Wine-ing about the Mini-E, Randy Travis and classic cars.

What a great August weekend in Mini-E #183.

It began Thursday with the Encinitas Classic Car Show produced by the Downtown Encinitas MainStreet Association. About 400 classic cars lined Historic Hwy 101, among those cars were four Mini-E’s and a Tesla.

Dr. Robert Wilder brought his “Sun Color” Tesla with the Solar powered plate frame, Liz brought her Mini-E with the plate “SANSGHG” I brought #183 with the plate “SUNGAS” and the city of Encinitas brought their two Mini-E’s. Dozens if not hundreds of folks stopped by to marvel and inquire about these cars and the meaning of their plates. It was a great night to talk about electric cars as well as share with fellow EV drivers our passion for changing the motive power world.

Friday Evening, my wife Julie, surprised me with an early birthday present. We drove #183 from Carlsbad to Valley Center to have dinner and then off to a Randy Travis Concert. 10th row right in the center, Randy was a great preformer and singer and it was a great concert. #183 drove 76 miles there and back, we arrived home with about 30 miles left on the odo.

Saturday we crushed grapes with friends and made a little grape juice!

Sunday we visited fellow winegrowers and friends in Ramona. The round trip was 83 miles, I assured Julie that the Mini-E could make it no problems, although I was a bit apprehensive because we would be climbing a few thousand feet on our way out there.

We stopped for breakfast in downtown Ramona and the Mini-E drew quite a crowd of folks as they waited for a table to open.

It was a great day with good friends as we walked the vineyards and discussed preparations for the upcoming harvest. We arrived safely back home with an astonishing 35 miles left on the odo and just over 30% on the range indicator.

Both trips were back country twisty roads mostly between 45mph and 60 mph. Perfect territory for the Mini-E!

3000 mile service for #183

The odo triped over 3000 miles today which prompted an email to Irvine Mini for a service. They emailed back and said a "flying doc" would be there on Tuesday so the 25th it is.

I have had 3000 of the most fun miles of my driving history. Still no ticket but I have another 10 months or so to go and I know it's coming.

just one little problem so far and that is the air conditioner. at around 2500 miles it degraded to about 10% of it's cooling. All in all, one of my most trouble free cars yet.

The Mini-E has replaced 98% of my trips, the exception is the once every two or three month drive to Paso Robles our points north and east. I would gladly rent a car for those few times a year when I vacation with the car.

We have found that when we are home, the Mini-E is always the option, before it was sometimes my car sometimes her car, now it's always the Mini-E . My previous miles per month was around 1000 and with the Mini-E it is 1500+.

So far so good, zero emissions driving on sunshine.

Cheers
#183
Peder

$0.45 cents a gallon of fuel.

Just a little fun on the cost of electricity.

Assuming you will be driving the next 25 years on electricity and that the car you are driving in gets 3 to 4 miles per KWH. the cost of solar fuel works out to an equivilant of $0.45 a gallon fixed over 25 years for most of North America. Sorry cold weater folks in the northern most states

To purchase a solar P.V. system to power an electric car cost the same as purchasing fuel for 3.5 to 5 years at $3.50 a gallon.

Any guesses on what gas will be in 25 years? my guess is in the $15 a gallon range, assuming the Chinese and the Indians get busy consuming.

We installed our fuel station last week to augment our existing home power plant. The result is a 7.5kw P.V. system that provides 12,000kwh annually.

The home uses 8000kwh, and the Gem-e4 and Mini-E use about 3700kwh to drive 12,000 miles on an annual basis. Daily that works out to 22kwh for the home and 10kwh for the car.

Sunpower has a neat app for the IPhone and our website to follow the production. I'm working with SDG&E to get their smart meter smarter so that I can also follow my consumption.


Click here to view the real time production of the system

Don't know what my next car will be after the Mini-E, but I know it will have a cord on it!

Operating cost can be just as expensive as purchashing cost.

Renewable clean energy + the electric car reduces operating cost and magnifies the enviromental strenths of the electric car.

Cheers
Peder
#183

Future "Gas" Station

Pictured is Mini-E #183 “Sungas,” and 6 Sunpower 230W Solar Panels.

If we can still use the term "horsepower," we can still use the term “gas station,” although energy station would be a much better description.

