Dufass and the Mini-E. D’OH!

A disclaimer, it’s my fault, not the car, and my family will be “lashing” me for years.

Mini-E #183 and I have had a wonderful relationship the past 33,000 miles and 2.5 years. It’s been a relatively event free time, which is amazing considering the Mini-E is out in the wild in the hands of drivers like me D’OH! with no or little infrastructure to rely on.

I’ve had three driver error events, two in the past. and one this past weekend.

First about two years ago, was the combination of my hard working schedule and a string of appearances at events the same evening. I arrived home at midnight and forgot to plug in the car. The next morning I had a Planning Commission meeting with a roundtrip of 80 miles and only 40 miles of range on the car. I groveled to my brother and borrowed his gas car for the day. He was merciless in his mockery of “Mr. Electricity Was Better.” The Solution to this problem is a simple web interface and smart phone application so that you can check, be alerted by text message, to insure you are plugged in for the night, this is standard on all new electrics. The Mini-E has no such communication so my brother made a plaque as a gift to me. D’OH!

Second, about 1 year ago, My race car cousin was visiting from Denmark (to see an Indy car race and a NASCAR race in the USA) I was down at my parents, an 80 mile roundtrip, and he asked to take the car around the block. About 20 minutes later he brought the car back with a huge grin on his face. I could smell the burnt rubber, he had some serious fun and depleted my battery to 30%. Nonetheless, I thought I could make it home D’OH! I came up about a mile short, (BMW you don’t want to know how I got the car home ) The solution to this problem is not to let your race crazy Danish cousin drive your car!

This past Saturday I made my third mistake D’oh! It was the compound accumulation of three error’s in judgment.

Saturday evening I was to attend my friend Chris’s birthday party, about a 75 mile roundtrip in the Mini-E to a rural area of San Diego County. Earlier that morning I had made a run to Home Depot and another garden store and used about 10% of my battery, no problems, no need to plug in as the 75 miles is a piece of cake with 90% battery. Error #1 D’OH Always recharge when you have the chance!

I rely heavily on the GPS map in my smart phone. I program in the destination and keep the blue dot on the purple line. I arrived at the party about 15 miles east of Hwy 15 and had a great time. As I left the party, I realized I had no cell connection but hey no problem, I’ll just follow the blue dot backwards. I drove about 15 miles expecting to come up on the Hwy 15 and I still had no cell reception thus the blue dot did not move! I pulled over and tried a compass app on the cell phone, It does not work without a connection! I kept driving and 5 miles later I found myself in Ramona, 35 miles east of Hwy 15! I had gone the wrong way over 20 miles! Now I had range anxiety, I was 45 miles from home and only 32 miles of range left. How I missed that 10% of range that I used in the morning. If I had recharged in the morning, I would have had enough range to get home. Error # 2, Don’t rely solely on technology! D’OH! (BMW please tell me there is a compass in the ActiveE and the I-3

So who you gonna call? Mom and Dad. I could make it to their home about 20 miles away. I could charge for a few hours and then drive home. But…..D’OH! I did not carry my 110 cable with me, it was at home. Error # 3 always carry the 110 emergency charging cable with you, you know, just in case you have an emergency. D’OH!

I had to borrow my sisters giant GMC and drive home to get the cable. The next morning I came back with the cord, recharged the car during the Sunday Football games, and suffered endless merciless barbs at the hands of my several siblings. It was awful! At 4pm I drove home, me and my Mini-E, all was good.

The worst part of the whole story, I had to put $80 in gas in the GMC monster SUV. 20 gallons of gas to get from ¼ tank to full. Ouch!

D’OH!
Cheers
Peder
Mini-E # 183  33,000 sunshine powered miles, driven by a Dufass.

Post Script,
Lest you think this post has in any way exposed a weakness in the electric car, be assured that my driving errors in gas cars were equal to the electric car and in some cases were much greater…..like the 350 mile 5 hour driving error by the two smartest guys in the world. That story shall wait :)



The Supremacy of Electric Cars, the Misguided Tea Party.

It’s been very interesting as a generator of renewable energy (7.5kw solar PV) and as a driver of EV’s powered by the sun, to read about the “Top Ten”…, or the five reasons why…, or the 12 things you need to know…. post’s regarding electric mobility. Most of these writings are focused on the perceived and in fairness, real short comings of today’s electric car, often written by folks who have never experienced the joy of driving an electric car (more than a test drive.)


