Not looking for trouble, finding it anyway

The people that know me, know that I've never been a speed freak. If anything quite the opposite, low and slow when it comes to cars.  But I too have fallen prey to the thrill of speed and power when I know that I have it.  Anyone who buys a vehicle that has speed does not buy it for the practicality, there are plenty of cars that are perfectly capable of getting a person from point a to point b.  However, getting from point a to point b is just that much more fun with some added power.

The stigma regarding electric vehicles and their lack of power is slowly ebbing away.  People are beginning to see that electric cars are not just fast, they can be much faster than traditional gasoline-powered because of instant torque.

When I did my review of the Smart ED in May 2013, I knew that the car had some torque. I did not know what they meant by "the kickdown".  That little extra push at the bottom of the accelerator makes all the difference.  When depressing the accelerator on the Smart ED to the floor you get about 75% of the power or roughly 50 hp.  But the motor is capable of 75 hp.  Granted you don't want to push the motor at full power all the time and Mercedes-Benz is aware of this.  They give you about three minutes of full power per fifteen, so that you do not burn out the motor or fry the batteries.

It is that extra 25 hp that is what makes all the difference.

I am aware that there are modified vehicles that can boost the performance of their internal combustion engine vehicle with an additive (Nitrous oxide).  But not many people get that as an option when the buy or lease a new vehicle ( I doubt that is an option anywhere).

On the streets of Silicon Valley, where I drive daily, I get many strange looks and stares.  I've grown accustomed to the comments from people in other vehicles who seem to think that I can't hear them (or else they don't care).  But every now and then, particularly on Friday and Saturday nights, I get street racing propositions. Mind you I have never once agreed to a street race, nevertheless they still happen.

There has got to be some psychology behind it.  I've read that certain predatory animals give chase when something runs.  And so it seems is the case with the mentality of a person who owns a fast car.  It's not always a conscious decision to race.  You have the capacity and you act on it.

A couple of nights ago I was being chatted up by another driver about my tiny car and the light turned green.  As I often do at the front of the line, I sped off.  It wasn't however obvious that I had inadvertently begun racing until I realized that the Mercedes Benz SL500 in the turn lane next to me was flooring it.  The driver apparently needed to gain access to the far right lane, that I was already using, to turn right at the next light.  He did get over in front of me, with less than half a car length to spare. And at that point I let him as I did not actually want to race.

I'm quite sure that I surprised the driver of SL-class in that he knew he needed to get into my lane, but never expected a vehicle so small to have such power.  It is like driving a "sleeper", that is a car that doesn't look like it has power.

Tiny Car Comradere

As of right now about half of the electric cars on the road are small cars. They include the Smart Fortwo Electric drive, Fiat 500e, Mitsubishi Miev, Chevy Spark EV, and the newly released VW Golf EV.  With the exception of the Smart and Fiat all these small cars fit more than just two people. But as small cars go, they have one significant difference, they're EVs which makes them fun to drive.

I encountered only the second time ever a Mitsubishi Miev on Sunday rounding the corner near the bank.  The driver seemed to be in a hurry, but when I got a bit closer, I realized why. All electric cars, whether small or large have far more torque for their size than the internal combustion engine counterpart.  You can assume that whatever is the horsepower, the torque will be double.

Before I owned an electric car (or I should say before I owned one with any significant power), I didn't know what real acceleration was like outside of amusement park rides.  Electric cars have two things going for them as far as performance is concerned.  And I don't mean merely the impressive efficiency, but the torque and maneuverability.  You might think that the latter is silly, but with all the battery weight in the floor, the center of gravity is usually very low.

Of course there are probably three times as many sporting small, 2 to 4-seat internal combustion vehicles for every electric, but you just can't get that kind of torque for the money.

So when I see a Miev or a Fiat 500e, I think that the drivers of those vehicles are having just as much fun as I am in the Smart ED.  The only these small EVs lack is the "kickdown", that is to say, the extra boost that all Smart EDs have as an added bonus. But that is for another post.

For more information on each of these cars, check out www.PlugInCars.com

Fiat 500e
Mitsubishi Miev
Chevy Spark EV
VW Golf EV

Regen Addiction

I have an addiction.  It's not a physical addiction, it's a mental desire to recoup the energy wasted from braking.  I am addicted to regenerative braking in electric vehicles.

Over the years I've had a few vehicles.  From a tiny Subaru GL, to a Volvo 240, to a Scion XB.  I then changed from the small car to the monster truck and traded the xB for a Chevy Tahoe and began my truck phase.  But unlike all those internal combustion engine vehicles, none of them changed my thoughts about the power source, because electric cars were just the hobby of eccentric people.

It might be reasonable to think that electric vehicle owners are on the fringe and that driving under the power of electricity doesn't actually change a person.  For an efficiency-conscious person, like myself, merely driving electric isn't the only beneficial feature.  It's the regenerative braking that I want.

I still own an internal combustion engined vehicle, and every now and again I need to drive it.  That vehicle is a Chevy Avalanche and when I bought it, I loved it for its utility.  I still love the utility of it, but now the lack of regenerative braking causes me a twinge of mental anguish.  For now there are no consumer pickup trucks that are pure electric vehicles, but there are some hybrids.

A company called Via Motors takes Chevy trucks and converts them to series-hybrid vehicles.  They buy the trucks with a V6 engine, which they bolt directly to an electric generator.  They add batteries and another motor to drive the wheels. All these additions does add about 1500 lbs of weight to the truck, but despite that, the new drive train improves the efficiency by a factor of 5. Typically these trucks get 15 MPG, with the change it improves to roughly 100 MPG.

