Things you might want to know about owning an electric car for 10 years

Continuing the saga for our now 10-year-old Nissan Leaf that we bought new in 2014, you may see from this and older posts that I nerd out on this a bit.  Being an earlier EV, it has a smaller battery with about 1/3 the range of modern electric cars (24kWh - EPA rated 84 miles per charge).  We've put about 60,000 miles on the car so far and have found the quality of the non-EV parts of the car to be comparable to other cars we've owned.  Here's what people often want to know:

• It is all electric, not hybrid, no gas.
• We got it because it was one of the least expensive new cars we could get at the time, given the federal tax credit.  There are still good quality EVs that are relatively affordable compared to comparable gas-powered cars.
• We had more "range anxiety" when we first got the car, when we didn't know its limits, and when there were far fewer chargers available.
• I wouldn't anticipate having range anxiety with a modern EV with more range and with more charging stations available now.
• We do still have a gas-powered car as well.
• Gas-powered vehicles are still way more convenient for long road trips - they have 100 years of well-labeled, readily available convenience store / gas station infrastructure already built... and they only take 5 minutes to fill up.
• A Level 3 (DC) charger gives us about 80 miles in 45 minutes (newer cars can now get a couple of hundred miles off of under an hour of charge).  A Level 2 (240v) gives us about 25 miles per hour of charging.  A Level 1 (110v standard plug-in) gives us about 5 miles per hour of charging.
• If you're going to own an EV, you're going to want reliable access to a Level 2 charger.  Ours was about $600 plus the cost of installing a dedicated 240v line.
• Different car makers use different Level 3 plugs, but most of them use the same Level 2 plug.
• THERE IS VIRTUALLY NO MAINTENANCE.  We've had two brake fluid flushes and are due for our second transmission (equivalent) fluid flush.  We did have a $240 repair for a failing tailgate lift strut.
• Tires wear out faster.
• Breaks wear out slower.
• EVs have great torque and are fast off of the line, most are now pretty quick up to 60 mph.
• It takes some getting used to driving an electric car because it is so quiet and smooth, and because the accelerator lacks the mechanical resistance that you get from a gas-powered engine. (Most electric cars have an economy or braking mode that uses electromagnetic resistance to slow the car down and charge the battery when you let off of the accelerator.)
• The battery has started to degrade (as is expected) and probably has around 85% of its original capacity.  It can still handle about 80-90% of our daily driving needs.
• The biggest drains on the battery (which become more pronounced with battery age) are: using the heater, driving in cold weather, driving at higher speed (e.g., 75 mph), driving uphill (especially at high speed with the heater going in cold weather).  The air conditioner also reduces range, but less so.
• Modern EVs have newer technologies that manage these things much better.
• At some point, the battery will become old enough that it doesn't provide us enough range for the car to be useful.  Our small, old battery model would cost about $6k and we'd anticipate it would be needed after about 15 years or 100,000 miles.  Newer, larger batteries could cost $10-25k to replace.  I'd expect they'd have more longevity due to less frequent charging cycles, but don't have any evidence to back that up.
• Without factoring in the battery, the cost per mile to run the car on electricity is much less than it is to run a car on gasoline.  When you factor in the cost of a replacement battery, the costs per mile are a lot more comparable.
• Charging at home does impact the electric bill, but it's not huge with what amounts to a compact car.  The impact would likely be much more noticeable with a less efficient EV (like a large pickup).  We had solar panels at our last house, so charged essentially for free.
• Overall, though, it looks like total cost of ownership would generally cost less to keep indefinitely than a comparable gas-powered car
• We haven't hit any, but sometimes squirrels and pedestrians can't hear you coming.
• We still respect the fact that gas-powered vehicles work better for many people.
• We also believe that the lower overall environmental impact that EVs have compared to gas vehicles is a good thing.

I've been the car's primary driver in our household and have enjoyed the experience enough that it would be tough for me to go back to a gas-powered car for my daily use.  Our teenager prefers it to our gas car, and my wife, Jill, who initially didn't like driving the car because it was too fast off of the line, is now interested in looking at an EV for our next car.  At this time, though, we have no plans to get rid of the 10-year-old Leaf.  It still runs just like it did on day one, costs virtually nothing in maintenance, and has proven to be reliable.

