Yes, we’ve gone out and bought EV number four – well you can never have too many Electric cars!  What’s one more on the driveway? Does this mean we are just going to keep going until we have one of every EV out there… well no, as there are a couple we wouldn’t purchase though I hear that Fisker Karma’s are going cheap!

From now on we will be holding our own Green Events and Meet Ups, we reckon we have enough vehicles for that these days.

What led us to the fourth Electric Vehicle?  You mean besides just the why not?

We were finding that Michael’s commute down the Parkway was really taking its toll on the Tesla Roadster and Michael was losing the enjoyment side of driving the Roadster to the daily grind. Just sitting for two hours driving up and down the same piece of unpleasant road day in and day out. The Parkway in itself is an okay road but I-287 isn’t and neither are the backroads to get there.  The continuous avoiding of potholes and all the gravel was more like being on a ski slope slalom than a road, was too much abuse for the Roadster.  Decision time – lots of number crunching and calculations – it would be cheaper to get a fourth EV than repair the Roadster should it be on the receiving end of some major damage from the long, bumpy commute each day.  Or we could sell the Roadster and get a Model S… Just a thought!

Looking at the available options on the market: The Leaf, the i-MiEV (already got one), the Honda FitEV, the Fiat 500e (really want one but there’s no sign of them on this coast yet) and the Ford Focus Electric… Hmm, that’s a little different… worth investigating… looks okay, available in not white, lots of tech stuff for the tech guy, good deals to be had. Okay we’ll get one of those then. A great deal from Ford this time – $197 a month for the Ford Focus EV, with lots of extras and not much down for a 15k/year lease.

That’s why we find ourselves trying to rearrange our two car garage to fit four cars.

The Ford Focus EV is a somewhat huge improvement on Fords of days gone by. They’ve never been my favourite company and I have avoided them like the plague for the last few years. Finally they seem to have some decent looking cars out there and they have accomplished a rather nice looking EV… In black!

My turn: I’m going to miss commuting in the Roadster – it still gets a regular thumbs up from passers by, even when I’m on the cruise control doing 65mph in the right lane on the parkway. At 38,000 miles it’s no old lady but people don’t want to buy a used sports car with starship mileage nor with daily-driver stone-chips or battered suspension. So, I find myself taking delivery of another fantastic C.A.R.B. enforced super-deal.

What kind of deal?

Well, it’s a good one. I looked at lease versus buy and at different durations but one factor stood out a mile – Ford includes a rebate to reflect the federal tax credit… and, what’s better, it seems to be the California version! So here’s what I got:

• Ford Focus Electric - top spec, cow-skin chairs (That’s the only optional item)
• $42,000 opening price
• $11,750 rebate from Ford
• $1,000 competitive lease rebate – BMW ActiveE counts!
• 0% finance
• No sales tax – thank you NJ
• $2,252 down (inc everything), $197/month, 3 years.
• 8-year drivetrain warranty – no worries over the battery
• More toys than you can shake a stick at

Without going down a total rat-run, my dear departed Dad was a Ford man all his life and so, like a typical teenager, I bought my first car – a Honda Civic, Sorry Dad. From there I went through Honda, VW, Fiat, Renault, Audi, Suzuki, Toyota, BMW, Vauxhall, Citroën and Peugeot. Yes, pretty much everything but Ford – so ungrateful for all those years that Ford put bread and butter on our table.

To be fair, the 70′s saw Fast Fords dominate the Rally Car world but by the 80′s and 90′s that had slipped away and well, there were pretty dodgy times ahead for Henry’s team and, well, a childhood crammed with “Ford VFM – Value for Money” can scare you for a long time.

It seems that it took until the mid naughties before Ford of Europe realized that their ‘VFM’ crowd had moved on to Datsun then Seat, Hyundai and others and Ford of America had realized that telling Americans that they wanted big, thirsty boats whilst Audi and BMW ate their lunch, wasn’t going to work anymore.

In the mid 00′s Ford turned a corner and headed up the hill – some cool designs, great handling and ever improving build quality meant that, in England at least, if you wanted to stand out from the crowd, you had to ditch the BMW 3-series/Audi A4 and swap it for a Mondeo ST220 or the vicious Focus RS… even if they were the preferred vehicle choice of the English constabulary!

If my Dad where still with us, he’d be proud of the Focus Electric and rightly so. If I’m honest, some of the controls are a little flimsy, the fake chrome is (just plain) wrong and the trunk space is fake but, the rest is alright.

This is a European car; road feel is superb, rolling on 225/45/17s the turn-in is terrifically quick and left/right action belies the fact that it’s carrying a massive ‘fuel tank’. The whole car feels taut, partly due to the Euro-spec seats that hug you tightly and pin you in place – over 250Lbs? You won’t get out of the chairs.

If the i-MiEV is bigger inside than out, the Focus is smaller inside than out. It seats five if you don’t mind being cosy in the back. Up front, you feel that the interior envelops you with a huge center section (hiding batteries) and a dash that really wraps around you, it feels cosy.

The driving controls are surprising and a little different. Like the i-MiEV there is very little type A regen (on the accelerator). It can be increased by selecting L on the PRNDL but is still not ActiveE like. Instead, like the Leaf, the brake pedal does double duty but seems to be managed very well. I’ve not had enough time behind the wheel of the Leaf to do a direct comparison but, unlike the i-MiEV that presents regen at the top of the pedal and friction brakes at the bottom, the Ford automatically transitions from one to the other as the speed falls. Gently press the brake at 40mph and the speed falls on regen only, hold that position and progress is arrested smoothly and consistently right down to zero where the feel of the friction brake biting is the only giveaway that regen isn’t in the mix anymore. A dashboard indicator revels the point that regen is no more at around 5-10mph.

Another regen trick is the down hill assistance. Drive the car over the brow of a steep hill, side-step the accelerator and, nothing! The car neither speeds up in free-fall nor cranes down in a whine of regen. It’s odd at first but, useful once mastered – it replaces my default use of cruise on steep hills to hold speed.

Purists would certainly dislike the lack of feel from the brake pedal but, I get my braking feedback from my head so, for me, it’s fine.

Online

Late to the EV game, I assumed that the Focus Electric was a last minute CARB mandated thorn in Fords side. I assumed that I’d be driving a regular Focus with an odd drivetrain. I assumed that I’d be lucky if there was even a web app let alone an iPhone App. Wrong, three times over. Ford builds the Focus on the main production line, it’s integrated into their standard procedure; all Foci could be electric tomorrow if demand switched. There is a dedicated web site, iPhone and Android apps, a hosted community and, in short, they blow the doors off of the competition.

