The Long Trip

I recently took a long trip down the California coastline from the San Francisco Bay area where I live to Los Angeles.  There are three ways to make this trip in a car, Interstate 5, Highway 101, or Highway 1.  The interstate is always the fastest even when dealing with traffic in the major cities, but I usually take 101 because it's more scenic (and less crowded).   But the shortest route of the three is still much further than my Smart ED can go on one charge.

My truck is the distance vehicle.   Although it sucks down the fuel like almost no other vehicle, it does have a very high capacity for fuel.  But it has a few other features that the Smart does not, including cruise control and powered seats. I've heard that many people who own the ICE Smart love to take it on long trips.  But I'd rather just put the Smart ED in the bed of my truck and unpack it when I arrive.

A long while ago I came to the conclusion that travelling should and can be fun, rather than a horrific endurance test to get there as quickly as possible.  I love to drive both my truck and the Smart ED, but they each have their purposes.

The truck is great for long trips.  It's very comfortable, like driving a couch.  It can go 500 miles before needing to be refueled.  It has lots of storage space for people and things.  But it's terrible for small city streets and parking.  The Smart ED however, is not too comfortable on trips greater than 50 miles. It only has a range of 70 miles, and refueling takes a few hours.  It has almost no storage space and just enough room for two people.  But it's awesome for small city streets and parking.

I will admit that I miss the creature comforts of my truck when I'm in the Smart. And I miss the regenerative breaking, amazing torque, and impressive maneuverability, when driving the truck.  But as far as I know, there is no way to combine the two features for less than $50k and still have it be electric. For now I am resigned to having two vehicles that each have a specific purpose and look forward to the day when I can get an all electric truck that has the range of an ICE vehicle (that is affordable).

Two Months and 2000 miles

Two Months and 2000 miles

As of December 31st 2013 I reached my first 2000 miles in the Smart ED.  I realize that this is not a major accomplishment for most people because any commuter with a commute of 50 miles or more will hit that every month.  But as my commute is only a round trip of 25 miles, I had to make a few more stops to hit that mark.

What I've come to realize about the Smart ED is that I truly enjoy driving it.  It's a small, light, fast car; a stark comparison to my other vehicle (Chevy Avalanche).  It accelerates very quickly and stops just as quickly.  It is much more deft and agile than you might expect from something that appears to be top-heavy. As the majority of the weight is in the floor with the batteries, the center of gravity is quite low.  

Getting in and out of the car is something that was important to me.  I am still quite fond of my truck for its ease-of-access.  The doors on the Smart ED swing wide, but aren't heavy.  I've never felt like I would lose the door when opening it too quickly, and I've never felt that I would gash a serious ding if I did.  Additionally, at at height of nearly 2 meters (6'4"), I've never had trouble fitting my long legs or torso in the cabin.  But it is important to note that the slimness of the car is noticeable when both people are attempting to fasten their safety belts.

Decisions, decisions...

If you had a garage full of fun, functional vehicles, you'd probably have a favorite, regardless of price.  Each vehicle has its own style, flair, and purpose.  The Smart ED is my first choice to drive for more than just the cost savings and fun.   It's really quite easy to park and in spaces that no other vehicle can consider.

I've actually posed this question to myself at least ten times in the last two months.  Would I prefer to take the internal combustion vehicle with its cushy, heated seats, luxurious cruise and climate control, power steering and brakes, and lack of range anxiety? And the answer always comes back, "unless we're going on a long trip or need to haul something large, no. This car is too much fun."

The fun of driving the Smart ED outweighs the ease of driving just about anything else.

Electric Vs. Electric

There are more than a dozen electric vehicles to choose from on the market today (at least in California).  Several are in the same price range as the Smart ED.  But they have one problem, they're all too big.   The only good comparative tool that I have been able to use with the Smart ED is that of a motorbike.

The Smart ED is a four-wheeled, electric motorbike.  It's very small, can only barely carry one additional person. It has limited range, but a great deal of torque and speed.   It's very easy to park and like a motorbike can (not legally) park perpendicular to the curb.  The biggest advantage, as noted by many motorbike riders, is the enclosed cabin for trips in bad weather (or locust).  Also, it's not likely to tip over on you.