Not to get too political, but as a lifelong conservative, I am shocked at the Tea Party’s response to these innovations and advancements that offer independence, self reliance, improved health, jobs and wealth creation, as well as military strategic benefits, while ignoring long standing government subsidies to oil, gasoline cars (cash for clunkers) and the related dependencies and cost (protection of oil) that have the net result in the exportation of our nation’s wealth.

Promoting the idea of $2.00 gas for all Americans is in my view promoting the decline of America, the decay of our car companies, the exportation of our wealth and the degradation of the health of our citizens living in major population centers. While the world marches on and innovates with science and technology breakthroughs, those in Tea Party America want to stand still and stand shackled to our dependency on oil in a form of slavery and dependence to foreign nations.

What happened to independence? To self reliance? To conservative principles such as conservation? To wealth creation for individuals and for our nation? To saying “To hell with you if you want us to be dependent on your tea and volatile taxation !”

Let us never forget that the original patriots of the 1773 Tea Party threw overboard the product of an oppressive foreign nation and their East India Tea Company (EITC) who sought to relegate us to their servitude. Who severely misjudged the will of the American people for independence and misjudged their desire for tea at any price.

A true modern day equivalent of a Tea Party acting in the spirit of those original patriots of 1773, would be one that threw overboard the product of foreign nations and their Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) who seek to relegate us to their servitude. Who severely misjudged the will of the American people for independence and misjudged their desire for gasoline at any price.

A true Tea Party patriot would “make their own tea” for the equivalent of $0.40 cents a gallon of gas, and not make populist moronic proclamations such as “if you elect me I’ll give you $2.00 a gallon gasoline.” How’s that for a loaded but true paragraph?

Well, deep breath, rant over, a prayer for my fellow conservatives and on to what Gas Cars can’t do.

You’ve heard what the electric car can’t do. I thought it would be fun to flip the tables and talk about what gas car can’t do and why the electric car and electricity will be the motive power of the future.

With 40,000 miles clocked in the drivers seat of EV’s for the past four years, I’m qualified to give you a lay person’s practical experience.

In no special order.

Gas cars are not emission free. They will never be emission free. Our American cities are saturated by emissions and visible particulate matter. 15 million citizens live In Los Angeles and are surrounded by and breath with every breath, toxic visible emissions caused by our transportation fleet. These emissions from transportation account for 70% to 80% of the total emissions and related health issues and cost in our major cities. The electric car is 100% emissions free when powered by renewable energy.

Gas cars rely on a commodity, oil, that is in the hands of the few, desired by many, protected at great cost by superpowers, and is becoming harder, riskier and more expensive to extract. Gas will always increase in price and in my lay person’s opinion, looking at 2-3 billion more consumers educated by facebook and the Internet to what the good life is, will exponentially increase in price in coming years. Electric cars can run on dozens of sources of electricity including hydro, geothermal wind, and solar. With renewable sources of energy, Mother Nature has never raised her price.

Gas cars rely on 100% on Gas Stations, that is simple to understand. What is harder to comprehend is the conveyance system and related cost/pollution to get that oil from Saudi Arabia, Canada, Alaska, the Gulf of Mexico and Venezuela to your gas tank. Electric cars powered by solar energy (generated during the day)have a conveyance system of 30 feet. From the rooftop to your batteries. Electric cars are charged (from the existing grid) primarily in the safety and comfort of your home while you sleep.

Owners of Gas cars can’t make their own gas. Perhaps an asterisk is appropriate here. If you’ve got two acres and want to grow corn, ferment it and then distill it (against the law) to ethanol, perhaps you can make your own ethanol gasoline equivalent. For electric car owners, if they wish, its 100 sq ft of rooftop or backyard and you can make your own solar fuel to drive 12,000 miles a year for the equivalent of $0.40 a gallon of gas.

Gas cars are poisonous. If you disagree, (please don’t try this) roll up your windows and port the exhaust of a gas car to the interior cabin, please change your mind before you die. Electric cars are not poisonous.

Gas cars require the national policy of protection of gasoline supply. America spends untold trillions of dollars to secure the safe stable deliver of gasoline to our population from overseas. Nearly 70% of what you put into gas cars tank is imported. Electric cars run on electricity. No matter the source, electricity is domestically supplied and not imported. The money, the profits, and the jobs stay in America.

Gas cars are inefficient machines. The most efficient gas cars convert gasoline to motive power at less than 33% efficiency. Electric cars convert electricity to motive power at 90% efficiency.