Behold the bev.myFordMobile.com site – click on any picture to display a gallery of fourteen screenshots from web and iPhone app:

The site tracks driving, charging, power consumption, how efficient you are with braking, accelerating and cruising. These stats are then offered up against the local, regional and countrywide community in ranking tables. Following advice from EG I was able to quickly become a Zen Master and hit the number 2 spot!

Going deeper into the online experience reveals a rich well thought out web site. The system allows me to register certain locations as places that I visit and charge at. I can then program up to fourteen “Go Times” that the car understands as cues to both “Value charge”, i.e. plug in when I get home but don’t charge until the middle of the night, but well in time to meet my 6am “Go Time”, and, precondition… And, I can specify the temperature I’d like the car to hit to – no guessing the night before.

I’ve spent quite a while customizing the experience, setting up my locations (which now magically appear on the Nav), my alerts – email me when I start charging and how long it’s anticipated to take and let me know when it’s complete but, text me if there’s a problem during the charge. Oh, and, that’s just my key, EG’s key has a whole different set of statistics and customizations… And, she doesn’t know this yet but, she’s also power limited and with a maximum top speed and stereo volume – that’s the MyKey feature.

A big difference that I’ve seen with the Ford experience has been the dealers. I’ve heard of certain dealers of a Japanese company not really having a clue about charging, the two dealers I’ve encountered so far have both been very helpful, especially George Wall in Tinton Falls – they’re right next door to my office. I strolled over one lunch time and asked if, I was stuck, could I charge my car here? Everyone was more than willing to accommodate – no problem at all, drop the car off when you get to work, pick it up when charged if you don’t mind. I tried that out on Friday – worked a treat.

Over all, I have to say that, I’m impressed with the car, the tech and the dealers – maybe I’ve been missing out all this time.

Final note: Michael takes the Roadster out for fun drives now and really enjoys his time with the Roadster, back to those early days of ownership.  Guess I’ll be waiting a bit longer for my Model S then…

“And then there were three” – three what? Surely not three EV”s?

Well, it turns out that Mitsubishi are offering a rather splendid deal on the i-MiEV and the children need (need is rather a strong word, more they would like) a car to pootle around in so we thought we’d get them an i-MiEV.  Aren’t we just the best parents ever?  Our children will never own a petrol car – what a wonderful thought that is.

Three EV’s – where will they all live?  What will have to be thrown out of the garage? Which car will be left to sit out on its own?  Well, as it turns out, the i-MiEV is on the small side (ed. “Space Efficient”) and will actually tuck in quite nicely behind the Tesla Roadster in our garage arrangement.

The i-MiEV will cost us less for its two year lease than we paid for the down payment on the ActiveE.  That’s pretty good and that has allowed us to put our children in an Electric Car. Everyone’s happy.

What our are first impressions of the i-MiEV?

It’s small but strong, something about an egg and physics (Shrugs Shoulders).  Its range is estimated at 62 miles, not brilliant but perfect for the children’s needs.  It’s not white… Yeah!!!!  And it needs some proper wheels and a bit of pimping out as it’s quite basic. Our car has the winter pack which means that It has the CHAdeMO charging port so can fast charge at the increasing number of DC fast charging locations that are popping up… Hopefully, one might pop up soon that’s in-range so we can try it.

What is it like to drive?  Here I pass the pen to my trusty sidekick as I haven’t actually driven it yet, (we did only pick it up yesterday).

Thanks EG, I get to write the fun part so here goes…

When you first get into the car… no, when you first climb up into the car, the height takes you by surprise. The pictures don’t do justice to the driving position – it’s a very euro-inspired design where interior packaging favours an upright stadium seating arrangement over laid back ‘gangsta styli‘. Anyone who enjoys the commanding driving position of a crossover SUV is going to feel right at home, indeed I found myself looking eye-to-eye at a passing Jeep driver who, oddly, gave me the thumbs up!

I say oddly as the styling of the i-MiEV is a bit binary, a bit polarizing even. Scientifically, it’s brilliant, at just 144″ in length, 62″ wide, – that’s a couple of inches longer than a Fiat 500 or  two foot shorter than a VW Golf - it easily accommodates four, indeed, its first passenger – a 6’9″ gent – could easily sit bolt upright in the rear! Artistically, the curves at the front received immediate approval from my son who has an artistic side but, conventional, in North America, it ‘aint.

Europe has long since adapted to the needs of larger and larger people and ‘stuff’ by moving up instead of out and to a degree has accepted, even begun to admire the ‘new’ packaging designs. With the acceptance comes the benefits, especially in the US. The first, is pulling into a parking space between two SUVs and being able to throw open all four doors to get out, the second, riding high with a panoramic view of the world around us and the last – taking that easy parking spot in NYC that everyone else has blasted past.

Back to the driving seat and, if you focus straight ahead you can imagine yourself behind the wheel of pretty much any mini-van/crossover SUV until you hit the accelerator where the front lifts and you glide forward as though on air. In the rear, undulating sounds of inverters and motor controllers create a real sci-fi feel – I love it already!

Out on the road it’s performance is ok, it’s no rocket ship but beats out most small cars with a satisfying chunky wedge of torque, it certainly never feels inadequate for day-to-day pootling around. Up to 50mph it’s, ‘sufficient.’ Above 50 it starts to feel weaker – it never struggles, no tiny 4-cylinder screaming thrash up front, it just doesn’t blow the doors off, that’s all.

The transmission features three driving modes:

• D – Normal power, negligible regen
• Eco – Weak power at take off (full available with a heavy foot), some regen
• B – Normal power, normal regen

Don’t know what the other two are for but, B is just normal.

At full regen, it’s comparable to the Tesla or the Focus, less than the MINI E or ActiveE.

Handling is, as yet not fully explored – got to leave some fun on the table.

Accommodation is fine, good actually; basic automatic climate control with remote pre-heat, comfortable supportive heated seat(s) and solid build quality that belies the plastic look seen in photos.

Charging is a little low power – 15A at 240V (3.6kW) or just 8A at 120V (960W) however, the battery is equally small at just 16kWh – half the size of the ActiveE so, the end result in terms of charge times is not far off – a day at 120v, overnight at 240v. The difference does come when we look at DC, then we’re down to an 80% charge in 30 mins. I’m looking forward to the availability of cheap, lower power (10kW) portable CHAdeMO wall units – this will give Nissan Leaf and i-MiEV owners access to sporty home charging.