7 Years In - First Little Battery Issue

It's been some time since the last post, noting that most of the more recent posts talk about driving an electric car.  We've now had the car 7 years and have only put 38,500 miles onto it.  Maintenance has been minimal - brake fluid had to be flushed as did the equivalent of transmission fluid.  The first set of tires lasted about 30,000 miles, however they probably could have lasted longer had I paid more attention to rotating them.

Overall, battery degradation has been minor.  Initially we could assume a maximum of about 90 miles of range in good weather (I think the max we drove on a charge was about 86 or 88).  Extreme cold temps and heater use reduced that range to about 55-60.  On average, we probably drove about 55-70 miles between charges in the summer and 45-60 miles in the winter for the first few years. Over the last couple of years, and especially after getting some regular all-season (not EV-optimized) tires, we've noticed a bit of range reduction, particularly in cold weather.  Now, maximum range is closer to about 75 or 80 miles (50-60 between charges) in the summer and 45-60 (40-50 between charges) in the winter.

Last week, we went out for a short drive, about 2.5 miles each way, starting with a 19% charge, and observed some strange behavior.  We arrived at a traffic light near our destination (a drive thru) with 15% (acceptable).  Sitting at the traffic light with the A/C running, we dropped to an 11% charge, so we turned off the A/C.  Waiting for three cars at the drive thru, we dropped to 7%!  After getting our order, we drove across the street to a drug store with a charger but couldn't get it to work without an app or card (we couldn't read the screen to see what needed to be done).  So, we were unable to charge there and had to attempt the drive home.  About a mile and a half from home, the battery percentage dropped from 6% to "---%".  Flat-lined.  Fortunately, we made it home with nothing on the battery meter, charged the car, and it's been running normally ever since.  

We generally try to adhere to battery preserving tips like not topping off a nearly full battery / charging every night.  Feeling good that the battery has lasted this long, although the battery warranty is 8 years / 100,000 miles.  I guess we'll see what things look like after year 8.  While I admire the newness and engineering behind EVs, 40,000 is pretty early to expect performance degradation.  Still a great car, plan on keeping it for some time and think it will remain driveable still for quite some time.  Newer EVs with newer batteries presumably consume fewer charge cycles due to longer battery life and therefore may not see this type of issue as early.  Still, something to consider when it comes to EVs.

Buzzing Around on the 4th of July

Celebrating a Little Energy Independence this 4th of July

By the end of the month, we will have had a Nissan Leaf for three years, and until last Tuesday, we hadn't attempted to drive it further up into the mountains than Red Rocks or Green Mountain.  For the 4th of July this year, we decided to head up to Nederland for the afternoon, and we decided to take the electric car.

Range Anxiety Test

Nederland is only about 34 miles from our house, so a round-trip should be well within the Leaf's range, and would make for the safest "bravery test" to see how far the car could go up into the hills.

We took Co. 72 west through Coal Creek Canyon from Arvada.  While climbing, the battery was depleting at almost twice the rate that it does around the city.  We made it into Nederland with only 47% left on the battery, but knowing that coasting and braking replenish the battery, I was confident that this would be enough to get us back home without having to use a public charging station.

Even so, a free public charger opened up after lunch, so we plugged in (the free ChargePoint app was required to activate the charging station).  After about an hour and 45 minutes, we were ready to go, and the battery was back up to 90% full.

What Goes Up Must Come Down

We headed down through Boulder Canyon, and in the 13 miles to Boulder, gained back 7% of our battery charge through coasting and braking.  We were driving in braking mode most of the way down, and still having to manually brake periodically for turns.  

On the way down, I wondered what would happen if the car's charge topped 100% and we were still heading downhill.  I assume the battery would just stop accepting a charge, but this was the first time I'd been confronted with that possibility.  It only reached 97%, so we never found out.

Takeaways

In the end, we'd used a total of 53% of the battery on the way up, and 15% of the battery on the way down.  So 68% of the battery for a 68 mile trip.  This is just slightly better than the mileage we get around town.

