Cradle to Grave Emissions

A recurring argument against electric cars (made unsurprisingly by those with a certain political agenda) is that they're not actually cleaner than the status quo. People will talk about theories of "long tailpipe" emissions from coal power plants, and the impact of building and shipping the huge batteries required. Of course, these arguments are mostly theoretical when used about electric cars, with no data to support them.

The long tailpipe of a Nissan Leaf

So what of this argument? Is a Nissan Leaf really worse for climate change than a Honda Civic? Thankfully, some nerds over at the Union of Concerned Scientists got together and studied the issue. They published a report late last year on their findings, and the outcome is really quite interesting.

To make a long story short, an Electric Vehicle emits fewer greenhouse gases, from cradle to grave, than the equivalent gas-powered car. And how much better is mostly dependent on where you live.

(Really, Fucking Coal, Michigan?)

The chart above shows the equivalent average MPG necessary to equal an EV's greenhouse gas emissions for each region in the US. Even the dirtiest coal-reliant areas are about on par with a gas-powered Honda Civic or Toyota Corolla. Cat-loving region MROW and the phallic ERCT region of Texas are midpack. The cleanest areas like NYUP emit the same amount of greenhouse gas as a theoretical 135mpg car. Michigan, which produces no coal itself yet relies heavily on coal plants for power generation, unsurprisingly brings up the rear. 

(Smug emissions not shown)

As the graphic above shows in blue, the impact of battery manufacturing on greenhouse gas emissions is so small as to be inconsequential in comparison to the lifetime emissions of the vehicle itself. 

The great news for EV drivers is that their existing car gets cleaner each year, as the grid improves and the slow move towards renewable energy continues. As the table above shows, from 2009 to 2012 our nation decreased its use of coal - the dirtiest of all fuels - from 45% of all electricity generation to about 37%, a trend that is likely to continue. 

Of course, greenhouse gas emissions are only one measure of how clean a vehicle is, and defining the impact of EVs on particulates, NOx, and the physical impact on the environment was not within the scope of this report. 

Still, feel free to ignore that part, and use the above facts to bludgeon your opponents while arguing over the internet. It's the American way!

I've Made a Huge Mistake

You probably don’t recall – I certainly don’t – that at one point I proclaimed, on this very space, that buying an electric car was an actof stupidity. Leasing rather than buying an EV is vastly preferable in many ways:

• Less exposure to questionable resale values
•  Less exposure to questionable long-term reliability
• Subsidized lower monthly payments
•  Keeps you in the newest battery technology

I was holding out for Mitsubishi's new Wedge-Shaped-Object

Only a very stupid person would buy an electric car. I just so happen to be a very stupid person, and so it should surprise nobody that I recently found myself at a dealership, purchasing an electric car.

Specifically, I bought the Leaf I had already been driving for 30 months, which had about 6 months left on the lease. Why? Because math.

You can't argue with the truth.

NMAC (Nissan Monkey Accounting Cooperative) called me up as my lease was nearing completion. I was offered a large sum of money - $7500 – off the residual of the lease if I would please, pretty please, buy it instead of turning it in. My payoff amount, just $14,800 including the six remaining payments on the lease, meant I could walk out of the dealership with a 2 year old car, with under 25,000 miles, for just over $7,000. That's a deal even Bixby Snyder could get behind. 

The primates also threw in a free shirt.

For me, this was a great deal, but does it make sense for Nissan?  By offering so much off the lease buyout, Nissan might be trying to stem the flow of used Leafs (Leaves?) entering the market to shore up their already terrible resale value. On the flip side, Nissan might be shooting themselves in the foot by selling a very inexpensive used Leaf to those ending their leases, instead of trying to get them into a new Leaf.

2017 Nissan Leaf (artist's rendering)

Whatever the thinking, I found it hard to pass up the bargain, so I took it. The sum total of down payment, dealer fees, lease payments, monkey t-shirt swag, and residual ends up being just under $15,000. Not a bad price to pay for a brand new 2013 Nissan Leaf SV - less than half the original MSRP. Enough savings to splurge for a new vinyl wrap.

My daughter preferred Twilight Sparkle, but it's my car dammit, so I went with Fluttershy. 

Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in.

Sweet Jesu, I’m back.

After a series of setbacks, a physician has finally cleared your dear blogger to resume scrivening. What has happened to me, you may ask justifiably. Read on for a tale of woe, and I will share what I know.

Nearly 2 years ago I undertook a project, attempting to mate the drivetrain of a Nissan Leaf with the remarkable shell of the Mitsubishi Bean-Shaped-Car (or was it Car-Shaped-Bean?). 

(Mitsubishi Mi-EV)

 

Understandably, these plans went nowhere, due a complete and total lack of understanding on my part of the finer points of engineering, product design, and reality in general. I ended up out of the energy to keep up even this meager blog, much like a Nissan Leaf being slowly overtaken by a yellow turtle within a deflector shield.

 

My Leaf-Related Experiences

If you trudged through the drivel above, I now present to you an accounting of mechanical problems I have actually encountered in 30 months of Nissan Leaf stewardship.  

