Running on Fumes: 5 reasons the internal combustion engine isn't ready for prime time.

We've heard it more than a few times by now. "Electric cars aren't ready for the prime time." "10 reasons electric cars still suck." "America hates electric cars." In the echo chamber of the internet, there are hacks aplenty to pick apart any vulnerable new idea in order to drive page views. This is particularly true in regards to the world of cars.

See, in the field of automotive journalism, entire careers are made by picking out the soft targets and thrashing them mercilessly. These public pistol-whippings are meant to lend credibility to the reviewer, so readers will overlook the fact that 99% of their other articles are simple industry puff pieces. Funny how the Nissan Leaf gets such hate, while a miserable turd like the 2007 Chevy Aveo has an "eye-catching shell" and a "pleasant nimbleness." I guess you don't bite the hand that feeds you.



It makes sense that most portrayals of the electric car are negative in media, automotive or otherwise. Manufacturers don't like making the cars. They're different than conventional cars in very tangible ways, and they don't sell well. Many EV startups go bankrupt. Until recently, the electric car was no more than a glorified golf cart. Someone looking for a soft target to trash wouldn't have to think twice about ripping into a Th!nk EV.

dignity not included.

But the truth is that electric cars are already hitting prime time. The Tesla Model S is fantastic, even when compared against its similarly-priced rivals. The Nissan Leaf is a better car than just about anything else in its price range except for one detail - long distance range. Most households can easily get by with only one long-distance car, so an EV as the short-distance car makes the most sense, but good luck finding that story in Road Trend or Car & Track.

So, like nobody has ever really said, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em.

5 Reasons the Combustion Engine isn't ready for Neon Deion. 

5) They're stinky, dirty, and loud.  

After driving the Leaf for a while, borrowing a gas-powered car is almost sensory overload. VROOOOOOOM! The exhaust smells absolutely awful and leaves a fine soot, REEEEEEEEE!!!! and you're surprised how you didn't notice the smell until you didn't have to deal with it for 6 months. BWAAAAAH!  Don't get me started on changing oil. Oh, and there's the noisy chorus of the drivetrain. Electric drive is silent, clean, and free of fumes.

4) They're prohibitively expensive to operate.

Maintenance adds up quickly. Gas adds up even quicker. Imagine filling up your gas tank for 6 bucks - That's how much it costs to drive the same distance in an electric car. The difference can add up to a car payment each month. To put it another way, the cost of driving the average family sedan is $9000 this year, by AAA's numbers. The Leaf is less than half that.

3) They lead to Funyun breath. 

Sure, you can drive 300 miles, refuel, and drive 300 more. But refueling sucks - you get gas-hands, stand outside while inhaling the fumes of the other cars idling around you, and get suckered into buying things you don't need, like Funyuns and lotto tickets. With an electric car, it's much easier to drive home, turn off your car, and plug it in. It takes a total of maybe 10 seconds, and no Funyuns.

2) They encourage poor driving habits.

When you've got fossil fuel to spare in the tank, there's no real impetus to drive sanely. Instead, drivers  speed, doing 80 mph on the freeway, and accelerate from red light to red light in the city. You end up driving like a madman, burning rubber just to slam on the brakes 90 feet ahead. The driver of an electric car watches range available like a hawk, and adopts efficient driving habits almost subconsciously. When you have an EV available, you also choose the most responsible mode of transportation available for short trips, and leave the gas-burner for longer trips.

1) They make you sick.

 Okay, electricity comes largely from coal, which is itself a dirty fuel, but most people don't live in the same proximity to coal plants that they do to a million car tailpipes. Infernal-combustion engines emit many toxins right in our faces. There are Nitrogen Oxides, which can substantially worsen lung conditions like COPD and asthma. The exhaust helps form the major ingredients in smog. Exposure to the benzenes and particulate matter in exhaust has been shown to cause cancer over time.

But hey, at least they can go 300 miles on a tank, right?

The C-Word: Compliance

A person interested in electric cars, as all you loyal readers doubtless are, might be shocked to find that selection is somewhat limited. Yes, though they offer many distinct advantages over their gas-powered counterparts, the electric car continues to be sabotaged by nearly every auto manufacturer. The piss-poor array of electric-powered choices is even piss-poorer when you live in Michigan, believe it or not.

All electric, and none sold in Michigan. 

The reason for this, and some wrongly say the reason the electric car exists at all, is to comply with California's requirement that automakers build a certain number of Zero-Emission (predominantly electric) cars to meet increasingly strict air quality standards. While a select few manufacturers make these cars available to purchase country-wide, most choose to make a very small number of EVs available to purchase or lease in California in order to meet the bare minimum legal requirements. These "compliance cars" are available only to a few people, in a couple states. And Michigan's not one of them.

In our home state, only the Tesla Model S, Nissan Leaf, Ford Focus Electric, and Mitsubishi Car-Shaped-Object are available. The Focus EV is available in such limited quantities (about 100 a month), and Ford hates it so much, that it's not really worth talking about. The Tesla costs more than the average Detroit-area house. Which leaves...