This makes me wonder what charging habits would need to be like for someone who lived in the foothills, and came down to town for work.

This was also the first time using a public level 2 charger outside of the dealership.  With the app, the experience was easy - it finds charging stations, and lets you know if they cost and if they're available - and it was nice to get some free kWH from the city of Nederland.  Public chargers are popping up all around the Front Range, and I'd anticipate infrastructure will continue to expand as demand increases.

With public stations, one of the big considerations is availability.  Some towns, like Nederland, Estes Park, and Idaho Springs may only have two or four spots, and if one is occupied, it's occupied for hours, not for minutes like a gas pump.  So if you drive far enough that you'll require a public charge in order to get home, you may be gambling on having to wait for an open space.

All in all, it was good to see what would happen. and to have a nice destination close enough to test, with little risk of running out of juice.  Estes Park, you may be next. Bzzzt.

Insights Into the First Month Driving an EV

1. The car is typically getting driven to work on weekdays, occasionally to dinner or to run errands in the evenings.  This generally runs the battery down to about 50% over 2-3 days.
2. We plug the car in about 3x / week at about a 50% charge.  It usually gets plugged in between 7 and 9 PM, and is usually fully-charged by 8 AM the next morning (still using a regular 110v, 15A charger, aka trickle charger).
3. Still getting about 1 mile per percentage of battery use, so it would get around 100 miles on a full charge, if I were to drive it to "empty".
4. It gets the best mileage in rush-hour, stop-and-go traffic.
5. It gets the worst mileage driving on the open highway.
6. Driving uphill takes a lot of juice.  Driving out US-40 / Colfax west from I-70, past Heritage Square, and up to the Dinosaur Ridge exit made the "distance to empty" computer drop from about 55 miles to 35 over a distance of just a few miles.
7. Coasting from Dinosaur Ridge down to Morrison, we regained 2% battery charge, and the DTE computer again displayed a reasonable remaining range.
8. A trip across town (Arvada to Highlands Ranch and back) uses about 60% battery charge for about 60 miles.
9. Driving habits do make a difference.
10. Driving in "ECO" mode doesn't make a huge difference (maybe about 5%)
11. Driving with the A/C on doesn't make a huge difference (maybe about 5%)
12. Driving with the heater on DOES make a huge difference (maybe 25-40%?)
13. The car is equipped with seat heaters and a steering wheel heater (standard, even on the base model), which don't drain the battery that much, and can supplant the need for the forced air heater a bit.
14. The car also comes standard with a climate control timer, so you can program the heater to come on early in the morning while the car is still plugged in.  Getting the car warm before stepping into it will reduce use of the heater in the mornings.
15. The USB port does let you play music straight from a flash drive. No iPod necessary.  (Sweet.)
16. The 240v, 30A Level 2 charger is scheduled to get installed on September 24th.  This should cut charge times by 2/3 - 3/4.  (Sweet.)
17. While I have not caused any roadkill in the new car, I can say that the squirrels and birds definitely don't hear you coming as well.

We Got A Leaf!

A couple of weeks ago, we signed a lease on a 2015 Nissan Leaf 100% electric vehicle.  Here are the most common questions, based upon our experience so far.

Q: Is it a hybrid?
A: .  No.  There is no gas engine.  It runs on electricity alone, and we have to plug it in to recharge it.

Q: How far does it go on a full charge?
A: Right now, I'm seeing about 1 - 1.2 % battery use for every mile driven -with the A/C running some of the time, and the stereo always on.  So with "conservative" driving habits (coasting, regenerative braking, not "punching it" off of the line), it should travel about 90-100 miles on a full charge.

Q: How long does it take to charge?
A: With the included 110v charging cord, and a regular 110v outlet (trickle charge), it can take up to 21 hours to charge fully from a fully-discharged battery.  At 240v (Level 2 Charger), it's supposed to charge fully in 4-6 hours (@ 30 AMPs) or 8-10 hours (at 15 AMPs).  There's also a "quick charge" plug (Level 3, 480v) that's supposed to fully charge in 30 minutes.  An upgraded "charging pack" is required if you want to charge at 240v 30 AMPs or on a quick charger.  The base model "S" charger only supports 15 AMP charging (21 hours at 110v or 8-10 hours at 240v). We have the "S" model with the upgraded charger pack (around $1500 difference retail.). 