Conclusion

I was thinking that at some point the apparent novelty of driving electric or a small car would wear off, but it has yet to happen.   When I bought a Toyota Tacoma some years back, I knew within 2 weeks that it was a poor decision.  I've only owned six vehicles in 18 years, but I've driven at least 50.  I hope to drive every car eventually as I'd like to experience them all.  But for now I am quite content to drive the Smart ED and park it just about anywhere.

Get an Eco Score of 100%

You too can get an Eco score of 100%.

At first I thought that that I would never be able to accomplish this feat.  I was always driving up and down hills and trying to avoid other cars, that I would never succeed in reaching this lofty goal.  But I did it.

There are two gauges on the top of the dash that give you a good idea of your performance.  These two gauges will become as important if not more so than the speedometer. The gauge on the left is State of Charge (SOC), effectively the fuel gauge. The one on the right is a Charge gauge, it shows the charge used and it can be positive (to the left) or negative (to the right).

Accelerating

You will want to concentrate most the attention that you would give to the dash instruments, to the gauge that shows charge. If you can keep the charge from ever breaking 50% when accelerating or driving, then this will improve the Eco score.  Accelerating using the kick-down will push the charge usage up to the maximum and destroy any decent Eco score that you may have created. Also, driving at or above 70 mph can use more than 50% charge.

The difficulty in keeping the charge meter from crossing the 50% mark is that acceleration will be slow.  This slow acceleration will not make you popular with other drivers. Personally, I've had to make an effort to refrain from bolting, because I know that I can do it.  But if I want to keep that perfect score, I can't use the kick-down too often.

Braking

It's not tough to figure out, after a few tries, how much distance you will need in order to stop the vehicle.  The Smart ED does have more motor braking by default than the typical internal combustion engine vehicle.  As soon as you lift off from the accelerator, the ED will engage the regeneration and slow you down.  If however, you've opted for the regeneration paddles, you can control how aggressively the vehicle slows and recharges.  But it is key to getting that high score, that you brake appropriately.

When braking, you can get the best recharge by barely tapping the brake pedal.  This turns on your brake lights and maxes out the needle, which means you pushing the max back into the battery (about 90 Amps).  The regeneration will reduce as you slow down.  

The ECO bar is quite effective in encouraging a driver to drive more efficiently.  It's right there at the bottom of the screen and hard to miss.  But if it seems impractical or a false ideal, think of it as paying yourself back.  Sure you're driving electric now and saving already, but if you drive at 100% ECO, you're saving even more.

Smart ED Basics

You've got to understand the basics of anything before you can use it.  As an engineer, I sometimes think that I know it all before I get started and this is often due to the fact that I have some experience with mechanical or electrical devices.

The Electric Vehicle (EV) certainly looks like a car, but it doesn't exactly act like one.  This post will cover the basics of what you will want to know about an electric car and in this case the Smart ED.  Hopefully, you have at least had the chance to drive a vehicle that uses an Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), as some of the information in this post will depend on that prior knowledge.

Getting Started

It's important to note where all the controls are on the vehicle.  Like an ICE vehicle an EV will have a steering wheel, shift controller, accelerator, and brake pedals. The display panels are similar except for two extra gauges on top of the dash.  These two gauges are for fuel and its use.

The gauge on the left shows how much fuel (charge) remains.  The gauge on the right shows the rate at which the fuel is being used. But there is something special about electric vehicles that cannot be done with ICE vehicles.  When braking, the electric motor can be used  to re-capture some of the lost energy. It's like putting fuel back in the tank.

Fuel 

The fuel for the Smart ED is electrical charge.  If you've used a smartphone then you're already somewhat familiar with the electric car and its energy source. The Smart ED uses electricity just like so many electronic devices that we use in our lives every day.

Unlike ICE vehicles, each EV must be equipped with the proper charger in order to refuel the battery (with electricity).  Depending on the capacity of the battery and the charger will determine how long it takes.