1. For the second time, in sub-zero weather (that’s Fahrenheit, you socialist Canadians), the heater gave up the ghost. Once again it required a week of dealer care to fix, and I’d be wary of how much it would cost to replace when out of warranty. I would guess, based on pure speculation, that the replacement of the heater would run around $3000 USD.
2. Around the same time, a front control arm assembly became obnoxiously squeaky, and required replacement, and less than a year later, ominous clunks and squeaks are once again emanating from the recesses of whatever linkages of struts, springs, and devil’s machination with which the Leaf suspends itself. 
3. Annoyingly, the driver’s side door is off-kilter, and doesn’t seem to seat properly. 
4. And hanging over the whole experience is an eerie whirring and whistling sound from the electric drive, which the mechanic assures me they can’t duplicate, and is totally normal anyway, and WILL I PLEASE SHUT UP!

So with all these problems, and the previous post about the idiocy of buying an EV when lease rates are the far better deal, I must be looking for a new lease deal right? In an upcoming post, we’ll discuss the EV options that have become available, and some that hang on the horizon.

 

Charging Etiquette

Given that electric vehicle ownership is not yet mainstream, it may come as no surprise to the gas-burners among you that charging stations are not easy to find in the Metro Detroit area.

Finding a charging station that will actually allow you to use it is a multifactorial problem. First, you must find a station, which is made more difficult by the fact that almost none are well-marked, and are often nowhere near their indicated locations on the vehicle's onboard GPS.

(Sploosh)

But truly, the most persistently irritating thing about charging an electric car is the poor etiquette of other EV drivers. All too often, you will run across someone whose car finished charging hours or days ago, and there it is, still sitting in the only available charging spot. One particular Ann Arbor location always has the same two Chevy Volts plugged in with their batteries full, using the place like their own (free) home charging station.

With all that in mind, let's lay down some ground rules to help us become more mindful EV drivers.

1) If you don't drive an EV, don't park in the charging spot. Seriously, if you keep this up I'm gonna start parking in gas stations. It's a frustrating and common occurrence, but I just chalk it up to most people not giving a shit about my charging problem. I understand not giving a shit about other peoples' problems, and frequently the spot next to them is open, so I simply drape the cord across their car to make it reach mine. Problem solved.

2) Don't charge if you don't need to. Why are you taking up the only spot for miles around to get an extra 20% of battery power?

3) Move the car when you're full. If your battery has gotten topped off, move it. Most electric cars can send you a text message when the battery is full so you'll know. Leaving it there for hours afterwards, plugged in, is asinine. If you can't move it when you're done, try to make it so others can unplug your car and still plug their own in. Leave a card with your phone number on the windshield.

4) Feel free to unplug a FULLY CHARGED car. If there is a car plugged in and it's obvious the battery is full, you should feel no qualms about unplugging it to charge your own. Note that Chevy Volts seem to like to sound their car alarms when you do this, but whatever. Leave a note if you want.

How to tell if it's charged fully: On a Volt, it's charged if the dashboard green light is flashing. On a fully charged Leaf, all three lights on the dash are either all on, or all off. And on a charged-up Ford, the blue ring around the charge door will not be lit.

Finally, having found an open spot in front of a charging station, your excitement may well be tempered by finding that said station is actually broken, possibly forever. I'm looking at you, Ferndale!

Tesla

Recently, the Oatmeal showed what it's like to own and drive a Tesla Model S. I highly recommend you check out the comic.

After reading of its glory, your author clicked as quickly as possible on the Tesla website and prepared to order a Model S directly from Elong Musque, as this is how Tesla does things. Our ancient computer let out a sad trombone noise when its dial-up modem finally displayed the minimum purchase price of $69,995. That's 2 to 4 times as much as the Nissan Leaf, BMW i3, and Mitsubishi Car-Shaped-Object, the only other fully electric cars on the market.

Makes you wonder exactly how much money web-comic writers manage to pull in. It's certainly much more than yours truly manages to make, between Mechanically Turking until the wee morning hours and writing excellent blog posts.

By the time we can afford a model S, the sun will be fusing helium into carbon and oxygen.

If you don't already know, the Model S is a wonder. Its range is 200 to 260 miles. It does 0-60 faster than any sedan has a right to, and handles like a sports car. The interior space is cavernous, and it seats up to 7, thanks to the trick folding rear-facing jump seats in the hatch area.

Watch out for Racer-X!

Tesla represents the future of electric cars, and those select few who can afford to pay the premium can be driving the future, today. In the next decade, battery costs should come down to the point that a 200+ mile range will be quite affordable. Fast chargers should be available in more areas, so the range will not limit drivers to short distances.

In the near-term, Tesla itself is preparing a mid-priced family car to compete with the Leaf, and Nissan is almost certainly not going to launch a second generation Leaf without improving the range.

Charging @ Home

Charging is a confused and confusing part of electric car ownership. After a week or so it becomes second nature, and you never even think about it - so when I am asked by people about how long it takes, or what kind of outlet you need, I'm sometimes at a loss to explain.