I am very excited to be driving an electric car, what I am even more excited about is the potential in the future for many or most Americans to be able to generate their own “gas” at home via wind or solar.

Our future as a country is a zero emission energy source, zero emission homes and a zero emission transportation fleet, a clean energy future that is both wealth generating and less polluting than refined crude oil or natural gas.

Here’s what that future looks like.

These six Sunpower solar panels provide the energy required to drive my electric car 12,000 miles a year.

These six solar panels will replace 12,000 gallons of gas during the next 25 years of driving, and will continue producing energy beyond the 25 year warranty period.

These six panels will provide a total fixed cost of “Gas” of 50 cents a gallon for the next 25 years with no escalation in price.

These six panels cost the same as 3.5 years of purchasing gas for your car.

These six panels produce no emissions generating electricity, those 12,000 gallons of refined crude oil, generate emissions from the extraction, transport, refining and delivery of the gas.

These six panels sitting on an existing roof, silently manufacture and convey electricity to the car in the garage 50 feet away.

Those 12,000 gallons of refined crude oil, from the ground are conveyed from thousands of miles away, the pipeline to carry it to the port, to carry it to the tanker, to carry it across oceans to the refinery, to carry it to the fuel truck, to carry it to the station, to carry it to the pump, to carry it to a car. A conveyance system of several thousand miles, a conveyance system of our planet to our next generation that is more polluted, more toxic and more barren of natural resources.

After 2500 miles of driving Mini-E #183, 70% freeway, 30% city, the car is averaging 3.5 miles per kwh. My annual driving is approximately 12,000 miles which will require 3425Kwh of energy.

These six panels total a 1.38 kw solar p.v. system. This size system generates 2200 kwh of energy per year. This generation during the peak period (32cents kwh) would equal the cost for the 4400kw off peak charging (16cents kwh) greatly exceeding the annual usage of the electric car.

Solar charging provides the additional benefits of generation at peak times, thus reducing the need of costly peaker plants, and charging in the middle of the night when electricity is still being generated in existing power plants, but is wasted because it is not used or stored.

Imagine if “Sun Gas” could be the fuel of the future for our homes and cars. It can be, it is and it’s great.

Living and driving on sunshine.

Cheers

Peder

“Put a Plug in it“

Plug in America has crossed the line from advocacy to opposition. That is my opinion.

They could have and should have done a legislative piece about balancing and changing the CARB rules without throwing BMW and the Mini-E under the bus.

Here is their press release. http://action.pluginamerica.org/pressRelease.jsp?key=497&t=
Judge for yourself.

Advocacy for plug in cars is something I whole heartedly support, ripping into one of the very few (two) car companies that has a Li freeway legal plug in Electric car on the road today is not.

It is my sincere hope that the Board of Directors of Plug in America do not allow board members or advisory board members who have family working for rival companies to launch into an ill informed hit piece against any company, especially a company who has 500 plug in vehicles on the road and a division dedicated to advancing plug in electric drive technologies.

The majority of the press release was sourced form two individuals and their issues with BMW. I note with significance that that their issues were not with the car or the performance of the car in general, but rather the company, during the deployment and with about a third of the cars going to fleets at near zero rates.

What the press release was not about, is BMW putting 500 plug in electric cars on the road, the large majority of them in private drivers hands and the complexities of that deployment. It was not about BMW Mini-E promoting excitement and media across the world for plug in cars. It was not about BMW waiving a months lease to show good faith to their drivers while dealing with some delays, It was not about how the Mini-E is part of the development process “BMW Project I” working towards a BMW city car coming in 2011-12 . It was not about the overwhelming satisfaction and emission free driving that the vast majority of drivers are getting from the Mini-E.

It was not about the fact that I, and hundreds of other Mini-E drivers, and thousands of others who ride in the car, and tens of thousand who see the car on the raod doing 85 on the freeways are now convinced that plug ins and electric vehicles are the future that we need (is that not a goal of Plug in America?)

None of these pro plug in facts were even touched on by Plug in America. Shame on them!

Plug In America advisory board member Chelsea Sexton said: "This is turning out to be a half-baked, poorly executed program by BMW, who is acting solely for the sake of regulatory compliance.