Gas Cars are noise polluters. OK, I admit to being fond of the exhaust notes of a high performance car. I love the sound of being at a Formula One, Indy Car or NASCAR race (I’ve been to all three) But I’m fond of those in the same way I am fond of listening to a P51 Mustang at an air show, or listening to a 1900’s 4-8-2 Baldwin Steam Locomotive pulling out from a rail yard on an exhibition run down the rails. In the city or on the street where I live, I prefer less noise pollution. We’ve moved on past these complicated mechanical marvels. The Eclectic car is quiet.

Gas cars are heavy on maintenance cost. It cost a lot to keep those 400 moving parts in tip top operating condition! Friction brakes are so last decade!

Gas cars evolve slowly. They remain mostly unchanged in their DNA from 100 years ago. We’ve moved from the Radio to the B&W TV, to Color TV, to the LCD TV, to the Internet in less than 50 years. I won’t even pretend to understand how that 10 mega pixel image is transferred to a chip the size of a postage stamp that holds 1000 of images without a moving part. Electric cars are evolving rapidly.

Well, That’s a good start, please feel free to add to my list and to share it broadly. And please don’t diss me for being a conservative. We are all Americans and we are diverse and imaginative of every creed color and belief system… including the Tea Party.

God is great, beer is good, and people are crazy, Billy Currington

Cheers

Peder

Mini-E #183, 33,000 miles powered by sunshine.

“Sun”day is everyday,

I’m in heaven drinking from a bottle of our estate 2007 Herons' Flight "Brunello" as I type. I look into the wine through the glass, I marvel at this ruby red “liquid love” made by sunshine, earth, water and time, with a small interpretive role played by me. The wine, from clusters of liquid sunshine, is harvested  twenty yards from where I write.

Wine has been made of liquid sunshine (grapes) for thousands of years, unimproved by mans advances in technology. Generally speaking, the relationship of man and wine is an equation. The greater the machinery, the greater the mechanization, the greater the intervention of mans inventions, the lower the quality of the wine. More consistent and in greater quantities, but much lower in quality.

A quality wine grower is not a conqueror of wine, but rather, a protector of wine and a partner with nature. An environmentalist by fiat. The more natural the processes are; sunshine, rainfall, gravity, Oakwood, cork, nutrients, subterranean earth, the better the wine. This has been the way for thousands of years.

Tonight, I greatly enjoyed a film documentary of a close friend recently passed, shared with 700 friends at the historic La Paloma Theatre. We drove to that event in BMW Mini-E #183 on the energy of harvested sunshine, harvested twenty yards from where I write.

There is no question that man has the ability to overpower nature, but at what cost? Do we have the wisdom to accept Mother Nature as an equal and a partner, or do we insist on our supremacy as humans overpowering, exploiting and polluting her?

The question is, do we have the wisdom to be a protector of nature and a partner with nature? Do we have the wisdom of lessening the mechanization of man, extraction of oil, pipelines, port storage, ocean tankers, refineries, gas trucks, gas stations, engine, transmission, exhaust, and the millions of moving parts needed to get our gasoline from the ground to the La Paloma Theatre?

We can learn a lot from wine.

I am the most optimistic now, more than any other time in my life for our future. I participate in, and have witnessed that we can now power our two most prized inventions the automobile and the home, by sunshine. We live and drive on sunshine, four years for the house and two and a half years for our car.

We can harvest this gift of nature from our rooftops or land at a cost far less than gasoline or natural gas both in dollars and in our health. We can shrink the millions of moving parts and thousands of miles of conveyance, for gasoline, gas engines and transmissions of our cars, to a conveyance of twenty yards of sunshine and less than eight moving parts of our electric cars. We can eliminate 100% of the current emissions that harm and kill millions of all earths creatures including us humans around the world, to zero emissions and the corresponding greatly improved health.

Please let us possess that wisdom and let us not desire to conquer Mother Nature but rather to partner with her and protect her. It can be “Sun”day, everyday for everyone.  Sunshine has been the answer for thousands of years. The sooner we figure that out the better off we will be.

We will get there  one person, one car, one home at a time. Make no mistake we will get there, it will be a far greater world when we do. Mans best vintage is yet to come. Thank you BMW for your efforts with the Mini-E, ActiveE and the upcoming i3 and i8.

One more sip from our earth, water and sunshine that is my wine, one more sip for the eternal optimist that is me, one more thought in remembrance of a good friend before the last drop of the day passes.

Cheers
Peder

Mini-E #183, 32,000 sunshine powered miles.

OPEC is soon to be history. Meet the new energy cartel, YOU!

For less than the equivilent of 4 years of buying gas ($220 a month), you can drive on sunshine for the rest of your life, 20,30,40 years or more.