The jargon-factor is thick, and it's not like you should casually start conversations with "so I had a new EVSE installed, it's hooked up at 30 amps and 220v. Should be a pretty sweet L2, though it's no CHAdeMO if you know what I mean." Though I have found from experiences online, nothing prompts a quicker response from the Nerd Patrol than calling an EVSE a "charger."

Electric Vehicle Supply Equipment - what you get when engineers are allowed to name things.
Ahnold says "It's not a chargah!"

For simplicity's sake, let's divide charging into "Levels." For now, electric cars support mostly level 1 and level 2, with a few supporting level 3 charging.

Level 1

Level 1 - The most basic, slowest, and widely available form of charging. It's also the slowest - Nissan calls the mode "trickle-charging." A well-discharged battery on the Nissan Leaf can take more than 15 hours to recharge fully, for example. Unfortunately, the connector on the vehicle is not a simple extension cord receptacle. Fortunately, they seem to be supplied with every electric car as standard equipment, so you can plug in wherever there's an outlet that you have express permission to use. This includes the Detroit Zoo, for example. Or Mom and Dad's.

Level 2 - When people talk about "charging stations," this is what they usually mean - they use a 240 volt line similar to those used by an electric dryer or range in your house. These charge at much faster rates than a level 1, usually in about 25% of the time - 3 to 4 hours from very low to very full on my Leaf. Many electric car owners have one installed at their home for quicker charges, as even half an hour on the Level 2 can give a good amount of range back for doing after-work errands. DTE was providing the first few thousand local customers a free installed Level 2 device, but that offer has since passed. With installation, these devices can cost anywhere from $1000 to $3000 depending on your home and wiring.

A Bosch Level 2 Charger - AYHSMB

Personally, I think having a Level 2 station at home is essential. DTE also offers extremely discounted electricity rates for those who charge at off-peak hours using a dedicated Level 2 station. Thankfully these are becoming more commonplace in the community for on-the-go charging as well, and can be convenient for visiting places like Great Lakes Crossing, the DIA, and Ann Arbor. So far, all major car companies have embraced the same standard connection for these chargers.



Level 3 - These are beasts of a different color. Level 3 chargers do not come standard on many vehicles - the Tesla, Mitsubishi Car-Shaped-Object, and a few models of the Leaf have the equipment necessary. It uses a high-voltage direct current that will charge a dead battery to 80% in about 30 minutes. There are only 2 such stations I know of in Michigan, though they are more common out west where electric cars are a little more common.

Unfortunately there are a few competing proprietary standards for Level 3 charging. This means a station that will charge your Leaf will not work to charge a Tesla, unless of course you have the optional PIKacHU conversion device:

The 99% Solution

There is something less than satisfying about doing a job with the wrong tools.

I use mine for edging the driveway!

Life has lots of little frustrations, and yet we see everywhere people making choices that add to their burdens. There are lots of reasons for consciously picking the wrong tool for the driving job. Perhaps the wrong car was marketed well. Maybe there's a stigma attached to using the right car. But most of the time, folks simply think they need a big honkin' swiss army knife on wheels.

This perception problem that stands in the way of the electric vehicle is what I call the 1% problem. People today buy cars (or more likely trucks) that fill every perceived need they could possibly encounter. To give an example, here's my own diverse list of things I need to consider when buying a car:

I have a wife, a kid, and a dog, and I take them all on road trips about 5 hours each way in the summer. We live in Michigan, and the snow has been terrible lately. And I do lots of home improvement projects that involve hauling lumber and stuff. I drive about 30 miles round trip to work, our folks are about 25 miles away, and we have friends that we see regularly that live a good hour away by freeway. 

Add it all up and you might expect to find me in this:

2013 Ram BFT edition

While the BFT is freaking incredible for the 1% of the time we're hauling lumber 350 miles, driving through a 20 inch blizzard, or vacationing with all our worldly possessions and extended family, it's probably about the worst tool for the daily commute. It sucks trying to park in city lots, it's expensive, and it would cost me about $20 in gas just to go see the in-laws.

The best truck is a borrowed one.

So often, people get trapped in these monstrosities because they think they need a vehicle (or two!) that will fulfill the most extreme 1% of their use, so 99% of the time we're driving something that's ungainly, and bleeding our bank accounts dry. A mid-sized electric car, while it can't possibly fulfill every need of the suburban commuter, is perfect for 99% of trips.

But this is real life, not a mental exercise. What do you do when you encounter that 1% problem? In our case, we have a second car, a Honda Fit. 

It's no bigger than my Nissan Leaf, but it does have a gas engine in case we need to go further. Add a rooftop cargo box and you can even fit all the family's stuff for a weekend trip. Remember, people have been taking road trips in things much smaller and less comfortable for decades. It's only recently that our lardy American asses demanded something that sat 8, with TV screens and cupholders galore.

Cute, but even I will agree this looks like a bad idea.

But!  Your spouse isn't adventurous, or packs, well, everything. Hell, you need to pick up some lumber this weekend! There's a simple answer for that too, and it's only going to cost you about $30 a day. 

Borrow or rent a truck for the 1% of the time you need it. It's cheaper and more satisfying than owning one 100% of the time.