Range. It’s a 16kW battery lurking under the rear seats – we’re not going to the moon. Reports have come in of 80 mile stretches and more but, below freezing, with the heat on ‘toasty’, 50 is where it’s at. I think normal mild weather driving will see mid 60s easily, possibly up to 80+ with care. Now, if we had CHAdeMO every 50 miles, we’d be golden but, that’s not the i-MiEV’s territory… which is a shame as, its supporting seats and smooth ride would really lend themselves to an all-day trek.

Overall, it’s good, clean, simple fun with a refreshing lack of gizmos and gadgets, if I had charging at my office, it’d be my daily driver.

<Back to EG…>

Thanks, perhaps I’ll get to drive it today if I can prize the key out of his hands!

What Mitsubishi have done here is to help kick-start or at least boost EV adoption. This deal takes the cost of EV ownership out of the debate leaving only the issue of range. If that can be overcome, this will simply get bums-on-seats and that, as we all know means more EV grins.

Thanks to José and the team at Bell Mitsubishi for facilitating our entry into this program, please ping me if you’d like to get more details or get on the program ElectraGirl

It has been one whole year since I said a very sad goodbye to the MINI E on that cold and snowy Saturday back in January 2012. I often wonder what happened to our MINI E, I like to think it went to the 2012 Olympics, it would have felt quite at home in the UK.

We have had the ActiveE for one year, we would have hit the one year mark a little earlier than this but I dragged out returning the MINI E for as long as I could. (Shhh don’t tell anyone!) At 51 weeks of owning the ActiveE we hit 22,222.2 miles, (now at 22,700).  This is a lot more than we ever use to do in a year, we use to do between 12,000 and 15,000.  This is partly due to the fact that my daughter has a longer commute, as does Michael and we do rather like driving Electric Cars so can often be found pootling around just for the sheer enjoyment of it!  Also worth noting… The miles in the ActiveE are free miles, no restrictions, so might as well put the majority of our miles on it.

As we hit 22,222.2 miles we stopped to snap a picture of the view from Chester – I’ll be honest, it’s not the best and probably won’t win any prizes.

Here are some of our other views and feelings on the ActiveE after it has been living with us for a year…

It is still white. I had to get that in first, as I can’t wait until I get to choose the colour of my EV – a little hint – it definitely will not be white!

It isn’t the MINI E, which I still really miss and would still rather have.

The ActiveE is quiet and smooth, as we have said many times before so that’s good that that hasn’t changed. How awful would that be if it had suddenly become noisy and un-smooth (is that even a word?)? Straight back to the garage for a new one if that had been the case.  It’s comfortable to ride in and is easy to drive, the one pedal driving is a breeze in the ActiveE.  Why wouldn’t you want regenerative braking?

My ActiveE has been washed 90 times – I blame the whiteness. On average it takes me 30 minutes to wash it, so that means I have spent 45 hours – 2 days! – washing the ActiveE… Oh my goodness, what kind of a life am I living?!  Oh and the inside of the wheels are always super shiny these days thanks to a comment from a certain someone – you know who you are!

We like the pre-conditioning feature, it’s so nice to get into a warm car, although it would be nice not to have to set it every day… sometimes you do just forget.

I’d like the ActiveE to have a steady 100 mile range. It has dipped a little too low this winter, 75 mile predicted range is a little disappointing, that is of course dependant on how the car is driven, gently and you’ll see a bit more, hard and you’ll see less.  For me a car that claimed 125 mile range that dipped to 100 in the winter would be preferable.  Or maybe a 300 mile range EV.

Now, what else?  Oh yes, I have had one nail in tyre… cost $25 to plug by the very nice man at the local tyre place. A little note here, always make sure that you never remove the tyre locking thingy from the car otherwise you have to drive home find where your husband hid it then drive back to the tyre place.  Fortunately the ActiveE has run flat tyres, but that doesn’t save you from the embarrassment!

Hmm, what else is there to report on? The strange noise that the car made when coasting. We made a reservation for the car at the garage and dropped it off with no idea how long it would be. They quickly identified the part to look at; “We’ll have to take it apart and measure it“. They took ‘it’ (not sure what ‘it’ was) apart, measured ‘it’ and re-lubricated ‘it’ and ‘it’ is okay again.  Well it’s kind of okay, as ‘it’ has sort of started back up again but only when it’s really cold out.  Oh well, they can check ‘it’ again at the next service.  Oh, servicing, it comes round far too quickly! Or maybe if we drove less it wouldn’t.  But that wouldn’t be any fun!

Oh, and, the car was only gone for four days, Morristown BMW are definitely getting much better, thanks!

That’s really all there is to say at this point – It’s quiet, smooth, fun and quite nippy. It’s currently working and fingers and toes crossed that it will continue and that it will never leave us stranded as some unfortunate owners have experienced!

Michael says that the best thing about the ActiveE is that, it’s a nice place to be commuting to work and back – it gets on with the job quietly and smoothly. It’s no fireball but then it’s no slouch, it’s no lithe street racer but then it hangs on and carries its weight with finesse. It doesn’t shout “Hey, look at me, I’m future tech!” but… no, hang on, I lost that one, it does shout ”Hey, look at me, I’m future tech!” and, it’s right.

Urgh, I hate winter, nothing works; I don’t work so well, my car doesn’t work so well and even the cats expect an extra scoop of food to keep them working.

Thanks goodness for the Christmas and New Year Holidays to break up the tedium of winter! It doesn’t matter how or where Jesus may have come from – God, his mum, doesn’t matter, because we get to celebrate the birth of a man who thought that it might be a nice idea to get along with each other for a change, and that’s a great excuse to eat a lot of sumptuous food and throw an extra log on the fire to stave of the wintery mix outside.

“Feel the benefit”

As I sat at my in-laws house, the heat from the wood-burning stove almost melted us all. The raging flames inside blasted out an invisible wall of heat into a room that was otherwise crisply cool enough at its edges to ensure that you could “Feel the benefit” as my Gran’ used to say.

Now, why don’t they have wood-burning stoves in cars? I mean, sure, it might be inconvenient and time consuming but, in the near future, when we have self-driving cars, we’ll have lots of extra time for that kind of stuff. Why do we have to make do with battery sapping electric heat? Maybe we don’t, and maybe it’s not that sapping.