I would gladly purchase a Via Motors VTrux in a heartbeat if I had a spare $75k.  As of this posting, the public cannot access these vehicles, but Via Motors has announced that some time in 2014 they will be making them available to non-commercial customers.

The only other alternative to my dilemma is to consider either the Chevy Volt or BMW i3.  The i3 offers an optional electric generator that will produce an additional 100 miles of range when the battery has run out of juice.  Whereas the Volt has a permanent engine that acts as a generator 95% of the time, and only on rare occasion will power the wheels in parallel with the electric motor.

The idea of regenerative braking, super energy-efficiency, and alternative power sources, isn't actually all that new, but thank goodness we're moving toward it finally.  I look forward to the day when regenerative braking is the norm.

A Micro Machine

There's an adage that goes "It's not the size of a thing that's important, but how you use it". Often that adage is in reference to things that are small and somewhat personal.  The Smart ForTwo is the smallest production car on American roads and personally, I love it.

I've been asked many times since I bought my Smart Fortwo ED, if I would have purchased the Tesla S, had I the money?  And I've always replied in the negative, even in the face of scoffing, pseudo-offended parties. I'd take the drive-train and batteries of a Tesla any day, but it's the size of the Fortwo that is important to me.

A good example of why I love this tiny car, this micro machine was today at the Sunnyvale Art and Wine Festival, near my home.  My wife had requested a tamale from one of the food vendors at the festival.  As anyone who as visited a street fair is probably aware, parking nearby is somewhat limited.  I know that my Smart car is small, but it's not always apparent just how small it is, until I need parking where there is none.

I drove around on the streets that were open near the festival.  There was plenty of "bad" parking, such that fire-hydrants were blocked and bumpers overhanging driveways.  Many vehicles where not parked too close to the next, but squeezing the car in, is a hassle.   It is possible to park perpendicular to the curb in a Smart, but it's not legal.  If the vehicle were only 8-foot long rather than 8-foot, 10-inches, it might be more realistic.  But the rule is that one front-wheel and one rear-wheel need to be near the curb,

I managed to find a 9-foot space between the apron of a driveway and an old Cadillac. I will admit that I did box the Cadillac in, but I was only going to be there for five minutes.

There is a certain air of satisfaction that one feels when driving a tiny car around in a area where parking is tight.  I can take spots in side-by-side parking, where the car to each side is sitting on the painted line.  I can take spots between parallel parked vehicles, that have left what they believe no car could fit into.  And when leaving a space that only a Smart Car could fit into, I need not worry about someone else stalking me.

I realize that the Smart Car is not for everyone, after all it only fits two people.  But for getting me and my stuff about, it works quite well and fits into more spaces that I would have considered in any other car. So, although I like the creature comforts of a Tesla S, I'd be just as happy to have the drive train, rather than the car.

Dependency

Oil Dependency

It occurred to me recently that I managed to remove one major dependency from my life.  I removed the necessity for gasoline.  It's never so noticeable while I was in the belly of the beast, but I've been out for six months and I'm becoming aware of the after effects.

The most direct item that caught my eye was a Win Free Gas for a Year contest offered by a popular snack food company. At first I thought, well, that might be nice, but the second thought reminded me that I don't use gasoline any more.  And then it hit me, this idea that I have removed myself from not just a monstrous fuel bill each month, but the necessity for all that goes along with the use of gasoline.

Like anything new in life, college, marriage, children, you never really know what it's like until you do it. The same goes for giving up gasoline.  It's a major change and although I was very excited about it, I did not actually understand how it would change my life.

A friend commented the other day to me that she almost missed visiting gas stations because she would forget to clean the windshield and put air in the tires.  Most people visit a gas station on a frequent basis, whether weekly, or biweekly.  These features are taken for granted because we've all grown accustomed to the necessity of visiting the station.  In fact when a station does not have these amenities, it may upset us.

You might hear from the electric car evangelist that you know, that driving electric is amazing.  You might hear of how that person laughs as he or she drives passed each gas station.  Or how they feel liberated from the need to perform oil changes every X thousand miles.  But what you don't hear, unless you're privy to their club chatter, is the more subtle changes in their lifestyles.

Efficient Thinking

For now, electric cars have a limited range by comparison to gasoline-powered vehicles. That means EV drivers spend more time considering where to get the next charge.  But the accidental benefit to this is that EV owners are much more conscious of efficiency.  They don't tend to joy ride.  They plan their routes very precisely. They become familiar with all the best charging places, whether those places are likely to be busy and at what time of day.  In short, electric vehicle owners aren't just driving more efficient vehicle, they are changing themselves to be more efficient people (at least when it comes to motorized transport).

The other change is the concern for the costs of maintaining a vehicle.  The naive person looks only at the price when considering a motor vehicle. But like most things that endure, there are upkeep costs.  The upkeep costs for gasoline-powered vehicles tends to run about 70-80%  of the price of the vehicle over the first 5 years.  Whereas the upkeep for an EV is about 16-20% of the price.  This change is perspective on cost is only realized when the EV driver sees, as I did, after six months the immense cost savings.  It was truly shocking to me (no pun intended). I was paying myself to drive an electric car.

I did not think that driving electric would be such a stark life changer.  It's not like I became a parent, or lost a limb.  But my whole paradigm regarding modern living has shifted slightly, and definitely for the better. I just see things differently, in a manner that I believe people saw when the first motorized vehicles became available over 100 years ago.