Imagine a future that allows you to purchase a zero emission car and "gas" for a lifetime? No pollution, no dependency on foreign oil, wealth creation for individuals and personal independence? That future is here.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Here-Comes-the-Sun-Ford-and-prnews-3881783729.html?x=0&.v=1

This is a great idea for BMW to offer when it rolls out the i3 and i8

Cheers
Peder
Mini-E #183 32,000 sunshine powered miles

EV+PV is cheaper and cleaner. Ford and Sunpower to change the way we motor.

I am extremely excited about a planned press conference tomorrow (8/10/11) between Ford and Sunpower.

As frequent readers may know, I have powered my Mini-E with Sunpower solar panels installed by Stellar Solar for the past two years and 32,000 miles. I have written at length about the low cost of driving on solar with my real world conclusions that it is about 10% to15% the cost of gasoline and offers an ROI in excess of 30%.

Essentially, Powering my Mini-E or any electric car for that matter, with Solar PV cost the same as buying three to four years of gasoline. After that, you’re driving on free endless sunshine for over 20 years, and that’s just the guaranteed energy production from the panels. In most cases with quality panels like Sunpower, you will be driving on free sunshine for the rest of your life.

So why I am I so excited? My hope and my prediction is that this will be a partnership between two international market leaders that will bring great benefit to consumers and to our environment. How so? The same way car makers and oil companies have had a mutually beneficial relationship for 100 years,.

I am hopeful that what will be announced tomorrow is a cooperative purchase experience for a retail customer of a Ford electric car. That a person will be able to buy a Ford Focus Electric, Transit Connect Electric or a C-Max Energi plug in and purchase a Sunpower system at the same time financed by either Ford or Sunpower to fuel their car with clean renewable energy forever. A true zero emissions combination.

The synergies in financing both the car and the Sunpower system are great as most buyers are financing their car purchase for three to six years, and to add on a solar PV system to the same three to six year loan results in a total customer cost that will be similar or in fact lower from day one, to a comparable gas model plus the $250 a month for gas (assuming an average of 15,000 a year.) The relationship to the size and cost of the Sunpower system, and the miles that you drive is proportional to the cost of gas in most cases except extremely low mile drivers.

Most are familiar with Solar PV replacing grid energy for a home that has an ROI of 10%, or a payoff time of between 8 and 14 years, however when you use solar PV replacing gasoline, the ROI grows to over 30% with a payoff of three to four years.

Can you imagine a future that allows you to purchase a zero emission car and the renewable energy to power your driving for a lifetime all in one stop shopping? No pollution, no dependency on foreign oil, wealth creation for individuals and corporations and personal independence?

That is the future I imagine, and that is the future that will change our world.

Let’s hope the future begins tomorrow with Ford and Sunpower.

Cheers

Peder

Mini-E # 183, 32,000 sunshine powered miles with Sunpower PV

BMW ActiveE offers lower total cost.

I have driven 31,000 miles in a little over two years, powered by only the sun. I love saying that!

Last week BMW showed details about the upcoming BMW i3 and BMW i8. As a Mini-E driver, I know the role the Mini-E drivers are playing in validating and bringing forward this technology. As a driver, I would have no problem at all telling you horror stories about the car if warranted, however the Mini-E has been a blast to drive, problem free, and the most fun, best car I have driven in 32 years on the road.

Around December, my wife Julie will become the driver of the phase two car which is the BMW ActiveE, a 1 series coupe which will serve as a “development mule” carrying and testing in real world conditions over millions of miles, the future running gear of the BMW i3.

While it’s not inexpensive to be part of this field trial, and the i3 and i8 will be no less expensive, I thought I would do my best to put the cost into perspective compared to driving my previous car, a Volvo S60R which I drove for four years and 58,000 miles. The Volvo was a great car and the last of 4 Volvo’s over 16 years that I leased/owned. In my case, I lease 65% of the time and buy 35% of the time. If I were given the choice of the S60R or the electric Mini-E same-same, the Mini-E would be my choice by a long shot.
My total monthly cost for the Volvo S 60:

Volvo S60 R

36 month lease $2500 down payment = $ 69 a month
Lease payments with tax $479
Insurance $ 89
Maintenance and repair $140 (tires and brakes were very expensive)
Gas $260
End of lease cost $30 (extra mileage)

Total $1067 per month

My total cost of the Mini-E:

BMW Mini-E

30 months, 11 month lease at $930 (first month free), 18month lease at $640 no down payment.
Average lease payment with tax $730
Insurance $26
Maintanace and repair $0
Solar Electricity $25 ($7500 divided by 25 years divided by 12months)
End of Lease cost $0

Total $781

Now comparing 5 years of driving the Volvo(s) S60, which admittedly are a very nice car but by no means extravagant, and I think arguably is considered in the same class as the BMW 1 series the cost are:

Volvo $1067 per month (as above)

BMW ActiveE

Lease inception fee spread over 24 months $83
24month lease at $535 tax included
Insurance $89 (both liability and collision)
Maintenance and repair $0
Solar Electricity $25 ($7500 divided by 25 years divided by 12months)
End of Lease cost $0
Total cost $732 per month

That’s a difference of $335 a month lower or $20,100 lower total cost over 60 months for the ActiveE and Mini-E.