I have a 76 mile round trip commute each day and, left to my own devices, I’ll have the inside of the car warm enough to make the stereo controls go soft. This is fine – I have a Tesla Roadster (‘Roaster‘), it has more electrical power behind my head than a small sub-station and I don’t care if I have to fill it up every day – nice! Well, until I have to take the ActiveE ’cause the Roaster’s in the shop.

In the summer, I could do the daily commute with 20 miles to spare at the end but now, with sub-zero temperatures and thin blood from living in the USA for too long, I don’t know if I can make it. However, I’ve been experimenting and, with ZERO tow-truck-home events I can report how. But first, why no wood-burning stove?

It seems that there are three ways to heat an electric car:

1 – Super-simple-Tesla

The Tesla takes the simplest approach to heating – a 4kW electric air heater with a thermostatic control. The Tesla approach places a simple electric element heater driven straight off the battery at 300-400v. On a cold morning there’s warm air flooding out before I’ve turned the car around in the driveway. It’s lightweight and compact but, it does ‘fry’ the  air a little – just like those little fan heaters you can buy. Until recently, it struggled to keep the cabin warm on the coldest of mornings and Tesla owning friends up north in Canada talk of frosty feet for most of the year. Post recent upgrade, where Tesla fitted extra insulation into the cabin and re-routed the airflow things are much more toasty with the coldest weather, so far this year, not being able to defeat it.

But, I’m not the only one that needs heat – the battery pack is also in need of warmth on these dark nights. Tesla fits a smaller, utility power-fed immersion heater into the coolant (I know – silly name right now) lines that switches on before charging to make sure that the batteries are toasty (well, not frozen) when being charged.

As lithium ion batteries can be damaged through charging when the temperature is really low -20°C / -4°F the Roadster will spend up to an hour in the depths of winter warming up the batteries before charging. Tesla even offers a ‘Storage’ mode that keeps the batteries around 20% charge whilst you’re away on your holidays. Over Christmas whilst in the UK, I received notifications from the car every day or so to let me know that a charging cycle had started with a little warm-up first. Tesla aims to keep the temperature of the batteries at a lifetime average of 25°C / 77°F.

It’s probably worth mentioning here that, if you’re thinking of buying an electric car, you needn’t fear damaging the batteries with cold temperature. Whilst they can be damaged by exposure to extreme high temperatures of 60°C / 140°F and above, the cold doesn’t harm them. They still work at -40°C / -40°F but the performance is very poor due to high internal resistance (true of me at low temperatures too) and they can be damaged if charged at high currents at those low temperatures.

2 – Bolt-on-ActiveE

The ActiveE makes use of a 4.5kW immersion water heater. Based on the plumbing that the donor car has, BMW added an electric water heater, with three heating elements, powered from the high voltage battery at 250-400v, into the cooling circuit. This heats up the water as an old fashioned ICE car might have done back in the day, circulating it around a heat exchanger to pass that heat into the cabin. The results, whilst a little slower to get going, delivers a more traditional high volume of warm air instead of the Tesla’s smaller quantity of lightly super-heated O₂.

The ActiveE also needs to heat the batteries. To do that, it opens a valve to divert the cooling loop around the batteries. Interestingly, this means that it can’t heat both the batteries and the cabin at the same time.

The ActiveE offers a convenient ‘pre-heat’ feature that allows the car to be warmed up before it’s needed on a morning. Set from a timer or, from a remote iPhone App when you remember, it operates in two stages:

1. Battery heat – the system heats the coolant to warm the battery up to 20°C / 68°F
2. Cabin heat – Once the battery hits the right temperature, the heat is diverted to the cabin to warm it up.

The time taken to complete the cycle varies greatly depending upon the temperature of the battery but, at around freezing point, general consensus says that it takes about an hour to complete the cycle.

Is it worth pre-heating? Oh yes! Not only is the cabin warm but the whole cooling system is toasty and it acts as a large heat reserve. The battery is also kept warm, this ensures that it performs well (full power for rapid acceleration) but also, it can take the full output from the motors re-generation which, combined with not having to take battery power to heat the cabin means a significant increase in range.

3 – Fire!

Unsurprisingly given the cold winters, Volvo, based in Sweden, decided that the power consumed by electric heat would not be a reasonable compromise. They chose to add a catalytic heater powered by a small 12L tank of bio-ethanol. However, fear not good friends of the earth, the Volvo system includes all three solutions – a pre-heater warming the water system, a hot-air heater and the bio-ehtanol solution so, for shorter range trips electric can be used but for those chilly skandi winters, bio-ethanol will keep the range up and your toes toasty. (I want one but ElectraGirl says ‘Just take a blanket!‘)

One thing all EVs have in common though is electric seat heaters – why use a 4+kW heater to warm the air when you can just warm the human for a fraction of the power… just 100w max in the case of the Tesla. This does seem to make sense as I found out this week traveling 76 miles a day at sub-zero temperatures on the highway, in comfort.

“76 miles with loads to spare”

Before setting off, I pre-heat the car. This can be pre-programmed the night before.

As you can see, there’s plenty of power when we set off – 73 miles for a 76 mile journey – easy pfft!

As the car is already warm I can set the heating fairly conservatively but, here’s where I seem to have found a bug in the HVAC, or at least ours. From time-to-time, when set to full auto, the ActiveE (our ActiveE anyway) will sometimes turn on the heating full on and direct that hot air to the upper vents. I can’t have uncontrolled hot air puffing out so I’ve set the air distribution and fan to manual with just temperature left on auto:

Also, note the recirculate setting – keeping that warm air inside – and, seat heater on.

For those that aren’t familiar with the ActiveE, there is a driving mode called ‘EcoPro’ – I am an eco pro so I don’t need this, plus, it uses more power than I do as it turns off the seat heater – baffled? I am.

What you can’t see in these photos is me – For reference, I’m wearing my long coat, my cap and, a blanket Yes, you read it, I’m not writing that any bigger – EG insisted and who am I to argue? With my cap and… the rest, I look like my Grandad… in 1940.

“I cruise at 65mph”

My journey is essentially just a winding trip down the mountain then two stretches of flat, level highway. I cruise that at 65mph, day-in-day-out – ignore the gauge on the left, that’s its way of showing 65mph:

Some time later, and we’re there:

The journey home is a little more stressful. The first 8% of battery disappears in a few miles as the heater claws to get the cabin up to 18°C / 64°F.

As an aside: I’ve been surprised at the number of people that, upon learning that the Tesla cabin heater is 4kW begin to work out in their head – “er, I have a two hour commute, that’s 4kW each hour, that’s 8kWh, that’s 32 miles range! Wow!” – STOP!