Keep in mind, these are maximum times.  We've had the car for 3 weeks, and I've only charged it 4 times.  In practice, it can take a few days to drive the car down to a 50% charge, at which point we plug it in by 8-9 PM, and it's full first thing in the morning.  Round trip to work is about 27 miles, so it can be driven two work days before it needs about 11 hours of charging time to get to full.  Also, it only needs to be charged fully enough to get you to and from your destination the next day.  So over a period of a couple of days, you could "catch" up, starting fully-depleted one day, partially charging, driving, partially charging some more, etc... until you're back up at 100%.

Q: Can you only charge at home?
A: No.  The car comes with a 15' charging cord that can be plugged into any 110v outlet.  Additionally, many city buildings (libraries) and retail outlets (Walgreen's), are beginning to install Level 1 and Level 2 charging stations.  A map can be found here:  http://www.afdc.energy.gov/fuels/electricity_locations.html.

Q: Does the battery have a "memory effect"?  Does it deplete over time?
A: The Lithium-Ion battery is not supposed to have a "memory effect", per-se, but the manual does say that continually recharging the battery from an almost fully-charged state can reduce the battery's life.  The battery comes with an 8-year, 100,000 mile warranty (requires annual battery inspections to not void the warranty), and a 5-year, 60,000 mile guarantee that it's maximum capacity won't reduce below 90% of its original capacity.  Not too worried about either of these metrics on our 4-year lease.  I'm told that Nissan will likely sell replacements in the $5k-$6k range, and that they already have battery lease programs in Europe.

Q: Does running the heater, A/C, radio, etc... deplete the battery faster?
A: Yes, sort of.  Just like in a gasoline car, all accessories run off of a 12v DC battery that is recharged by the motor.  In this case, it's just recharged by an electric motor instead of a gas motor.  That recharging can reduce the battery's range.

Q: Has it increased your electricity bill?  Aren't you just using coal instead of gasoline to run your car?
A: We have solar panels on our roof, so we don't see an electric bill in the summer months.  Whatever we use in Xcel's coal, we sell back to the grid in solar energy.  That being said, we did install the solar array before getting the car, so it is possible that the car will bump our electrical consumption up to where we see some electric bills January - March.  If you're planning to get a solar array before getting an electric car, you can, in some cases, oversize the array by 10-20% to account for the car's consumption.

Q: Would you recommend that I get one?
A: Yes, but a qualified yes.

• We have another car that runs on gasoline.
• We thoroughly thought out our driving needs to ensure that both of us shouldn't need to be more than 80 miles away from the house in separate cars at any given time. We mapped out distances to the airport, and to houses of friends and family who live on the other side of town.
• It has a lot of torque, so is responsive and fun to drive.
• The base model comes with tons of features - seat heaters, steering wheel heater, traction control, nice stereo, Bluetooth, USB, Aux port on stereo, keyless entry, smart phone app for remote start of heater or A/C.
• If you can deal with the distance limitations, it is a really nice driving experience, that I hope becomes the norm in the future.  Am definitely NOT regretting the decision at this point. (Test drove a Prius and a Mitsubishi i-MiEV in the process as well.)
• Since the technology is so new, we decided to lease, keeping the car under warranty for the duration of our obligation to it.  If it runs like this after the lease is up though, and there aren't newer models with longer battery life by then, we may consider buying it outright at that time.

