All this has me thinking. What would I really like for my future car?

Mini-E #183 is in the shop for a few days (3rd scheduled service at 14,000 miles) no real problems just a data download and I have them looking at a tweak here and there.

I’m driving a pearl white Cooper S for the next few days and it’s a pretty stark difference than #183. On the whole; the car stumbles, rumbles, roars and “paddles” as in shifting, its way up and down the 6 gears. I already miss the jet engine smooth and super quiet acceleration and regen-deceleration of the Mini-E, sans gears, oil, and transmission. I dread going to the gas station.

On the likes, I love the sunroof, it’s fun playing with the paddles, the car is a little lighter in the corners but not drastically so, and I really like being able to turn on the sport mode and turn off the DSC for a little fun on appropriate roads.

I am an enthusiast driver.

All this got me thinking. What would I really like for my future car? ... if I were king.

I’m in a two car family, have a 20 mile round trip commute, and my wife is perfectly happy in the Ford Escape, she prefers sitting up a bit as compared to a lower seating position. That pretty much gives me a wide playing field as to my desires and choices for a car.

I am an enthusiast driver, so here is the car for Peder.

I hope you're listening reading this BMW/Mini.

I love the Mini! Best, most fun car I have had in my 32 years of driving!

So it begins with a Mini. Strip every last thing from the car much like the Porsche Boxter Spyder. No air (the tops down), no heat (I’ll wear a sweater) no radio, (I will take an integrated I-Phone charging dock,) just a bikini top to keep most of the wetness out on the occasional rainy day. No power windows or door locks, the most basic and lightest materials used inside the car and if your can spare a little extra carbon fiber, on the body panels and seats as well. No rear seat, but a bigger cargo area than the Mini-E and a greatly reduced in size and weight dashboard.

I’ll keep all the airbags thank you.

Give me the same 205 horsepower electric motor as in the Mini-E, the new 2nd gen batteries like in the Active-E. I only want 25kwh, not 35khw of batteries but I want them spaced in the front and back like the Active E for optimum weight. I want to be able to select the DSC off or on, and I want the suspension to be able to handle the horsepower and torque so no need to detune the controller/motor at take-off. I’m fine with the top speed governed at 95. Lastly an integrated aero kit and a j1772 connector.

That’s my dream car, A Mini-E “Peder Spyder Special”

2250 pounds of open air driving.
A 0-60 time in the low to mid 5 second range,
Range of around 90-100 miles with less batts (thanks to the lightness and aero of the car)

That is something to dream about. That is my ultimate car. Until then, I’m looking forward to getting Mini-E #183 back from the shop to continue this most excellent adventure.

Cheers
Peder
#183 driving on sunshine

E-RV “HomeE” #183 An earth shaking camping experience!

What an incredible 3 days camping with Mini-E #183. The Mini-E can hold all the needed gear as you can see in the picture. The Mini-E is far more than just an urban commuter car. With campgrounds and soon an electric charging infrastructure in place there will be no limits to what you can do or where you can go.



First a beautiful 90 mile drive out to Borrego Springs, The drive involved an elevation change of 4800 ft. (nearly a mile straight up) from sea level to the peak of the mountains back close to sea level at Borrego. Most of the drive was at around 50 to 60 mph on back twisty roads that the Mini E just loved. We arrived with 15 miles left on the range indicator. The next morning after a full charge the range indicator showed 107 miles.




Speaking of charging,





We thought we were going to recharge at 110 volt 12 amp which would take 28 hours to recharge. But we found a better way!

The first night we charged at our camp site, the electrical box had two twenty amp breakers tied to a 30 amp plug and a normal 110 receptacle. First we tried the supplied cable to the normal 110 outlet with the setting on the Mini-E at 12 amps. The meter turned slowly but this worked fine and we would have no problem charging to full over the next two days.

We then tried a 30 amp RV pigtail we purchased and used the 32 amp charger setting.
We were surprised that the 110 cable supplied with the Mini-E could handle the 32 amp setting without tripping but it did. The meter was flying and we were able to fully charge #183 in just over 8 hours. This is three times as fast as at the 12 amp setting and meant that we could drive like crazy the next day!