Like the cabin heater, the seat heater and your home heating won’t run flat-out all the time. Once the selected temperature is reached, the heater backs down or even switches off altogether. This has the effect of using full power initially but far less, even zero, once the car is warmed up – another reason why consumption isn’t easy to calculate.

With the car warmed up, consumption falls and we’re home with plenty to spare:

…No, really, you try walking 4 miles and then tell me that’s not far! Actually, 4 is a poor prediction, I’ve probably got 8 in there – my last 7 miles of driving are right back up the mountain – just enough for the guess-o-meter to begin with the pessimistic predictions.

But what are the variables? What if I’d driven faster, slower, set the heat higher?

Well, without wanting to get stranded in the ActiveE, I’ve been looking at the consumption of power in the Tesla to see what difference exists and, I can report, it’s a lot and the biggest culprit in the winter range issue; not the cold battery, not the wind and rain but – cabin heating.

The Tesla, in summer averages about 225Whr/mile / 4.4mls/kWh with consumption increasing as the days get longer. With no heat on in the Tesla (that was chilly!) the consumption on a cold but dry day was no different than summer, on a wet and windy day, the consumption rose to 235Whr/mile / 4.25mls/kWh but, on a cold, dry day with the heat on consumption rose to 290Whr/mile / 3.4mls/kWh, in fact, on one day I had it up to 333Whr/mile / 3.0mls/kWh !

How was range affected? Well, without running the battery flat each day, this is trickier to determine however, the Roadster tracks the available range based on the effective storage capacity of the battery – basically, it watches how much power goes in and what comes out to maintain a measured AHr rating for the pack. This rating manifests itself as an estimated ‘Idea range’, i.e. how far the car will go in summer at 55mph with no AC on. When the car was new, a standard charge would yield as much as 192 miles in summer, three years in and that’s down to 187 but, in winter that falls. Today, with a cold battery it can be as low as 181 – that is to say, the impact of a cold battery (10°C / 50°F) is equal to 6 miles range compared to a summer battery around 30°C / 86°F. Switch to looking at the estimated range and the picture is very different – with no heat, it’s about the same as the ideal, maybe a few miles under as I’m traveling 10mph faster. Switch on the heat and, well, we’re down to an estimated 160 miles – that’s a 30+ mile difference or about 16-20%. This also ties in with our experience in the ActiveE which falls from a summer high of 95 miles to 80 in the cold winter.

Another aside/rat-run: I’ve been experimenting with charging at a slower rate all night instead of a fast charge as soon as I get home – the idea being to keep the batteries warm all night – the result is positive. By tuning the current to restore all of the charge through the night (11A at 240v btw) the Ideal range and therefore the battery capacity has increased from 181 miles to 184 miles. Only three, yes, but, three for free!

What’s the problem, is there a fix?

The problem is that there is, IMO, a great deal of mis-understanding around the impact on range, that the cold weather has – it can be significant and it can, not. Add to this speed, wind, terrain and general sun-spot activity and you have a really complex model. So far, gut feel seems the most accurate but, you need a few winters behind you before that kicks in. What about the EV ‘newb’? They buy a 100mile EV, jump in, fire up the heat, head out on the highway and spend the afternoon making small-talk with the tow truck guy.

Another solution might be more sophisticated prediction systems – the car knows that I drive to work each day – it’s been with me every time – it could look at the hvac settings  and, understanding the history of the terrain and the weather at the destination it could  make a suggestion – “I don’t think you should do that Dave” – it’d be nice if it knew my name though.

The last, unspeakable solution, might be to include a back up power source like a gasoline engine, hmm, not my cup of tea but it might be a better solution until we get this predictive stuff nailed.

— Regular coverage will return next time —

To learn more about Volvo’s solution:

I must point out first that Sandy was never invited to come and visit us, she just took it upon herself to call by.

This Sandy that visited us was a rather nasty hurricane that made straight for New Jersey.  We had prepared for her arrival – we purchased food that could be cooked on the gas hob, charged the cars up until they were bursting with electrons, put away any lightweight objects outside, moved some things from upstairs in case a tree should want to lay on the house for a rest. And then we waited.

The day of her arrival was calm but, there was definitely something in the air, you knew something was going to happen, but when?  As the wind began to pick up late Monday afternoon we knew things were not going to be good. As it went dark the wind picked up its pace significantly. Against the night sky you could see the silhouette of the trees moving in the wind.  Remind me – why were we allowing Sandy to visit?

At 7:30pm, sudden darkness – the electricity was gone, the power was out.

It’ll be okay, we stocked up on something called petrol for the generator, enough for four days – as with the previous two storms. No problem, could be quite fun really!

As the evening wore on and the wind became more ferocious, I wasn’t liking the sound of it at all, there was a lot of creaking and snapping sounds. The night sky was lit up with exploding transformers – this was not good.  All I could think of was a night of no sleep as thoughts of trees coming down and hitting the house were a little too vivid in my mind.

Tuesday morning – it was surprisingly calm, the wind was gone and Sandy had moved on to visit someone else. We had minimal damage to the house and the trees were still where they were supposed to be, we’d been lucky in that respect as I know a lot of people had suffered some major damage.  We went out for a walk around our street and we certainly wouldn’t be going anywhere in the cars, not that day anyway. There were wires, trees and broken poles down all over the place. Lots of people were out surveying the aftermath of our visit from Sandy.  I do not think Sandy is very nice and still cannot understand the need for a visit.

So began our time with no electricity.  The petrol powered generator had enough fuel for at least four days and we used it to power the refrigerator and the lights for a bit in the late afternoon.  Our hot water soon ran out and with no electricity to heat anymore up, it meant boiling pans of water for washing. After lights out at night we’d play Monopoly by LED battery light in front of the gas fire. Hey, how come you suddenly have hotels on all your properties?

With the schools closed we didn’t need to venture out at all. People with petrol cars were panicking as the petrol stations had lost power – no electricity to run the pumps. I think most people forgot that you need electricity to pump the petrol. When we did venture out on day four with our 300 miles of total range intact, we drove past long lines of people waiting to get fuel for their cars and for their generators – no fun for anyone.

