Thursday, July 21, 2011

Living with Our LEAF after Three Months

After living with our LEAF for three months, we continue to be very happy with it, and we are more convinced than ever that a car like the LEAF would fit well in the lives of a great many families.



After over 2,100 miles, I still look forward to driving the LEAF every chance I get.  Its responsive electric motor and low center of gravity make it fun to drive quickly.  And its smooth and quiet drive train make it relaxing to drive conservatively.  The car's varied energy efficiency displays and its ability to regenerate power when going downhill and while braking make the LEAF interesting to drive under any circumstances.  The car is roomy, and we have recently begun using it often to transport our family of four adults and a baby on local trips and out to restaurants.  Everyone fits in the LEAF fine, and the I don't notice any reduction in power with  all five of us aboard.

And as always, the combination of our solar power and Time of Use electrical rates, make it extremely economical to drive the LEAF.  In fact, my most recent billing from Southern California Edison agrees with my projections that because of our solar power system, we'll be able to drive our LEAF all year, at least 12,000 miles, without paying any fuel cost at all.  The magic is that anyone can do this who has a roof or unshaded ground space that is situated appropriately for placing solar panels.  The out-of-pocket upfront costs can even be avoided by leasing the panels.  The lease costs can be lower than the utility bills, and Time of Use rates with an electric car can replace high gasoline costs to the point that the overall cost to the family would be favorable.

Adding "ELECTRIC" to our LEAF
We think that the LEAF is a bit too invisible about being electric.  The car, while having distinctive details, such as the unusual headlights, blends in a bit too well with the crowd.  We want people to know about the new electric cars on the roads and we want people to ask us about them.  To help our LEAF stand out, we've added "ELECTRIC" wording to the rear deck lid, to supplement the cryptic "Zero Emission" logo that comes standard with the car.


We've also added a personalized license plate "WATT UPP" to help the car stand out even more.

So far, my favorite response was from two young men in a Mini that zoomed by me the other evening.  The passenger gave me a thumbs-up and shouted "Watt Up".

"Cars And Coffee"
In mid-June, a few of us from the MyNissanLeaf forum decided to bring our LEAFs to a local car enthusiast gathering called Cars And Coffee.  This gathering is famous among enthusiasts as being one of the largest informal weekly gatherings of car lovers, and one that attracts some very interesting (and expensive) cars on a regular basis.  Though electric cars are not often seen at Cars And Coffee, we were undaunted.  We felt that the LEAF is a very interesting car, as the first mass produced affordable electric car of the modern age, and that it was really appropriate to show the car there.


We got lots of interest in our LEAFs and especially about the car's special features, the driving range and the length of time and the cost to charge.  Most of the people were the "gear heads" that you'd expect to meet at such a gathering.  Yet we found them open and interested in these new electric cars.  Overall, we were glad that we brought our LEAFs to Cars And Coffee, and we felt that we had added some education and interest to the event.


EMS Study
I recently participated in a market research study funded by a Korean company, regarding home energy management devices in households with electric cars.  The study involved completing a weeklong online diary, including uploading photos of our home, our LEAF, our home charging dock and our "TED" home energy management system, and answering some questions about our preferences in using such systems.  After completing the diary, we had a two hour home visit from six members of the market research team, and an American researcher who was their US partner.  I was shown ideas for possible new devices that could be placed in home interiors to inform the homeowners about their energy use and to guide them to conserve energy and costs.  It was fun and interesting to provide my opinions for this project.


Focus Group
I participated in a focus group at an automotive market research firm in Tustin, Ca regarding electric car preferences.  This research was sponsored by an electric car manufacturer which was interested in our opinions about their prototype electric sedan as well as about several innovative options they are considering for selling, delivering and servicing the cars.

Participating in these research activities is a fun and interesting part of being an early participant in the much publicized introduction of electric cars.  Most of us are enthusiastic and happy to share our thoughts with those who are making decisions about future products and the infrastructure to support them.