The Smart ED has a 17.6 kWh battery and an on-board charger rated at 3.3 kW, so at that fastest it will completely recharge in about 5 hours.

Shift Controller

Electric vehicles do not have the same sort of transmission that you might find in either a manual or automatic ICE vehicle.  In an automatic ICE vehicle you may find more than just the Park, Neutral, Reverse, and Drive.  But because an ICE vehicle has only a narrow band of speeds that are useful, a transmission is used to allow the engine to operate more efficiently at higher and lower speeds.

The EV does not have "gears" per se, but it does at least have Park, Neutral, Reverse, and Drive.  ICE engines usually only spin in one direction so when you need to go in reverse, a gear is inserted to change the direction that the engine spins the wheels.  But when you want an EV to run in reverse, you need only spin it in reverse.

Acceleration

Many of us are quite familiar with labeling the pedal on the right, as the "gas" pedal.  But no gas used to propel an electric car, the more generic term is the "accelerator" pedal. Most electric motors do not require a transmission to change the gearing ration between the motor and the wheels in order to find the optimum performance, the way an ICE does. Electric motors can spin up to much faster than ICE without overheating.

As electric motors do not have to use a transmission to accelerate, there is no need to think about changing gears.  The motor starts and continues on spinning up with greater speeds. Internal combustion engines have a particular range of speeds that are the most efficient and use the transmission to acquire that speed.

The Smart ED has an electric motor capable of about 50 hp, but nearly 100 ft-lbs of torque.  If you floor the accelerator, there's an additional bit of room at the very bottom know as the "kick down".  When you hit the kick down, you will feel a significant increase in the power, like having a nitro pack built-in

Braking

Electric cars are unique when it comes to slowing or stopping.  Although it is possible to use an internal combustion engine to slow the vehicle (called engine braking), the same action when used in an electric car can will generate electricity.  Most electric vehicles are equipped with the ability to increase or decrease the amount of resistance that the motor implements when using it to stop the vehicle.   The greater the resistance, the more energy is generated, and in turn the more quickly the vehicle slows.

Using the regenerative ability of an electric motor to recharge the battery every time that you need to stop, not only increases the longevity of your brakes, but improves the range of the vehicle.

Range

If there's one thing that I've come to see in a completely different way, it's range. Drivers of ICE vehicles take some solace in knowing that with a full tank of gas, range is not a problem.  This is only a recent notion, as before 1950 gas stations were not nearly as common as they are today. Electric vehicle drivers can take solace in knowing that they can recharge nearly anywhere, as the electric infrastructure of modern society has placed hundreds of millions of electrical sockets in nearly every building.

Ah, but what of the range of the electric vehicle?  ICE vehicle drivers are familiar with the necessity of finding a gas station, every so often.  EV owners are familiar with refueling every day.  The closest analog to the daily recharge is the use of a Smartphone. Most people charge the smartphone every day so that it can be used all day.  The same goes for an electric car.

The statistics say that 50% of all modern citizens drive no more than 30 miles in a day and that 80% drive no more than 50 miles in a day.  Most electric cars can easily cover 50 miles of daily driving.

The Smart ED comes with an EPA-noted range of 63 miles per full charge, at the least 58 miles, but some people have been able to get as many as 90 miles.

Conclusion

There's a whole new world of electric vehicles just waiting to be explored and utilized.  Electric vehicles are fun and useful (but mostly fun).   They're not so different from internal combustion engine vehicles, at least externally.  But once you get used to charging your car like you do your smartphone (every day), it won't take long to forget about the prior need to go to a gas station.

You won't feel bad that, although your range in a day may be limited to between 60 and 100 miles, you're spending less than half as much money on fuel as you might have in a Prius.  If you charge at a public charging station, it is actually possible to never pay for fuel.  Do you know of a gas station that gives fuel away for free?

Lastly, I have yet to get bored with the fun of 100% torque, 100% of the time.  Acceleration in an EV is almost too fun and almost unnervingly quiet.  Unless you love the roar of an internal combustion engine, you may be pleasantly surprised by the silent rocket that is the Smart ED.  It might be small, but it's got plenty of power.