As we neared the end of our first week with no power, we heard that classes were to resume for our daughter and that meant lots of driving to get her to and from class at Rutgers. We needed to be able to charge the cars up and we were fortunate enough to locate a charging station just 30 minutes walk from our house. It was open and free to the public, oh thank you company ‘C’.  This is brilliant, drive the car there, plug in, walk home, wait for a couple of hours, walk back and get the car.  Nobody else is using it so it works out well and we get an hours worth of exercise!

We had been using this charging station for three days when we received an email telling us there’d been a mistake, it wasn’t supposed to be open to the public, it was solely intended for the private use of company ‘C’.  It was promptly switched off. What! We had no electricity, no one was using the charging station and you are turning it off. Oh thanks a lot, glad you care when we are really in a time of need.  Letter sent to CEO… that was almost 3 weeks ago, unsurprisingly no response at all. To quote our friend Mary,

“The world is watching you“.

Without the compassion of Company ‘C’, our nearest charging station is a 30 minute drive away at Rutgers.  We were going there anyway to drop off our daughter but it means we are stuck there whilst the car charges – it’s just a little bit too far to walk home. The people at the CAIT building are wonderful, they were more than happy for us to charge there, they offered us coffee (don’t personally drink coffee but it’s the thought that counts) and somewhere to sit if we wanted (take note CEO of Company ‘C’!).  Charging takes a long time, 3 hours at least and we lose part of that on the 14 mile journey home.  We didn’t turn the heat on to conserve the battery but eventually our fingers were so cold that we could no longer feel them, so reluctantly turned on the heat and winced as the battery percentage went down even quicker.

Day 9: Seriously? It’s snowing!

A huge thank you to Rutgers for allowing us to charge whenever we liked and for as long as we needed to do.  A huge boo to company ‘C’, I hope you are feeling good about yourself. Why did you put the charging station in if no one is allowed to charge and no one that works there is using it?  Let me know when you have an answer.

We survived thirteen days without electricity, the first four days were kind of fun, but by day six, enough was enough! We were stuck with not being able to charge the cars easily – we are spoilt, it is so nice to be able to plug them in when you need to. But, saying that, we did manage quite well. The Tesla Roadster gave us 240 miles worth of driving and we were lucky in that we could easily cover the essentials. We used the ActiveE to go to and from Rutgers charging up on each journey. We were never left stranded.

For the next time that one of Sandy’s friends visits, and I know there will be a next time, we are putting in a whole house generator, one that is powered by natural gas, something that has less of an environmental impact than that of diesel or gasoline. It will have enough power to charge the cars and heat the hot water – just the necessities.

We had thought about using the cars to power the house and we read how some people have done just that with their converted prii. However, two problems exist at the moment – one, we don’t have a suitable connector to do that and two, if we used up the cars batteries and then needed to go somewhere… we would be stuck!

One other thing that we noticed, as we charged up at Rutgers, we tried to imagine what life would look like if all of the cars in the car park were electric. With each car programmed to charge up through the day, the load would be huge and the investment significant. But, they’d only need that if the power was out at home. A future of electric cars will not add a load to the grid in the way that we’ve all thought about and that detractors cite: “Not enough power”. We know that’s rubbish but, what the grid will need to be is something that it isn’t today – Dependable.

What fun can I have with the Tesla Roadster this summer? Oh, I know – how many miles range can I get the Tesla Roadster up to? Gosh this is going to be - Such fun!

The Tesla Roadster has two gauges - The first is an ‘Ideal miles’ gauge which is the range you’ll get if you’re driving at a steady 55 mph on the motorway. This is normally about 187 miles on a standard charge and 240 miles on a full range charge. The range charge squeezes every last electron into the battery pack for those long ‘range’ journeys. The second gauge is an ‘Estimated’ range which reports how many miles to empty while you are driving the way you are driving at the moment. Tesla reckon that if I drive the car how it’s designed to be driven I’ll get 187 miles to empty… I think I can do better than that.

‘A wise man once told me that it is far, far better to cruise than to Regen.’

Let’s see what happens… The first morning of driving the Tesla saw its ‘range’ miles stand at 198, hmm okay, that’s already better than Tesla’s reckoning. On the second morning it’s at 222, on the third morning it’s 238, and while driving it went up to 247 – so I must be driving it correctly (ed: Or not!). The fourth morning it was at 238 again, – hang on, did Michael go out in it that night? – but, then Michael did drive it for a couple of days and it went back down to 160… he must have been driving it rather quickly! When I drove it again after the rather dismal 160 I managed to get it back up to 192 just driving it gently on a 10 mile journey. I’d be interested to see what I can get the range up to over a weeks worth of driving – Michael can have the ActiveE for a whole week… But, does that mean that the ActiveE will come back with a low range?  I expect so… Ugh!

Well the fun didn’t last long – my personal mileage challenge has taken a complete nose dive. I think Michael saw me having too much fun with the Roadster and couldn’t take it anymore! Everytime he drives it, the estimated range is always down to 160, so I spend the whole day (35 miles) driving gently and usually manage to get it back up to 200. Maybe I should hide the keys so he can’t take the Tesla Roadster until I’ve at least driven it for the whole week. As each Monday morning rolls around, it’s looking promising that I’ve got the Roadster for the week, but then by Tuesday evening, “I need to go further than the ActiveE’s range tomorrow so I’ll have to take the Roadster”, says Michael… hmm… I think it’s more that he misses his Tesla!

My conclusion – I have been able to get the range of the Tesla Roadster up to 247 miles on a ‘standard’ charge and would probably have maintained that range if I was driving it all the time – that’s a third more than Tesla estimate – could I get an extra 80 out of a ‘range’ charge? Could I get 320 miles on a full charge? In 2009, a couple of Aussies managed to go 313 miles in the blazing heat of the Australian outback – perhaps I should have been driving!

I consider my local attempt to be a success and will continue trying to improve on that when I get the chance to drive it again and, if I have the car for more than a couple of days.  I’m going to be doing more miles per day than Michael soon so I’m back to the ActiveE… am I sad about that?  Actually, yes I am a little, however, the roads I will be driving on are not that great, there are so many potholes, so I’d rather be in the ActiveE for that.

My other conclusion (and I expect the truth)… I think Michael was just a little bit jealous that I was driving the Tesla Roadster.

Oh and by the way – the ActiveE came back with a very low 3.6 mls/kWh after the swap. I had left it at the beginning of this swap at 4.2 mls/kWh. It has taken almost 4 weeks of my driving (but then Michael ruins things at the weekends) to get it back to 4.1 mls/kWh.

