it's a direct correlation. No emissions, breathe easier.

Notable Concerns

Of course there are still arguments about how the energy is produced that will run the electric car.  And there are concerns about usage and power balance in the grid.  It is important to know where your power comes from and what it is used for most often.

Where electric cars use electricity directly, in California at least, more than 50% of electrical power is produced from renewable sources and natural gas.  It takes electricity to extract, refine, ship, and pump gasoline.  And there is, at least for now, no way to convert sunlight into gasoline.

Granted, the manufacture of batteries is quite complex and still very expensive, but no less environmentally costly that all the fluids and needed to produce the current internal combustion engine and peripherals.

Conclusion

Assuming (broadly) that the production and recycling costs, be it environmental or monetary, of each type of car is effectively equivalent, the one trouble that we still face is at the tailpipe.  We're still making progress in education and the more people we can help to learn about electric cars, the better decisions can be made for the future.  It's up to you to decide how to get from point A to point B. Will it be clean and quiet or loud and dirty?