Sunny Days 120 - First full-month energy bill

What you get and what you don't - How a photovoltaic solar array interfaces with your energy company

What do you get when you sign up for a solar leasing program?  Some pretty neat stuff:

• A net meter - When your system's outproducing your consumption, the meter spins backward, selling electricity back to the utility company.
• Rollover kilowatt hours - This is the part that should eliminate our electric bill.  By summer, the system should be producing way more electricity than we consume.  In the winter, we will likely consume way more per day than the system is producing. Xcel gave two options for excess energy produced by the system
• The first, and to me the only logical one, is that Xcel can treat your excess kWh like rollover minutes on a cell phone plan.  Don't use them one month when you're outproducing what you can consume, and each kWh can be applied toward your next bill.  From what I understand, they either don't go away at all, or it's on a year-to-year basis.  
• The other option is to have the utility cut you a check for all excess kWh at the end of the year, the trick being that they buy back the kWh at about 1/3 the price that they charge you.
• System monitoring and warranty repair - If you lease a system, the vendor monitors its production for you and fixes it if something's wrong.  Not included with the purchase the system, so for that you'd have to buy an extended warranty.  Of note, one reason for choosing REC Solar over SolarCity was the fact that SolarCity requires in their contract that you maintain your own broadband in order for monitoring to work.  REC Solar provides its own wireless connection.
• Ability to track system production - I don't know if this is true for SolarCity, but I assume it is.  REC Solar has a customer web portal where you can pay your bill, and also track historical production of your solar array.  This can also be tracked on the LCD panel of the power inverter.
• Energy production on cloudy days - On sunny days, our 5.1kW system is hitting about 3.5kW of output (probably due to the sun's low angle in the sky).  On cloudy days, I've seen as little as 150W, but it's still producing something, even when snowing in a few cases!

What don't you get that you might otherwise expect?

• Tax credits - Most of us would expect to collect tax credits for going green.  Not so if you're LEASING the system.  The company that finances the system (in REC Solar's case, this is a company called SunRun) actually receives the tax credits.  That's largely how they can finance an entire lease for a fraction of the cost that they'd sell the system for.  As I'd mentioned in my previous post, monthly lease, in our case was $62 / month.  That's just under $15k paid over the course of the lease.  Whole-lease buyout up front was $8k.  Buying the system outright would have been over $25k.  We pay much less than the cost of a system over the course of the lease, partially because the solar company reaps the tax benefits.
• Immediate elimination of electricity bills - As our installation took place in the winter, and we're consuming more than we're producing, we did have to pay a bit toward our electric bill this month.  We did, however, see a pretty drastic reduction in the number of kWh sold to us last month compared to the month before the system was installed:

Here you can see that we used less than 1/2 of the electricity  than we did in the same month last year, despite cooler average temperatures.

Our 291 kWh came to $28.31, but Xcel tacks on an eternal $6.75 / month cross-connect fee.  The electricity that we continue to get from Xcel is cheaper on average because we're only hitting Tier 1 and Tier 2 pricing. 

Our electric bill came to about $38 instead of over $65 for the same period last year.

• You may get nothing at all - THIS WHOLE SOLAR LEASE AND UTILITY ELECTRICITY BUY-BACK ONLY WORKS IF YOUR UTILITY COMPANY PARTICIPATES, AND IT IS STILL NOT REQUIRED TO DO SO. (Vote pro solar!)

So far, so good though.  We're looking forward to the electric bill going away entirely this summer (with the exception of the $6.75 Service and Facility fee, and the $0.70 Renewable Energy Standard Adjustment.

If you have questions about any of this, or are interested in pursuing something like this, we're happy to answer questions and give pointers based upon our experiences so far.  And we'd of course be happy for you to use us as a referral.  ;-)

Cheers.

Sunny Days 101 - Our new experience with solar energy

For years, we'd discussed the possibility of installing a solar electric system in our home, but have been unable to afford purchasing a system outright, and have been unwilling to commit to long-term solar leasing programs.  We did a lot to make our old home more energy efficient, but never had solar installed there.  Having moved into a house that we intend to live in for some time, we finally bit the bullet and began to explore options this summer.  As of last week, we are generating solar electricity.  With it being December, the sun being low, and the days being short, it's not much yet, but the savings have begun.  I wanted to take this opportunity to share our experience so far, and will continue to document the process in upcoming posts.

Where to begin...

We started by obtaining information from two solar electric installers who have presence in our area:  Solar City and REC Solar.  We tried to obtain quotes from Namaste Solar in Boulder, but they were too busy to get back to us before we made a decision.