*Interesting note* – the ActiveE has returned from it’s third service (only a day and a half this time – well done BMW!) with a little problem. It would appear that some software update or something has me able to maintain a rather good 4.5 mls/kWh for over a week now, I’m even seeing 4.6. Here’s the problem – I’m now on a mission with the ActiveE to see how high I can get the mls/kWh up to – sorry everyone who’s driving behind me!!  Now, if only there wasn’t quite so many hills around here…

What affects efficiency?

Well that’s easy… Speed, hills and temperature.

Speed – The faster you drive the less efficient the car is as it works harder and harder against wind resistance.

Hills – We’re talking uphill here… well that just ruins everything as the car has to literally lift itself up! It’s not a lightweight car but, whilst it’s true that it’s weight actually improves the performance of the regenerative braking, overall, it still loses more than it gains.

Temperature – As the outside temperature starts to go down, so does the mileage range even with temperature managed batteries – at lower temperatures, the batteries can’t soak up as much energy, nor can they release it as efficiently. Using the heater in the car reduces the range too – precondition whenever you can.

The plan for this summer was for Michael and I to switch cars as he was going to be driving more miles per day than me. He’ll be taking the ActiveE most week days – we might as well put those extra miles on the ActiveE as that has unlimited mileage. That means I’ll be driving the Tesla Roadster – this will be interesting.  It will also be interesting for Michael to see how he gets on with the ActiveE and if he can survive not driving the Tesla Roadster on a regular basis.  Maybe I’ll let him blog about his experience… after all he is my trusty sidekick!

Let’s do a quick (it will be quick) comparison of the BMW ActiveE and the Tesla Roadster… Well they are both cars and both electric but that is where the comparison ends.  They are such different cars to drive.  The Tesla Roadster is definitely a sports car whereas the ActiveE is a more leisurely ride.  I said it would be quick!

But the question is, would I choose the Tesla Roadster over the ActiveE?

For quite a while now I haven’t been a huge sports car person, the closest I’ve ever had to a sports car was an Audi TT, and that was 11 years ago.  We had the first model of TT and I would have to say the best. I really don’t care for the newer TT’s and rather dislike the latest model. The TT had a slightly softer suspension than the Roadster, but still a firm ride.  All our cars have had a firm suspension, it makes a huge difference when you have car sick people in the family, but, I’m drifting here… The Audi TT was the car for me, I had dreamt of owning one and was over the moon when Michael said, “Yes”.  I had so much fun driving that car and was therefore very disappointed, some may even say sad, when we had to give it back after only a year.  I had hoped to have it for at least three years, at least until the children couldn’t fit in the back anymore, but we made the decision to move to America and it wasn’t feasible to bring the car with us.  With selling it, any desire on my part for a future sports car was gone.  None would ever compare to the Audi TT – a tear rolls down my cheek.

We all know my thoughts on the ActiveE, it’s quiet, smooth to drive and oh yes, it’s still white no matter how often I wash it!  BMW certainly know how to do a good paint job on their cars… it isn’t coming off or wearing thin at all! I’d have thought by now I’d be down to the steel.  On the other hand the Tesla Roadster while also quiet unless accelerating (not that I accelerate quickly… most definitely not… just ask the drivers behind me!), is not quite so smooth as it has a very hard suspension but the good part – it’s silver! It doesn’t take much to make me happy!!! The noise from the Tesla is great… I’m just driving along with the windows open, hair flying everywhere, listening to the birds singing, the crickets chirping and the Tesla motor accelerating and decelerating.

Both cars are fun to drive in their own way. When we decided to do this switch, my first thought was “Oh no, back to a bumpy ride”.  But I was wrong, yes the first ride is bumpy – but then I’ve been driving the ActiveE.  After the first journey it just seems normal, it isn’t really bumpy and actually rides rather smoothly, well as smooth as you can get on these NJ roads – I pick my routes carefully these days to avoid as many potholes as possible! The steering at slow speeds is heavy compared to the ActiveE as it lacks any assistance – I’m going to have some super strong arms by the end of the summer, which would be why after three days of driving the Tesla I over-corrected and almost hit the curb turning into a road with the ActiveE!!!

Now we have reached the end of the swap, I’ve found that driving the Tesla Roadster is actually proving to be quite enjoyable, it’s just so responsive, like the TT. They are actually quite similar in that they are both fun to drive and handle extremely well, sticking to the road and providing lots of feedback through the steering wheel.  The one big difference of course – one has an engine and the other doesn’t. Maybe there is something that does compare after all – I’m now rather interested to see what Tesla’s new roadster will be like, not sure when it will be out, maybe in a couple or three years.

The end of my long, hot summer - well that was a rather chilly two weeks in the UK and two weeks of driving my mum’s Fiat Panda.  That also meant two weeks of no Electric Cars… Michael’s withdrawal symptoms were so bad that he had to take to his bed for two days!  Firstly, I must say that I am grateful that my mum lets us drive her car while we are there but, oh dear, I’m not sure what the problem is with the car apart from it having an engine and needing something expensive called petrol to make it go, but, it’s so herky jerky all the time!  It has an automatic transmission crossed with a manual… don’t even ask… it’s just too weird.  If you drive it gently, it’s jerky, drive it firmly – still jerky, it doesn’t seem to matter how you drive it, you just can’t get it to drive smoothly. I guess at the end of the day I have been rather spoilt (and I’ll admit I’m okay with that) by driving all electric cars – so smooth, so quiet… That’s all there is, there isn’t anymore.

This is an addendum to my blog about the Tesla Model S. http://electragirl.com/s/

Popped up to the Sheraton Hotel in Mahwah today to drive the Tesla Model S.  As we came off I-287 we spotted a rather nice looking S in the rear view mirror drawing close to us, so guessed we were probably in the right place.  After the usual greetings by the Tesla staff, (seems they all know Michael or know of him!), we signed in and waited our turn to drive the S.  We test drove the performance model… A special thanks goes out to Raphael and the crew for today.

Back home and I have just three words to describe the experience…

Wow! Amazing! Sold!

Check out a short video

25th June 2012 – We’re at 11,111.1 miles.

We are back out cycling, it’s so good to be back on the bicycle again after almost a year out of the saddle, (I had an accident a year ago  - or maybe it wasn’t an accident… Did Michael deliberately throw his water bottle under my back wheel? Hmm).  We’ve been trying to decide how best to fit the bicycles on the back of the ActiveE so we can head out to our favourite place to cycle. Do we buy a cycle rack that’s made for the BMW 1 series or try an off the shelf one?  Well, we already have one that we used on the MINI E so Michael set about seeing if it would fit the ActiveE… it does and very nicely too. The only problem we have with the bicycles on the back is when you go into reverse the reversing sensors are on continuously.