I disagree with vigor. What the program consist of is putting 500 plug-in BEV Mini-Es with Li batteries on the road. There has been straight talk from BMW from the beginning that this is a one year development field test program with no expectations that you will be able to buy the car. I reject 100% the argument that we are done with development and testing phase, that we should complain that this is just another test as opposed to a mass market retail product. The key component to the opening of the electric car world to the masses is the energy density of the Li batteries and that needs to be tested rigorously in all driving climates and conditions which is exactly what GM and several other car makers are doing…. Testing, just like BMW for their future BMW City Car

The press release further states

In contrast to BMW's lease plan, Nissan has announced a late 2010 delivery of 5,000 all-electric vehicles designed from the ground up and offered for sale for between $25,000 and $33,000, before federal tax credits. The Japanese auto company, recently awarded a $1.6-billion loan from the U.S. Dept. of Energy to build a battery plant and modify its existing Tennessee facilities, has also announced that it will deliver hundreds of thousands of electric vehicles in 2012.

There is an axiom that says “half a truth is worse than a lie.”

The Plug in America press release told half a truth and chastises BMW for the high cost of the Mine-E lease. It Ignores that a leased of financed Tesla can cost $2000 a month, and scolds BMW Mini-E that it will cast a negative impression on folks that Plug ins are expensive, while praising Nissan for offering for sale a market rate between $25,000 and $33,000, before federal tax credits car.”

That’s a half truth and they as plug in advocates know it, Nissan is going to sell you the car and then lease you the batteries. “Ghosn aims for Nissan's electric cars, minus the battery, to cost as much as a standard car. Consumers will lease the battery at a cost that, including charging, will match what they would have paid for gasoline. “

Any car company can make an electric car without the batteries for the same price as a car with a traditional gas drivetrain. The cost is in the batteries and the fact that Nissan is leasing the battery packs is a convenient omission by Plug in America to fit their “ BMW is the bad guy” story line.

Plug in America, you blew it. You gave a platform and the benefit of the doubt with the weight of the story to one disgruntled individual (who BMW has graciously agreed to be released from his lease obligations) and an ev entusiast who was cut from the program thus a bit of an axe to grind. Those voices while important, were not balanced by the hundreds of very satisfied Mini-E Drivers and the goals and accomplishments of the program.

The weight and credibility of Plug in America via this press release was then used by major media including the La Times to trash BMW in other stories.

It certainly tarnishes Plug in America in this plug in drivers mind.

That is regrettable.

Cheers
Peder

Confessions of a “Sun Guzzler”

Thursday | July 23, 2009

I’m driving like a mad man! Burning up the electrons like they grow on trees, like there is no end to the supply. (we’re going to need to change some of those old wise tales)

Heavy foot, light heart, huge smile as I turn past 2000 miles in my first four weeks (not counting two weeks of away time from #183) of driving Mini-E #183 on sunshine.

I honestly think I have discovered the holy grail of environmental nirvana, a solar powered home and car. Living and driving on sunshine!

I admit to being more than a tad conflicted. All my life I have been preaching conservation, conservatism of our resources and way of life, to bundle trips, light on the gas pedal to make driving more efficient, save precious fuel and money, take mass transit, and yet here I am joyriding with the accelerator pedal floored like there is no tomorrow. like a 16 year old who exuberantly says to his mom “I’ll go to the store for you” just so he can go out for a drive, roll the drivers window down and howl like a wild man! Any excuses to get into #183 and go is what I am looking for.

The law and I will surely be meeting soon for a little “slow down son” talk.

So what gives,? I am putting twice the mileage on my electric car than I did with my gas car and having twice as much fun! All in serious violation of my enviro-conscious.

I am conflicted. Because I am not conserving, and yet I am, I am not, I am! Am not-am so.

It reminds me of a story, when I met my wife years ago. She said she has some “bad news and some good news.” The bad news is she liked really good wine (every dating mans worst nightmare!) The good news she said: “ and I can afford to pay for it” big smile on dating mans face :)

For the first time in my life, I have been able to let loose the beast of a driver who is an enthusiast at heart and an environmentalist in soul and not feel entirely guilty about it. I said entirely because as I mentioned, I still am conflicted.

The bad news is “I really like to drive fast cars and have fun all the time” the good news is I can afford to pay for it because I am driving on sunshine with no emissions .