Charging EVs at Friends' Homes
Because electric cars are relatively new on the roadways and public charging stations are still scarce, one way to provide extended range is for EV owners to help each other by providing charging at each others' homes.  I had the chance to do this recently when a friend who lives 50 miles away in Santa Monica needed to participate in a market research project near my home and she had forgotten to plug her car in the night before.  She had enough "juice" to get to my house, but not enough to get home.  She put out a call for help on our online forum, www.MyNissanLEAF.com, and I offered to have her charge at my house.  She drove here and we plugged her car into my 220 volt EVSE in my garage and I drove her to the local research location.  Her car charged while she spent a few hours there, and then I drove her back to pick up her fully charged car for her return trip home.  This is sometimes called "garage surfing", and it is a nice, social way to help friends who have taken the plunge into this new world of mobility.


State of Charge Meter
The LEAF dashboard comes with two displays designed to predict remaining driving range.  One is a numeric "miles remaining" display that is based on calculations of the state of battery charge and how aggressively and over what kind of terrain the LEAF was driven over the previous 30 minutes or so of driving.  The other is a 12 part "fuel gauge" scale that is tied more directly to the battery state of charge.


The problem is that neither of these displays is particularly accurate or precise over its full range.  The numeric display varies so much that the original reading of miles available at full battery charge can almost never be actually attained, and it drops rapidly after just a few miles of driving.  For example, it might show 102 miles of available range at full charge, but after driving five miles, it might show 83 miles of range.  In addition, it changes so much with hilly terrain and freeway speeds that it can't be relied upon to estimate the available miles for a trip.  Using the example of that same 102 miles of projected range at full charge, a realistic range at 65 miles per hour on the freeway might be 70 miles.

The 12 bar display is much less variable, but it has too few gradations to be completely useful.  A reasonable driving range on a full charge might be 84 miles.  So each of the 12 bars might represent 7 miles of available range.  That's fine when you are working with a nearly full battery, but when you are getting down to the last two bars, you are quite interested in whether you have used one mile or six miles of that 11th bar.  That would make the difference between having eight or fourteen miles of range remaining, which could be critical if you are ten miles from home.


So several of the high powered technical minds among the first wave of LEAF buyers, some of them friends of mine, are "hacking" the codes within the CAN bus, the car's communications network, and they have found some codes that seem to correspond to the actual numeric percentage of battery charge.  They are working on building small display meters that can be plugged in to the dashboard of a LEAF and will display an accurate "state of charge".  Despite being very interesting to some of us, this can be a reassuring device to have when your battery is getting low and you are trying to get someplace before needing to charge.  These percentage numbers will still need to be used with some experience in order for the driver to safely predict remaining driving range, but the meters will make those predictions more convenient and accurate.



Quick Charging and Mitsubishi
In addition to the 220 volt "Level 2" charging that most LEAF owners use for charging at home and at public charging stations, the LEAF is also available with an optional "Quick Charge" port that can plug in to a 480 volt DC charging station that can charge the LEAF to 80% full in under 30 minutes.  The charging plug standard used in the LEAF is a standard called "CHAdeMO" that was designed and agreed upon by a group of Japanese car makers and utility companies.  The problem is that these chargers cost tens of thousands of dollars and require major power feeds.  Up until today, none of these chargers has been available to the public on the US west coast, though they are plentiful in Japan.



That changed for the better in the last two weeks when Mitsubishi Co. installed a solar powered CHAdeMO charger at their headquarters in Cypress, California, 20 miles from my home in Orange County.  Mitsubishi makes an EV called the iMiev that has been sold in Japan and Europe and has been in test fleets in the US for over a year.  The car will be introduced in a revised form for the US market within the next year, to be called the "Mitsubish i".  Since Mitsubishi is a partner in the CHAdeMO partnership with Nissan and Toyota, as well as Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO), the new charger works for the LEAF as well.  Reports over the last few days are that the very kind folks at Mitsubishi are willing to allow LEAF owners to charge at their quick charger during business hours, when the charger isn't occupied.  Charging will be free of monetary charge, as far as we know at this time.


