Staying Alive at 35...Percent SOC

It’s a comfortable feeling starting your day with a fully charged EV.  Even though every EV has its range limit, a full tank of electrons gets the day off on the right foot.  But lately, I have picked up the annoying little habit of forgetting to plug in.  So I decided to experiment yesterday when I only had 35% state of charge when I began the day—can I survive my day on 35%?

 

I had a little extra distance to travel because I had meetings in various places.  I was not going to make it without some charging along the way, and some highly efficient driving too (which is not my strong suit).

The first leg of my trip took me from Corona to Riverside, a distance of about 16 miles all on surface streets.  I usually burn up 20% to 25% of my battery making this drive when not trying to be efficient.  Instead, I hunkered down, kept the accelerations slow and steady and stopped well in advance to collect as much regeneration power as possible.  I made it using only 17% of juice—leaving me with 18% of battery in the tank.

The next leg of my trip would take me from Riverside to Ontario, a distance of about 22 miles.  18% wasn’t going to cut it, but I know all the EVSE’s in downtown Riverside so I juiced up during my meeting.  After about an hour and 20 minutes I was back up to 45% state of charge—more than I had hoped for.

I hit the road, mostly freeway travel this time, and paced a few big rigs along the way to increase efficiency—and increase the risk of a rock chip in my windshield.  Upon arrival in Ontario, I had 28% state of charge left—meaning I used 17% of my battery on this leg of the trip also.  Luckily this stretch of freeway is mostly flat and the day had warmed up.  Combined with a little drifting behind big rigs, it really boosted the efficiency.

Time for lunch and another 6% to 7% drain.  I tried charging at my usual lunch spot, but two Chevy Volts ruined that plan.  So I plugged in at Kohl’s across the street.  The problem is that I don’t really like to shop.  So what to do while the car charges?  Wait…and wait…and wait.  After what felt like an hour, but in actuality was only 15 minutes, I had to get back to the office.  My state of charge was back to 28%.

Finally, time to go home, Ontario back to Norco, about 15 miles, all freeway.  Usually I can burn up 25% making this drive when I am carefree.  But a Friday night commute in Southern California saved the day because of the excessive stop and go (charge and go) traffic.  I made it home with 16% state of charge—meaning I used 12% of the battery on the way home, a personal record.

While it’s never enjoyable to start the day with a drained battery, it is possible to survive.   If you know where EVSE’s are located, and you know how to squeeze out the efficiency when needed, you can survive at 35…percent.

Riverside Pit Stop: Newly installed EVSE in Riverside, California

If you own an EV and want to travel from Los Angeles or Orange Counties out to Palm Springs you may feel a little range anxiety without a pit stop along with way.  The City of Riverside is happy to oblige with two new Chargepoint EVSE's installed at City Hall in Riverside, California.

The good news is that City Hall is in the heart of downtown Riverside, just a block from the Mission Inn. This means you have a nice selection of shopping and dining all within walking distance.

To access these EVSE's just exit the 91 Freeway at 14th street, travel North to Main Street and go right.  Main Street deadends at 10th Street, turn left.  The first driveway on your right is the City Hall visitor parking.  There you will see the two EVSE's against the building on your right.

There are also two EVSE's in the parking garage on 12th street in downtown Riverside, but these are old units without the J1772 connector.  Good for a 110 volt charge if your in a pinch.  But the City Hall EVSE's are brand new J1772 connectors from Chargepoint.

Honorary Member of the Active E Club: We all know its not a honor just to be nominated!

"It's an honor just to be nominated."  You hear this all the time from actors who are nominated for an Oscar or an Emmy, but don't take home the prize. Well that may be true in part, but if truth be told, it's also damn frustrating.

I have been "nominated" of sorts by being allocated a BMW Active E.  I was very excited to receive my allocation email on February 22, 2012, which essentially gave me a key to the Active E club, limited to 700 people in the U.S. (finally, I am a member of something).  But then the wait began, and now over five weeks later, I am still without my prize--the actual car.  The car will arrive eventually, of course, but the wait is hard to bear.

It reminds me of waiting for Christmas to arrive as a child.  The excitement and anticipation of rushing downstairs Christmas morning to see what awaits.  Funny how a car can bring that childhood anticipation back to life.