The next day it was out and about in the beautiful Anza Borrego Desert. The flower season is spectacular and we drove 93 miles around the desert and to the Salton Sea, we also hiked several miles all over the desert. We returned to the camp site in the early afternoon and we were sitting by the pool, when the big 7.2 earthquake centered about 80 miles away hit!

The shaking was intense and lasted for a solid minute, water lapped over the pool as the earth shifted under our feet. Buildings creaked and Julie leapt out of the way of the pool shade structure she was laying under as it swayed and creaked as well. Everyone was OK and Borrego had a few broken windows and water pipes along with boulder strewn roads but no major damage.








That evening we decided to try and charge #183 at the next site over, This only had a 30amp breaker and a 30amp receptacle. Even though the car was set to 32 amps this also worked just fine and the car was fully charged, charging from 1pm to 9pm.

This morning it began to sprinkle in the desert and Julie and I decided to pack up and head home. Same trip in reverse except this time we had rain, a very strong headwind and 40% temps but the Mini-E handled the 90 miles and grade changes no problem, we arrived home with 6 miles on the range indicator.



The Mini-E is a super fun camping vehicle and works great at RV sites with plug ins. Julie and I had so much fun we are planning a longer 10 day trip up the coast of California this summer using the same 32 amp 8 hour charging strategy as we hopscotch and recharge nightly.

We had a blast!

Cheers
Peder


Gear:
1 Six person tent
2 Sleeping bags
1 King size air mattress
2 Pillows
1 Two burner stove
2 Bottles of propane
2 Folding chairs
1 Duffle bag of cloths
1 Duffle bag of cooking gear and utensils
1 Lantern
1 Flashlight
1 First Aid Kit
1 Digital camera & bag
1 Air mattress pump
1 Bag of food products

For most of the food & beverage supply we shopped out in the desert after making camp.

BMW-Mini-E Offers Lease Extension. Are you in?

After nine months, the initial excitement of being one of the first of the new breed of electric car drivers ( with appreciation to the EV1 and RAV4 drivers) is a near memory.
The lifestyle of living and driving on sunshine (literally driving on sunshine) has settled into the routine to the daily beat of normalcy fitting in perfectly with our family’s lifestyle and driving habits.

It really, really works.

The past nine months, 12,000 miles have been an absolute hoot driving the Mini-E, it is the single best, most fun car I have driven in my 32 years of driving.

BMW has been honest and fair to us and we have loved our car and our relationship with the Mini-E Field Trial program, BMW and the Mini-E have exceeded our expectations.

Today 3/10, All the Mini-E drivers were emailed a lease extension offer for 12 more months. The monthly lease payment is reduced from $850 to $600 a month and this includes the comprehensive and collision insurance, tires and snow tires, maintenance and service, no down payment, no limit on miles, no depreciation.

My prior car a 2005 Volvo S60R had a total cost of ownership at $775 a month including down payment. The Mini-E at $600 a month total cost of ownership, is now the same cost or less than a Volt or Leaf or a newer gas car.

As an example:

No down payment

$400 a month

$100 a month for fuel

$50 a month for insurance

$50 a month for tires and maintenance
$600 a month total cost.

I love the idea of another year with the Mini-E and then transitioning into the Active E if the priceing value is good, or a second model year of the Volt or Leaf having observed how they perform for 6 months.The possibiltity of another lease extension for the Mini-E exist and I am hopeful that they will let some of us drive the wheels off this car for 5 or 6 years and beyond to see where the real world battery range will be long term. That's my ideal path.

If I can share one thought with you, it is that you are going to love driving an electric car.

Am I in? are you kidding me?

I’m in. I’m loving every EV mile

Cheers
Peder

Equation for a better future

This is an Op/Ed I wrote for the San Diego Unoin Tribune.

Its mostly about Solar but does include the Mini-E.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2010/feb/18/equation-better-future/

Equation for a better future
EV + PV = SD>

By Peder Norby
Thursday, February 18, 2010 at 12:04 a.m.