A little note on cyclists and cars – For all of those out there who think that cyclists can’t hear the ActiveE or other Electric Cars… well we can’t hear most of the new petrol cars either.  Imagine standing on the top of a cliff with the wind blowing, that’s what we hear while we’re cycling, particularly when we’re going at 18 + miles an hour.  Please don’t beep your horn at us, it isn’t going to help. We follow the rules of the road (just as we do when we’re driving) and cycle as close to the edge as we can, while avoiding pot holes and small furry creatures, oh and sometimes baby snapping turtles too.

Cycling to Servicing – Tuesday 5th June and the ActiveE went off for its second service. As I drove to the dealer I never expected that I’d be without the car for 4 days!  I definitely did not expect to be driving a Datsun Sentra instead. Oh my gosh – that car is so awful, it’s wheels were barely connected to the steering wheel and it bounced around all over the place, very sick making.

Day 1 – I arrived at the dealer for what I thought was a regular service and it’d only be about an hour like last time, because no one had rung me from the dealer to say otherwise, because of course they would let me know if they needed it for longer ahead of time… that’s the courteous thing to do right?  Apparently not.  I was told by the service guy in charge of the ActiveE that they needed it overnight so they could have it on the charger to make sure all was okay.  So hang on a minute, they knew they were going to keep it overnight and that I hadn’t arranged a courtesy car but they didn’t ring me… I don’t get it, seems a little remiss of them.

Day 2 – While waiting for the phone call to say I could pick it up, Michael rings me instead to say they need it longer as they have to take the motor out and lubricate it.  Now why didn’t they ring me I wonder?!!!  I’m not happy to say the least.  It’s going to be another two days… Ugh.  I’m resigned to driving only the most necessary of journeys, that being to drop of and pick up at school, I can’t possibly drive the Datsun anymore than that… I really would be sick.

Day 3 – Nothing.

Day 4 – Finally Michael (not me, again) gets the phone call to say the ActiveE is ready and we can pick it up.  By the time we arrive at the dealer, a 40 minute drive, Michael is ready to be sick also… see I wasn’t lying!

Anyway it’s great to have the ActiveE back again, just wish I’d known in advance about this problem, then at least I could have been better prepared.

A note to BMW -

Dear BMW, How nice it would be to hear from you a little more often so you can keep us up to date on the latest happenings with the ActiveE, whether that be good or bad, we don’t like surprises, (well not the ones that mean we are without our cars for 4 days or more).  We are testing these cars for you at an expense to us.  We are more than happy (and do so frequently at all the Green Fairs that we take the ActiveE) to promote your electric car and the upcoming i3 so a little courtesy towards us would be really nice.

It would be great if BMW had a fleet of courtesy electric cars, like the Leaf or Mitsubishi i-MiEV, to hand over to ActiveE drivers while the cars are being serviced.  That would make for a much more pleasant experience and make being without our cars a little less painful. Bring back the MINI E !

I see that BMW have just opened their first i store in London, might have to pop along next time we’re over in the UK and see it, maybe we’ll be able to go after we’ve had our yearly meeting with the Queen. I wonder if it will be the same amazing experience that we have received at the Tesla dealer.

As it’ll be a while before we hit all of the 2s and as I’m not the only lady driving an EV out there I wonder if you’d like to join in? If you’re a lady and you have any stories that you’d like to share about your EV experiences, please drop me a line at electragirl@electragirl.com – we’d love to feature some guest posts here!

Here’s my friend Elizabeth’s car sunning itself in Princeton. I can’t take the heat so I had to park in the shade.

The general public will start to get their Tesla Model S Signature cars today.  Two cars have already been handed over to their owners.  One of those being Elon Musk… of course.

Back in May we went to Tesla’s grand opening evening of their new store in White Plains NY - thought we’d pop along to see the Model S, again, this time in a near production state. They had four cars on display in different colours, the silver looks great but unfortunately, I didn’t get to look at it up close as Michael was talking to George Blankenship, the Vice President of Worldwide Sales and Ownership Experience at Tesla Motors… for rather a long time. But that’s okay, I was happy to listen to them talk as I was happy knowing what I wanted, when you know what you want… you know right? I know that silver’s definitely my colour. Over the last year we’ve seen previous versions that haven’t been very finished. Michael’s been fortunate to ride in a prototype but my first sighting was “look but don’t touch”, next came “sit there while we play” and then finally “have a sit in and play as much as you like but we have the keys.” Having a look around, this last one is so much more refined. The car is lovely, it’s very sleek looking and has a feeling of superior quality. Have you seen those 21″ wheels in Carbon Gray?  They are going to look awesome on “my” silver “S”.

The Tesla Model S has a feeling of 5 star luxury as soon as you see it and the good news is that the car has been awarded a full 5-star crash rating by the NHTSA.  Where to begin… Well, for a start it’s extremely comfortable.  It has five full adult seats plus, as an optional extra, you can get two jump seats in the back for children up to the age of about 10.  There is so much luggage space in the boot as well as under the bonnet, in the US that’s called the front trunk or “Frunk”, we call it the “Froot”.  It has a 17 inch touchscreen within reach of one’s fingertips that has the controls for the heating, volume, lights, door locks, to mention just a few.  It has sat nav, bluetooth and even the internet, but that’s for when you are not driving, of course.  The car is already very aerodynamic and to help with that the door handles are tucked away flat against the car. With your unique key they slide out as you approach the car and you just have to touch them to unlatch them.  Once sat down, latching the seatbelt automatically powers up the car. It really does seem that they have thought of everything.

The Tesla Model S comes with different battery options so you can choose which mileage range you want, they even do a 300 mile range (265 miles E.P.A.) one, now that would be wonderful.  You really could do all those long drives without having to worry, especially as Tesla are going to be putting in high speed charging stations in motorway service stations that’ll recharge 150miles in around 20 minutes. That 400 mile trip from my house to Canada would be a breeze. It’s certainly ticking lots of the boxes on my “What I’d like to have in an electric car” list.

It really is a well thought out car and a true family electric car, it has all that you could wish for and more.  I’d love to have one and we are seriously considering it. There are just so many wonderful things about the car and the extra mileage would be useful.  So we’ll see, there’s lots to think about.  They also come in different colour options… Maybe I already said that, but did I mention that it comes in silver?