Assessment...

Both companies looked up satellite images of our home to determine its orientation and potential exposure to the sun.  We provided each company with a 1-year history of our utility bills (easy to obtain online if you're on Xcel).  Based upon the property having a suitable location for panels and an average cost of electric bills, each vendor supplied a quote.  Solar City was faster to set up a phone consultation, while REC Solar took a bit longer, but sent out a sales rep.

Numbers...

Both vendors offered options to purchase, or to lease the system, and each provided flexible lease options.  Here's how it works:

• Let's say Xcel Energy has been charging you about 10¢ per kilowatt hour for electricity, and your household uses 500 kWh per month.  You're paying about $50 per month for your electric bill (gas being separate).  Ours was 600 kWh average at about 9.5¢.
• Based upon our southern exposure, roof space, and past consumption, each vendor quoted us systems that they would guarantee to meet about 100% of our electrical needs throughout the year.  With Solar City, this was a 4.8kW system with about 22 panels.  REC offered a 5.1kW system, with the same number of a different brand of panels.
• The solar company can sell you a system that is probably too expensive for most of us to buy (they quoted us about $25k!), or they can lease you a system for 10 or 20 years, charging you in monthly installments similar to your electric bill.  We looked at the more affordable 20 year option.
• Solar City did not require a down payment, REC required a minimum $500 down for the lease.  Putting down the bare minimum (or nothing), each company will start your monthly payments slightly below what you're paying from Xcel, but the payments will increase by about 3% per year for the duration of the lease.  So in our example, the first year might cost you 9¢ per kWh, your second might cost 9.27¢ / kWh, your third 9.55, and so on.
• Each vendor had some down payment threshold ($500-1500) for avoiding the rate increase.  So, in the example, you might be able to put $1000 down, to have a flat-rate 9.9¢ / kWh cost for the whole 20-year lease.  It starts higher than the no money down option, but putting nothing down, you end up paying more in monthly payments within in a few years, and slightly more over the duration of the lease.  The more you put down, the less your monthly payments are, and the less you pay over the lease term.  One vendor allowed advance monthly payments on the lease (if you wanted to put down $100 one month instead of $50, for example), the other stated that you could not pay ahead.
• Each vendor gave the option to buy the lease out up front.  This is different from buying the system itself in that you're still leasing, just paying the entire lease up front.  One offered this at $7300, and the was about $8100.    I think this can be done so much cheaper than buying the system outright because, the vendor still owns the system, and can therefore claim the tax credits for it.  You don't own the system at the end of the 20 years, but REC's panels were rated at 30, so they offer a 5-year renewal at the end of the lease period.  Solar City did not.  Each offered the ability to sign a new 20 year lease after the first one expired, of course.

What to choose...

• Buying Outright - Again, probably prohibitively expensive.  They make it even less enticing by only warrantying the equipment for a portion of that 20 year period, so you have to buy warranty extensions to keep the system serviced.  One vendor stated that our inverter would likely go out once within that 20-year period, and replacements would be covered automatically if we chose to lease.  
• Leasing in general - No matter which lease option you choose, you're bound by a 20-year agreement.  If you've paid for the lease outright, this is nothing more than permission for the vendor to monitor and service the equipment.  If you don't put anything down, you are liable for the entire cost of the lease.
• Nothing down - Starts at a lower cost than Xcel, and probably keeps pace with standard utility price increases over the 20 years.  You're paying the same amount that you otherwise would, just getting your energy from the sun instead.
• Down payment to avoid increase - Starts at about the same cost as what you're paying Xcel now, but does not increase over the term of the lease.  You're locked in at a lower flat rate for 20 years, no matter what the utility company chooses to do with their rates.
• Lease buyout - Like buying the system, this is a lot of money for a down payment, but starts substantially lower than Xcel.  The potential savings for this option are several thousand dollars over the course of 20 years against the utility company or each vendor's no money down option.

Enough for now.  Coming up in later posts, I'll discuss the solar company's interface with the utility company, caveats and things you may not consider, why we chose who we chose, and the details of the installation process.