San Diego is blessed with abundant, endless sunshine. We would be wise to use this resource accordingly.

The emerging application of the plug-in electric car coupled with new legislation that makes solar photovoltaic energy affordable and, in many cases, a net positive from day one will launch this county and state into a change in motive power and a change in the way we power our homes from consolidated sources of power (power plants, oil refineries) to distributed “in-basin” sources of power (home or business power plants) during the next few decades.

An electric vehicle in the garage charged from a solar photovoltaic system on the roof or car port equals a San Diego County that is far greater than it is today. Each, while beneficial alone, when paired together will change our county for the better.

EV (electric vehicle) + PV (photovoltaic energy) is a pairing as natural as hardware and software, as chocolate and wine, as sunshine and photosynthesis.

The county of San Diego and most cities within the county, have adopted the Property Assessed Clean Energy program (PACE). This makes solar photovoltaic systems, as well as other important energy and water saving improvements, affordable to all by allowing the financing of the improvements over many years via property taxes. With the PACE program, the savings on your utility and water bills after your improvements can equal or exceed your payment via your property tax assessment.



How does this make San Diego County greater than it is today?

Fifty-five percent of our total man-made emissions in the region come from our personal transportation. Twelve percent come from our homes. Imagine a county and state in which our autos and our homes are powered by affordable sunshine. No emissions, a fixed cost as opposed to ever increasing bills, cheaper than your current utility bill and much cheaper (50 cents a gallon of gas equivalent) than your current gasoline bill for your car.

Land use and planning in our county is largely centered on our transportation systems. These emerging clean energy systems and cars will “evolutionize” our planning efforts, resulting in a better San Diego County.

It you are a bit skeptical, who can blame you? I ask that you consider our experience.

We live and drive on sunshine. We generate 12,000 kilowatt hours of energy with our solar photovoltaic stem. Our experimental car uses 3,000 kilowatt hours and our home uses 9,000 kilowatt hours per year.

For the past 30 months, we have powered our home nearly completely with solar photovoltaic energy. In just a short three years more, our system will be fully paid off – paid off with the same money we used to pay San Diego Gas & Electric and our local OPEC-supplied gas station.

From then on, our energy use for our home and our cars is essentially free.

For the past 11,000 miles, we have been field trial drivers for BMW, driving a fully electric MINI E powered by local sunshine all over San Diego, Orange and Riverside counties.

In less than a year, General Motors and Nissan will be offering similar plug-in electric cars. The year after that, Ford and Toyota, and by 2012 most of the major manufactures will have some variety of electric plug-in vehicles including popular SUVs.

In this short time frame we will all have a choice on how we power our homes and our cars. No longer will we be chained to OPEC every few hundred miles. No longer will we be chained to a utility’s power plant to produce the energy we consume. We will have a choice to produce our own energy for our own homes, businesses and cars.

We will have a choice whether we continue being dependent on foreign governments and OPEC for gasoline, or realize and honor our forefathers’ wish for an independent country by generating our own electric energy from an endless local resource, sunshine.

We will have a choice weather to convey a cleaner, emission-free San Diego County to future generations who will inherit this earth from us, or give them a world more polluted as our parting gift.

In San Diego County we have 1.4 million homes and 3 million automobiles. We have a choice on how we power both.

San Diego is blessed with abundant, endless sunshine. We would be wise to use this resource accordingly.

Norby is a San Diego County planning commissioner. He and his wife, Julie, were awarded the 2007 SANDEE Award from the California Center for Sustainable Energy for the home they built in Carlsbad.

Mini-E #183, 10,000 miles on Sunshine, UC Davis Reports First EV Study Findings

My marvelous journey into the future continues.

This past Sunday January 24th 2010, after 7 full months in Mini-E # 183, I passed 10,000 miles on the ODO.

Pause a second and think about this. 10,000 miles in a fun hot car powered only by sunshine.

Game changer? I think so!