Anything but the Mitsubishi Car-Shaped-Object!

Obviously, the Nissan Leaf is the only real option if you want to drive the streets of Motown without stopping for gas. Happily, it looks like the BMW i3 will be available locally soon, and though it will be smaller and pricier than the Nissan, we should all rejoice in the doubling of real available options.

Note BMW i3's standard 19" pothole-prone wheel size.

It's too bad manufacturers don't embrace the compliance cars they make and offer them up to the rest of the US. Some, like Fiat's 500e and Honda's Fit EV, are universally praised in the press, and seem to be in many ways better executed than the Nissan Leaf. When actually available for purchase, these cars fly off the dealer lots.

My view should be obvious by now, but as soon as you say the word "conspiracy" you're tracked by the goons of the Old World Order. Nevertheless, I shall continue to be the voice of light in the darkness of gasoline-fueled smog.

and the Apocaplops rages on...

AAA study reflects cold reality for batteries

As I've pointed out in the past, electric cars are very susceptible to weather extremes. When the mercury rises or falls, we have all had the experience of household batteries performing poorly in the real world, and the batteries in cars like the Tesla and Leaf are no different. It should come as no surprise, then, to see the results of AAA's latest test of electric cars in extreme temperature conditions.


The bad news for EV drivers is that this test confirms and quantifies what we already know. In 20 degree temperatures, range was found to be only 43 miles. In 95 degree heat, the range dropped to about 69 miles. Those compare to 105 miles at 75 degrees.

The test did not include using climate control for the vehicle or poor weather conditions, both of which would make range drop even lower.

-11 degrees, to be exact.

The good news is that even in the worst case scenario, the range would still be more than enough for most urban drivers.

While no test is perfect, I have to express a little skepticism here. In my own experience, in temperatures much colder than 20 degrees, I was able to go a bit further than 43 miles on a charge, even when using the heater nonstop. I really don't see how they discharged the battery in such a short distance without using climate control. Also, it looks as though they only tested one example of each vehicle, and just once for each temperature, which would provide a pretty big margin of error.

The very good news, buried in the report, is that AAA is working on a mobile recharging station to help stranded EV drivers.

Grading the charging infrastructure: Ferndale

Ferndale, just outside Detroit's city limit, has been one of the communities to install public charging stations for EV use. This is nice, since Ferndale is frequently a destination for drunken revelers and people watchers, amongst other activities. It also has the reputation of being environmentally conscious, with its recently installed bike lanes and the yearly Green Cruise. It would be no surprise then, if Ferndale had embraced the electric car.

Conveniently hidden in a large city lot.

Unfortunately, the embrace is more of a cool nod in the EV's general direction. Ferndale's charging stations are limited to two single-plug units, one on each side of Woodward ave, near 9 mile road. Both are Blink units located within city lots that require you to pay while parked, but at least the spaces are marked for EV use only.

One station near the Library, card required.

A simple task like catching a record release at the Loving Touch, or buying some cookies from that ornery chef at Pinwheel Bakery, turns into an epic charging misadventure. First you must find the Blink card, by visiting City Hall during business hours - the card costs $5. Card in hand, you start the scavenger hunt for the poorly marked charging station, hoping the single spot allocated isn't taken by someone going to an all day event at Affirmations. And even after all this, the charger may not work since your card is not activated, as has happened to me.

I have yet to pursue getting the card activated, because finding it in the first place was enough frustration for one day.

Grade: C -

Got my Leaf back

After a painful week driving around in a loaned beat-down Ford Focus, I've returned to the glorious world of the Nissan Leaf. The new Focus is, by all accounts, a pretty good car, but very few cars work as they should once subjected to about 40,000 miles of rental abuse, and the silence and convenience of the Leaf only served to magnify its faults. I was quite happy to be rid of it, especially after filling it up in the midst of a winter maelstrom.

Hate is not a strong enough word for winter fill-ups.

The Leaf was out of commission, getting its heater replaced at the dealership. I'm not happy that such a large part failed so quickly, but the experience was about as positive as I could expect, given the circumstances. The repair took a total of one week, and most of that time was spent waiting on the parts to arrive.

Per the service writer, the repair involved replacing the HVAC blower assembly, which meant disassembling the dashboard and control panel. One of the premises of EV ownership is that the cars will be less prone to maintenance and breakdowns because they have fewer mechanical moving parts, but I'd hate to see what the bill would be for a repair like this out of warranty.

Not the warning light you want to see with a broken heater. 

Nissan has a dedicated consumer affairs hotline set up for Leaf owners, and I contacted them in the hopes it would speed the process along. I can't say whether the repair was done quicker, or parts arrived sooner than they would have otherwise, but I felt well-informed throughout the process, and have been called a few times already to follow up. Nissan even picked up the tab for gasoline while I was in the rental.