But the Active E is no normal car, and that's what makes the wait so excruciating...and frustrating.  The promise of an all-electric vehicle with a range of about 100 miles is breathtaking.  While I can certainly appreciate cars like the Chevy Volt, which can go between 35 to 40 miles on electric power only, it pales in comparison to the pure-electric vehicle.  Electric power is the future and the more EVs that hit the road, the sooner they will be adopted by the wider public.

Newly installed public EVSE at Riverside City Hall in Riverside, CA

Already, public EVSE's are being installed, and USED(!), by EVs because between the Chevy Volt, Nissan Leaf, and now the BWM Active E, there are more vehicles than ever needing a charge and using the equipment.  As this demand rises, the infrastructure will rise with it--allowing wider adoption of EVs.
It's all very exciting and I can't wait to claim my prize and join the club.

In the meantime, I will place some cookies and a glass of milk next to the fireplace and go to sleep with visions of sugarplums, and gas-free transportation, dancing in my head.

Hard Charging -- The Seemingly Impossible Task of Obtaining a Home EVSE

One of the hardest parts, so far, of entering the EV world is obtaining an EVSE for my home, that elusive charging equipment.  I have tried four different options to obtain my home EVSE and each one has achieved various levels of success.  I use the term “success” lightly because as of now, I don’t actually have an EVSE.

In an effort to be creative and resourceful, neither of which has paid any real dividends, I have explored four different option.

1.         AreoVironment.  This is the company blessed by BMW to install home EVSE’s and their version comes with a cool BMW logo on it—although the electrons flow freely to any brand of electric vehicle.  We were required to have the nice people, and they were, at Aerovironment inspect our home and provide a quote for an EVSE install.  My quote was $1,750 for the cost of the EVSE and labor to install it.  But this did NOT include the labor needed to run conduit from my electric panel to the garage—the problem being a doorway in between the two.  So on to plan B.

2.         Coulomb/ChargePoint America.  They offered a FREE charger, can’t beat that right?  As the saying goes, there’s no such thing as free electrons.  The problem with obtaining a free anything is that you have to wait in line, assuming that the free anything is worth something.  And this anything is worth something, so I waited.  And waited.  And waited.   Finally, I did obtain a site visit from Clean Fuel Connection (the subcontractor for Charge Point, who then sub’s it out again to another electrical company), which went well but presented two new options for my home EVSE:

            A.         Subpanel Install.  A subpanel has to be installed because my main panel has a full dance card and can’t make room for one more potential spark.  Adds a bit of cost, but whatever it takes is fine by me.  Or I could choose option B:

            B.         Second Meter. Southern California Edison offers a special EV rate of 10 cents per Kwh for vehicle charging from 9:00 p.m. to noon, but only when a second meter is installed dedicated to tracking only the EV usage.  The second meter is provided free of charge, but I have to pay the labor to install it.  And SCE must conduct a site visit to determine the placement of the second meter and whether I have enough juice in the existing wires to feed two meters. 

My gate and battered electric meter

After waiting another week for the SCE site visit I was told: “you have to relocate your gate because it might hit the meter.”  What?  That gate has been there for over 10 years and has hit the existing meter hundreds of times with no visible damage.  Only now does SCE notice a problem with the gate?  That’s what I get for drawing attention to myself I guess.  Better to fly under the radar.

So scratch plan “second meter.”  I don’t really need a second meter anyway because I have solar and by using net metering and time-of-use billing for solar and EV I can obtain a very similar result to having a second meter.  It just limits my prime EV charging time from midnight to 6:00 a.m. 

And my quote from ChargePoint for the EVSE install?  Don’t know yet.

Leviton evr-green 160

3.         Solar Company.  I had solar installed last year by Peak Power Solutions and they did a great job.  So I called to find out if they handle EVSE’s and whether they could put a package together that included not only the EVSE, but also a few more solar panels to help offset the extra power usage.  I thought for sure this would be my saving grace.  And I would love to add more solar panels to my system—what a perfect excuse.

But not so fast because (1) the cost of the additional panels were way higher than expected, and (2) the EVSE that they wanted to install (a Leviton "evergreen 160") was a 3.8 Kw unit.  Keep in mind that the Active E can consume up to 7.2 Kw and most EVSE’s being installed have a 7.2 Kw output.  Not this one.  They found the small Sony Walkman of EVSE’s in an iPod world, and while it looks ugly it's also entirely underpowered.  Wait those are both bad things.  Power down this option.