The lesson in this is that while you may enjoy a low car payment or lease payment for a comparable gas car to the BMW ActiveE, you must also add the cost of gas (gas is expensive!) repairs, insurance, origination fees, etc. to get your total monthly cost. I think you might be surprised at how well the electric car (any electric car) does in the total cost department. Your results may be higher or lower than mine, but this is my real world experience of the cars I drove before the Mini-E and the ActiveE.

See how it stacks up for you when you compare the total monthly cost of your car to an ActiveE. I am looking forward to the BMW I3 and i8.

Bravo BMW
Cheers
Peder
Mini-E # 183, 31,000 sunshine powered miles.

The Mini-E, Golf, James Dean and Carmageddon!

What have we done!

http://youtu.be/5El7aHD2ngU

The writing below is through the filter of my experience living with an all electric BMW Mini-E. As no two lives are the same, your experiences may vary (I love saying that!)

Julie and I live in North San Diego County. For over two years and 31,000 miles we have been scooting about in our Mini-E all over San Diego, Orange and Riverside Counties. Our lives are unchanged as far as our driving patterns and routines with cars for the past 20 or so years.

It’s absolutely no different for us since pre Mini-E when I was driving a nice sedan and Julie was driving a small SUV. Annually we are now putting about 2000 more miles a year on the Mini-E than my previous sedan and about 2000 less miles on her small SUV. The main reason for this is that the Mini-E is nearly always the car we choose on evening or weekend ventures. Who wouldn’t, free gas via solar, non polluting, fun as heck to drive, and always 100% full and ready for the days adventure. It ‘s the only car since I was 25 that I wash by hand 

In the 800 days or so that we have had the Mini-E, there have been exactly two times when the Mini-E was the “wrong club in the bag” to use, both trips to northern California. An 8 iron is not the club to use when you need a 300 yd. drive. In our bag we have two clubs, a small SUV and the Mini-E. (do you know that almost  50% of all golf shots are on the putting green and that 4/5ths are from 150 yards and closer?)

That being said, if we were a one car family, I would choose the Mini-E to use 360 days a year and then for the one or two times a year, for the long drives, rent or borrow a “driver” to use. Why drive a car as your only vehicle that is perfect 5 days a year and a beast of burden the other 360 days?

I believe for many, especially in urban cities such as San Diego this makes sense.

Last week we used the “driver”,  to tour the Pacific Northwest racking up 2800 miles in eight days,  making sure we visited Napa, Sonoma, The Willamette Valley and Paso Robles (noticing a theme?)

On the way home we drove the entire 900 mile length of California on Hwy 101. As we drove this nationally important historic route home, I was channeling the Beach Boys, James Dean and the car culture of the 50s 60s and 70s made possible by the car and the interstate transportation system. What a great era exploring unique interesting places as the car and the road set us free to move about the country as we like.

It’s safe to say that the mind numbing cars of the 80s (K-car,) the generic sameness of urban sprawl (my Home Depot looks like your Home Depot,) and the increasing congestion on the once free flowing open road (Carmageddon in LA) pretty much trashed this idyllic dream.

Or did it?

We have our challenges to overcome to be sure, but I’m noticing a strong pendulum swing back to relocalization. We are once again accentuating our unique differences as “places” creating a tapestry of diversity in our unique towns worthy of having visitors as opposed to the sameness of the past three decades. We are once again designing cars with unique attributes and differences, and we are still moving about the country, however that movement is becoming smarter using the right club for the drive. Perhaps it’s a plane, a train, a bus, a car share, an electric car or a small suv that we will use.

Our next trip, a car free weekend on Amtrak with bikes and the electric shuttles in Santa Barbara.

I love this place! And I love our Mini-E. Looking forward to the Active E.

I hope LA survives this weekend and Carmageddon!

Cheers

Peder (proof I am a treehugger below)
Mini-E#183, 31,000 sunshine powered miles.