The car is incredible and the best thing I can say about driving #183 is that it has settled into an entirely normal routine as a super fun and responsive daily driver accomplishing 100% of my driving task. The best attributes are the shear fun of driving the car, the times saved by not going to the gas station, the fact that its 100% charged and ready to go every time I hop in, and the $1800 a year I am saving on gas by powering the car with sunshine. The drawbacks, no rear seat which is a minor drawback and that’s about it.

Even the lease payment of around $800 a month while at first glance high, for me is pretty consistent with my other cars that I have had. A $450 car payment, $100 on maintenance (service tires, brakes) $130 a month on gas and $60 a month on collision and auto insurance, all of which are included in the lease of the Mini-E. I do look forward to the electric cars reducing in price and I acknowledge that I am paying a premium as an early adopter. Again for me its really not that much if any of a premium.

One of the joys of this journey is not only personally understanding and gaining knowledge as to if the electric car will work for myself and my family (passes on all fronts, you can really drive on sunshine!) but also to share this collective knowledge of 600 drivers with others interested in the electric car future.

No doubt that future will consist of many options in electric drive ranging from Hybrids to Plug in Hybrids to Range Extended Hybrids to Battery Electric cars to Fuel Cells.

BMW has reported on some of its findings to date in this 600 car field study. As a Mini-E driver I was one of 57 who also participated in an extensive study by UC Davis, the results of that study are ongoing but the first information on that study has been posted.

There are some pretty big surprises in the reports that counter commonly held beliefs such as range anxiety being a big issue, public charging being a major issue and the majority of drivers needing additional charging.

My personal experience is consistent with the majority of the report. I reported an average range under all conditions of 90 miles per charge and a daily drive of 40 miles.

You can read these reports at the following links.

BMW Presentation

BMW Field Trial Report

The County of San Diego and many of its 18 cities have also adopted a PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) program that will allow home owners to finance capital improvements that are energy and water related in their property tax bill over 20 years.

Below is link for information on that program, you will want to read the last page where I compare fueling cost in a graph format.

Norby Presentation on PACE Program.

Cheers!

Peder, #183

Charts for Cost of Solar Fuel

I have received a good number of off line emails asking me how I arrived at the incredibly low cost per gallon equivalents for an electric car powered by solar. As a basis for comparison, I used the average miles traveled by a car in the U.S. and the average fuel economy for cars and SUV's in the U.S.

below are some charts which I hope will help explain. (Hint, if you click on the charts they enlarge)



The above graph is the cost of fuel paying cash for driving a 20 mpg gasoline car for 12,000 miles a year. Fuel cost is $3.00 a gallon increasing at 5% a year. This increase is historically the same increase as the last 25 years from 1985 to 2010.


This next chart is the cost of solar fuel if you were to pay cash. Of note is that the total cost of the system is equal to 4.25 years of paying fuel cost in the 20mpg gasoline car.

The Mini-E gets 3.50 miles per KWH. To drive 12,000 miles a year on solar energy I need to generate 3500kwh. In Southern California that is a 2kw Solar PV. System. My install that I did 4 months ago came out to a net cost after fed tax credit of $4,000 per kw or $8000 for a 2kw system. This is roughly the system cost estimate from b.p. solar as well.
Assumed is a $2200 inverter replacement at year 12.


This next chart is the cost of solar fuel if you were to finance the purchase on a PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) program.

The Mini-E gets 3.50 miles per KWH. To drive 12,000 miles a year on solar energy I need to generate 3500kwh. In Southern California that is a 2kw Solar PV. System. My install that I did 4 months ago came out to a net cost after fed tax credit of $4,000 per kw or $8000 for a 2kw system. This is roughly the system cost estimate from b.p. solar as well.

Conclusion:

I am only comparing the cost of fuel vs. the cost of solar energy. No attempt is made to account for the cost of batteries whether they are life of vehicle or need to be replaced every 7 years. Nor is an attempt made to calculate the cost of replacement engines, transmissions, brake jobs, tune ups and other cost associated with a gas car.

Your results will vary depending on your sunshine profile and where you are located as system cost can vary by location. But if you're in the sunshine belt the above graphs should come very close for most people.