GE WattStation

4.         Private Electrician.  The last straw is hiring a private electrician to come in and run conduit to a GE Wattstation that I can buy from Home Depot for $999.  May not be free, but it’s not too expensive given the scheme of things and it has one very large benefit: it may actually arrive in my garage!  A free charger does little good when I can’t use it…because I don’t have it. 

My only hold-up under this plan is…I can’t get my electrician to call me back. 

The Hard Charging Conclusion.  That’s four options, four different avenues to a home EVSE, and only one partial quote in hand.   

I don’t want this process to be difficult.  I can steer through it because my wife and I really want an electric car.  So unlike most people, we will slog through the unpleasantries to get this technology.  But I also want everyone else to want electric cars too.  And with hurdles like this to overcome, the dream that EVs will be widely adopted is still out of reach.

Of course, the companies in the EVSE arena appear to be very busy, which is good.  But there’s not enough EVSE usage to keep every electrician busy.  So at some point, there has to be a shift so that more companies have the ability to learn about and install EVSE’s. 

There is one thing the EV adventure has taught me: patience.  By the time we’re done I will be a regular Zen master. 

Electric Lingo: Talking the talk of electric cars

Have you ever been ICE’d?  Do you have an EVSE with a J1772 connector?  Do you even have an EV?  Ever suffer Range Anxiety (“RA”)?  How’s your regen?  You using 240 or 120—ever pre-condition?  Have a Range Extender?  

If you have no idea what I am talking about, then join the club.  I didn’t either until my recent decision to take part in the BMW Active E field trial.  By listening to those who have been in the electric car arena far longer than I have been, you start to pick up on their foreign language of terms and acronyms.  And like any language, it separates the natives from the foreigners in this electric car world. 

But if you are going to keep score, you have to learn the language.  So here is a translation of the terms I have deciphered so far (which I’m sure only just scratches the surface):

ICE – an acronym that stands for Internal Combustion Engine (the dreaded gas-powered cars).  Derivations include “ICE’d” as in, “someone ICE’d the EVSE."  This is by far one of my favorite terms.

EV – Electric vehicle (you should have known this one).  The next category is a bit harder.

EV derivations: ZEV -- zero emission vehicles, PEVs -- plug-in electric vehicles, ILEV -- inherently low emission vehicles (which usually include pure EVs and CNG vehicles (compressed natural gas)), PZEV -- partial zero emission vehicles (hybrids).  The wonderfully confusing world of acronyms--can you add any others?  

EVSE – Electric vehicle supply equipment—refers to the charging equipment used to recharge the batteries on an EV.

J1772 Connector – the most modern connector used on EVSE's, see photo below:

Range Anxiety (“RA”) – fear of running out of battery power before reaching an EVSE. 

Regen or Regeneration – the regenerative braking function found on all electric and hybrid cars.  EV’s actually produce electric power on their own when slowing down or braking by capturing the energy generated by the moving car.  When referring to “Regen” people mean the process by which regenerative braking kicks-in, which occurs either when depressing the brakes or when taking your foot off of the acceleration pedal (as is the case with the Active E).

240 vs. 120 – Type of power source being used to recharge your EV.  120 volt is the typical power outlet in your home.  The Active E, for example, comes with a 120 volt power cord that will allow charging from a regular power socket.  But 120 is far slower in recharging the batteries.  A 240 volt outlet, however is the typical power sources used by EVSE’s and it allows a much faster charge time because it delivers far more power to the batteries. 

Range Extender – an on-board gas motor that allows the electric motor to continue operating after the battery has depleted its charge.  In the case of an all-electric car like the Active E, the only “range extender” available is a tow truck.

Pre-conditioning – the process of using the EVSE power source to warm-up the batteries before the EVSE is unplugged and the car is used.  The batteries provide the most range for an EV when they are operating at their optimum temperature, around 70 degrees or so.

This is just the beginning.  I hope to become completely fluent in electric car dialect as soon as possible.  Feel free to add the terms I don’t have yet, or just tell me your favorites.  Whatever you do, never ICE an EVSE.