This is a real breakthrough for local LEAF drivers.  Most of the LEAFs delivered in the first wave of several thousand in California have the quick charge option, which cost owners $700 in addition to the $1,000 upgrade cost for the better equipped SL model.  (Owners who are part of the "EV Project" received the quick charge option at no cost.)  Without any public quick chargers available, this costly option was of no use.  With at least one CHAdeMO charger available, centrally located between LA and Orange Counties and not far from major freeways, LEAF drivers will now be able to experience fast charging and know what it will be like to be able to travel longer distances with minimal delays for charging.  Quick chargers are also reputed to be planned for installation by the EV Project in San Diego County in the next six months.

One problem that may delay rapid deployment of these chargers is that the SAE, the US automotive standards organization, has not settled on a quick charge plug standard.  It has been widely discussed that US car makers are holding out for a different plug standard that will integrate with the existing J-type Level 2 plug format, making it easier to design a single charging port, rather than the two different plugs that are used in the LEAF.  This lack of agreement may delay decisions on widespread deployment of what will come to be called "Level 3".

Public Charging
Beachside Public Charging at Seal Beach
Thank You, Forward Thinking City Administrators
Here and in Laguna Beach
More and more public Level 2 (220 to 240 volt) charging stations are being introduced in West Coast cities.  Locally, in addition to the ones already available at most Nissan dealers, at LAX international airport, at shopping malls in Santa Monica, Costa Mesa and Newport Beach, stations have been installed and dedicated in the past month in Laguna Beach, Seal Beach and at the Air Quality Management District (AQMD) headquarters in Diamond Bar.  These new charging stations are all from Coulomb  Technologies and are part of the ChargePoint network.  Through another company called ECOtality, a network of charging stations called "Blink" are being installed.  Most of these are in San Diego at this time.  I have a ChargePoint account and barcoded RFID access card and I've enjoyed testing out all of these new charging stations, which have worked very well and easily for me.  Currently, charging at all of these stations is free of monetary charge.  In the future, landlords may decide to set prices for parking or for the electric power used, to help to support the service.


The Numbers:
Month:  June 2011
Total Miles at Month End:  2,173 miles
Miles Driven in Month:  786 miles
Electric Power Used for Charging: 248.6 kWh (measured at wall power source, includes public charging)
Public Charging: 5.3 kWh
Home Charging: 243.3 kWh
Energy Efficiency, Month of June:  3.16 miles/kWh (wall to wheels)
Energy Efficiency, Lifetime:  3.16 miles/kWh (wall to wheels)
Most Electric Energy Used for Charging in a Day in June: 24.1 kWh  (6.5 charging hours)
Least Electric Energy Used for Charging in a Charging Day: 2.9 kWh  (0.78 charging hours)
Average Electric Energy Used for Charging in a Charging Day:  12.8 kWh  (3.5 charging hours)
Household Power Used:  535.3 kWh (without car charging)
Total Power Used:  792 kWh (includes car charging)
Solar PV Power Generated:  832 kWh
Net Power Used or Sent to Grid:  40 kWh sent to grid
Electric Bill:  -$84.91 (A credit in this amount will be added to our net metering total credit for the year, offsetting future bills for months with lower solar output.)
Cost for Charging Car in June:  $0.00
Cost per Mile:  $0.00
Cost for Charging Car, Lifetime: $0.00
Cost per Mile, Lifetime: $0.00
(If We Didn't Have Solar Power, Est Cost for Charging Car in June: $31.63)
(If We Didn't Have Solar Power, Est Cost per Mile in June: $0.04)
Average Miles per Driving Day:  31.5miles
Longest Day's Driving:  62.4 miles
Shortest Day's Driving:  4.7 miles
Number of Times we Took the Prius Instead of the LEAF Due to Low Charge: None
Unexpected Low Charge and Unable to Reach Destination:  Never