I am a Sun Guzzler! I don’t know if I should feel guilty or celebrate!
The future is sunshine and no emissions :)

#183
Cheers
Peder

Mini-E Politics, Problems and Driving Fun!

Try as I might to keep this blog locked in on my one year driving experience with #183, the politics and tax breaks of the Mini-E program have surfaced and never one to be shy, I add my own individual thought to the issue.

I appreciate and do not degrade or hold less valuable, the thoughts of others.

What has “upset” me most about all previous electric car trials is that they are held in secrecy by car makers or only with fleets (now going on with plug in Prius, plug in Escapes and other manufacturers primarily with utilities.) The individual driver, the lay person (me) was never allowed to participate in these futuristic trials. Do these prior trails have glitches and problems, you bet! It’s called a field trial.

Along comes BMW and they want real world drivers as part of the field trial. To good to be true for me as a solar energy nut, but it is true and I am driving #183 on sunshine for a year. Literally, driving on sunshine.

There are some paying individual Mini E drivers that are not happy that BMW is letting a large chunk (estimates offered are 100 to 150) of their 450 cars go to non profits, utilities, educational institutions and governments as part of the field trial for $10 a month.

Exactly what “I signed up for” is a 12 month lease at $850 a month plus tax to take the keys of a very special trail vehicle for a year, provide feedback to BMW and then hand the keys back. Nothing more, nothing less. The ratio or what BMW does with the other cars is of zero concern to me. With one asterisk.

*Thank you for opening up the field trial to average Joe drivers.

No doubt BMW is and has honestly said they needed to deliver the cars by a date certain to obtain the important CARB credits earned from a ZEV. I honestly can’t fault them for that. My opinion is they are very serious about their “I” project, very serious about their Mini-E project and very smart about deploying the field test in a manor that is most beneficial regarding tax breaks and other financial incentives. The idea of using the Mini Cooper as a mule is a brilliant cost saving measure allowing them to gain needed real world electric drive train experience akin to Chevy using the Cruze as a mule for the upcoming Volt.

Oh yeah, you can’t drive a Cruze/Volt mule in a field test either.

To assume this is all a crock and designed solely to take advantage of ZEV credits is void of any logic or reality considering the great cost of this project in relation to the ZEV credits and the fact that every other major car maker is now “making major plays” in the electric car field. It’s just that BMW was a few years ahead of most of them.

If there is a problem with the ZEV credit system then by all means fix it, I support that. I do not support blaming a company like BMW for following the rules set for all, and being one of the first out of the gate with an electric car that I can drive and benefiting by those rules.

I rather think the word is Bravo!

Back to the cost of the car.

I know Mini-E drivers come into this in a different situation and price points with cars. But here is how it breaks down for me. I have driven Volvos the past 16 years all leases. The last few were S60s and the last one was a S60R.

Volvo S60 R
36 month lease $2500 down payment = $ 69 a month
Lease payments with tax $479
Insurance $ 89
Maintenance and repair $140
Gas $120

Total $897

Mini-E
lease payments with tax $925
One month free credit to all $-77
Insurance $ 22
Maintenance and repair $ 0
Fuel $ 0 (zero for me)

Total $870

For me it’s a push or perhaps a few hundred dollars extra to participate in the BMW Field trial. To participate in the evolution of electric transportation. That's a deal that I can afford and am willing to make!

I consider the Mini-E every bit the car that the G35 and the Volvo are each with their own strengths and weaknesses. If I had the choice of the three cars today providing the Electric Mini-E had four seats in a production version I would buy the Mini-E hands down.

Now I know you can get a small car for $150 a month or drive a well kept older car for a lot less money than the Mini-E. I am certainly not trying to put forth an argument that the Mini-E is cheap, but for me it’s very much in line with what I was paying for my cars before.

So far so good! 3 weeks of great driving fun, 1300 miles on the odometer and no problems with the car.

Longest trip was 93 miles on the freeway with 13 miles left the range indicator.

Next post will cover in more detail the driving experience.

Call me a homey for BMW, call me a cheerleader or booster, call me naive, call me bad at math, call me anything you want….

But call me an electric car driver, driving a really fun car on sunshine.

Loving my year with #183.

Cheers
Peder