“Once they’ve had a ride in an electric car, their whole perception changes,” “It’s the fun factor.”
http://www.southdeltaleader.com/news/204587901.html [images] COVER: A revolution on the road By Adrian MacNair April 26, 2013 [images http://media.bclocalnews.com/images/55459southdeltaLeaf_charging.jpg Bob Miller charges his 2012 Nissan Leaf in front of his Boundary Bay home. His neighbours are used to the sight of the electric vehicle now, which they refer to as “Bob’s car.” Miller is one of a growing number of Canadians switching to electric vehicles / Adrian MacNair http://raven.b-it.ca/portals/uploads/southdelta/.DIR288/CaseyMynott_2362.jpg Delta Secondary autmotive instructor Casey Mynott works on an electric dragster. He and his students set the Canadian electric drag-racing record by retrofitting a Toyota pickup / Rob Newell http://raven.b-it.ca/portals/uploads/southdelta/.DIR288/Cover-Electric.jpg Ladner resident Waverley Steinwand said he was attracted to the Tesla S because of its unique stylish looks. The fact the car was electric was just a bonus / Adrian MacNair ] Ask any small child what sound a car makes, and their answer will be the same. “Vroom vroom.” But the next generation of children born into a world of electric vehicles (EVs) may only know the quiet hum of the tires on the road. Those cars of the future exist today, as growing numbers of Canadians are discovering. One such EV owner is Ladner’s Waverley Steinwand, who got his brand new Tesla Model S last week. A month ago he was driving in his 400-horsepower Jaguar Super V8 in Vancouver when he spotted a car he’d never seen before. “My wife and I both went, what the heck was that,” says Steinwand, who went home to do some Google homework. A week later he went down to Seattle to test drive a Tesla and fell in love. The Tesla Model S has an 85 kWh battery with a range of 480 kilometres, 416-horsepower that goes from 0-100 km/h in 4.2 seconds, and a top speed of 210 km/h. With a cost between $60,000 and $100,000 USD, it doesn’t come cheap. But the fuel sure does. Being able to go to Seattle or Chilliwack and back on one charge was ultimately the selling point on the Tesla. Steinwand says that’s going to help make EVs more attractive to other buyers. “With a lot of the other cars I’d end up with range anxiety,” he says, referring to EVs like the Nissan Leaf, which gets about 160 kilometres on its 24 kWh battery pack. When Bob Miller got his Leaf 14 months ago he definitely felt the “range anxiety.” “I was always looking at Google Maps and checking my kilometres and everything else but you get used to it,” he says, adding if he ever gets worried he just finds the nearest charging station with the built-in GPS. Miller drove a Volkswagen Westfalia for 18 years but filling up was getting expensive. “It was just getting to the point where I didn’t want to drive it every day,” says Miller, who owns a small manufacturing company in Tilbury Industrial Park, roughly 18 kilometres from his home in Boundary Bay. Miller was attracted to the Leaf for a variety of reasons, from the cheaper costs to run it, little maintenance, no oil changes, and environmental friendliness. He decided to make the switch to an EV. “I just wanted to see if it can be done. And it can. Absolutely.” Bruce Stout, president of the Vancouver Electric Vehicle Association, also owns a Nissan Leaf and foresees a big future for EVs. “There’s no question electric vehicles will go mainstream,” says Stout, adding several things have to happen before that happens. The most important thing will be improvement of battery range and the proliferation of charging stations. In Delta there are only two: one near Boundary Bay Airport and one at Centennial Beach. “One of our people works for an organization where he parks his car for eight hours a day, they want him to be green so they allow him to plug in his car,” says Stout. Casey Mynott, an automotive instructor at Delta Secondary, says the rise of EVs boils down to the chicken-egg paradox. People won’t buy EVs because they’re worried about not finding a place to charge the car, but charging stations won’t really start appearing until more people drive EVs. But Mynott feels the paradigm shift in society has already taken place. “When you get somebody behind the wheel of some of these