On a KWH generation basis Solar is essential 1/8th the cost of gas for me to drive for the next 25 years+. This equals $0.38 cents a gallon of gas equivalent. It is also a fixed price and protects me against spikes and inflation.

On a cost basis solar is $0.20 cents a gallon of gas equivalent as I only need to generate 1750kwh at peak time (30 cents per KHW) to pay for the usage of 3500kwh of off peak charging (14 cents per KWH)

That's my world, that's my real world experience.

Cheers
Peder

Solar fuel for electric cars, does it work?

January 3rd, 2010.

8:00 am, our breakfast outside.

If you're an east coast Mini-E driver, try not to look at the picture.

Solar fuel for electric cars, does it work?
As long as the sun rises the answer is you betcha!

This writing departs from my driving experiences with Mini-E #183 and focuses in on my fueling experiences with my electric cars.

In 2009, I drove 12,500 miles in electric cars powered only by sunshine. 9500 miles in Mini-E #183 in just 7 months, and 3000 miles in the Gem E4. My New Years Reso was that I am done with gas period.

It has been a no compromise alternative to the gas cars of my past and has helped motivate me to create a more efficient non polluting source of renewable fuel in the form of a solar P.V. station on our roof for both our cars and our home. It has also been a far more enjoyable driving experience behind the wheel of the electric cars.

Try putting an oil well and refinery on your roof , if you get that far, try making them non polluting.

I believe that the emerging application of the plug in electric car coupled with new legislation in California that makes solar a net positive from day one for most people, as compared to purchasing electricity from utilities, will launch this county, then the state, then the country into a change in motive power and a change in the way we power our homes from consolidated sources of power (power plants, oil refineries) to distributed grid connected "in basin" sources of power (home or business power plants) during the next decade.

A power plant and a gas station in every home and commercial property. Fuel from the sun, captured and conveyed the 30 feet from the roof to your panel to the 220 volt 40 amp outlet, to the electron port (Or do we still call it a gas cap?) on your Leaf, Volt, BMW Active E, Plug in Prius, Ford Focus EV, Karma, Tesla, Think and the many other electric cars.

Solar PV works in California. System payoffs range from 6 to 12 years for house use and 3 to 6 years for auto use ( vs. gas at $3.00 a gal.) using the same money you pay to your utility company or gas station now.

The barriers are that it has high upfront cost and people move every few years thus are not willing to make the long term investment..

San Diego County last month voted to join other counties and cities through the League of California City’s and the League of Counties to enact a PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) program.

Prior to this PACE Program you had to use a second home loan, a line of credit, credit cards or cash to pay for a Solar P.V. system. This relegated solar to the affluent few that can afford to pay for this. Good for the weathy 5% but unattainable for the other 95% of the population

What we needed to do was to make this work for every homeowner or commercial property owner. The major issue is that people tend to move every five years, don’t want to make the big investment as it is not their final home and the upfront cost.

People move every five years on average but buildings don’t. Financing Solar PV on the building rather than the person is the key.

The San Diego County program enables individual property owners both commercial and residential to finance renewable energy projects on their property tax bill over 20 years as opposed to their own personal credit. In most cases the increase in a property tax bill will be offset by an equal or greater savings on their electric bill. This saving grows over the years as the cost remains fixed for the solar PV homeowner but energy cost from the utilities rise every year for the non solar PV home owner.

Other benefits are that the system installs require no out of pocket expenses, and that property taxes are tax deductible, your utility bills and gas station purchase are not.

In my real world experience, owning solar PV systems on my home and driving electric cars over 12000 mile in 2009, solar fuel from a home PV System powering an electric car will range from 25 to 75cents a gallon equivalent to gasoline fixed for the lifetime of your PV System. For me its 40 cents a gallon of solar fuel equivilent.

It begins in California, and will spread to other sunshine states and eventually the entire country. Solar PV is most cost effective in the sunshine belt to be sure, but technology advances.

That’s disruptive and it will change our EVWorld.

Cheers!

Peder
Mini-E # 183

Our live solar production graph