new OEM cars or even our race vehicles, right away they’re like, oh this thing is insane,” he says. Two years ago, Mynott and his students retrofitted a Toyota pickup truck for a fully electric drag racing vehicle with 450 horsepower. The truck set a Canadian drag racing record last year for an EV dragster, running the quarter mile (400 metres) at Mission Raceway Park in 14.67 seconds. Mynott says his students got excited about the idea of EV technology after watching some videos on how fast electric dragsters can go. “That’s the buy in phase with teenagers,” explains Mynott. “They need that because if they buy in they get so much more out of the experience.” Their newest project is a 375-pound junior electric dragster that tests the limits of physics by packing in 200 horsepower. Such power in an EV could be a big selling point on the commuter car market. The Tesla Model S is one such EV that packs a punch. When the car accelerates there’s virtually no noise, but the driver and any passengers are thrust back into their seats from the 443 pounds/foot (600 N-m) of torque. “Everything in it is so cool, you feel like you’re on the leading edge of something here,” says Steinwand. So, what the downside to the Tesla? “It doesn’t have enough cup holders,” he says laughing. “Honestly, there is nothing else.” And forget about maintenance costs. With a Tesla, Steinwand says the manufacturer can make upgrades to the car with firmware just like a cell phone. That means when new technologies come along, a Tesla driver gets them immediately. Steinwand has an app on his iPhone which can look at the car’s charge status, turn on the heat or A/C, and lock it. This can be done from anywhere in the world. It’s not exactly Night Rider but it’s getting pretty close. Steinwand has a 240-volt plug in his garage which takes about eight hours to charge his Tesla. To calculate the cost, just apply the residential electricity rate per kWh (6.9 cents in B.C.), and multiply it by the life of the battery. In the case of the Tesla Model S it amounts to $5.87 per charge. Nissan estimates the cost to drive a Leaf is about a buck every 48 kilometres, translating to a fuel efficiency of $3.47 per charge. At a retail price of $40,000 the Leaf is still more expensive than the average commuter vehicle, but Miller says the price will come down as more people buy them. Unfortunately for B.C. drivers, Ontario and Quebec are the only provinces that offer financial rebates of up to $8,500 for people who buy hybrids or EVs. “We only can guess at the level of subsidies going into the oil industry right now and there’s none of those subsidies going into this technology,” says Miller. A former Delta police constable, Steinwand isn’t prone to conspiracy theories, but he agrees the oil companies are holding back EVs. “They don’t want to see this happen,” he says. Stout says there are many reasons people become interested in an EV, but ultimately it’s the test drive that hooks them. With an EV there’s little need for heavy braking. The car goes when the accelerator is pushed and stops quickly when it’s released. And the regenerative braking technology actually charges the battery as the car is slowing. “Once they’ve had a ride in an electric car, their whole perception changes,” says Stout. “It’s the fun factor.” Or as Steinwand says about his Tesla, “It’s just really cool car.” [© blackpress.ca ] For all EVLN posts use: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/template/NamlServlet.jtp?macro=search_page&node=413529&query=evln&sort=date Here are today's archive-only EV posts: EVLN: Indoor e-kart racing @Fastrax Raceway, Albany, NY ts:50mph EVLN: $20k JAC EVs Exported to the US @Shanghai Auto Show 2013 EVLN: NYC Bloomberg’s plan to have Leaf taxis as 1/3 of fleet by 2020 EVLN: RM136,118.50 iMiev now on sale in Malaysia r:150km ts:130kph EVLN: Paxster postman EV received a design award r:80km (video) + EVLN: <$25k Smart ForTwo ED EV coming to Boston on May 13 r:68mi {brucedp.150m.com} -- View this message in context: http://electric-vehicle-discussion-list.413529.n4.nabble.com/EVLN-Vroom-vroom-gives-way-to-a-quiet-Canadian-Zoom-zoom-revolution-tp4662779.html Sent from the Electric Vehicle Discussion List mailing list archive at Nabble.com. _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
