Some regular readers may have noticed that I’ve been a bit detached from the blog in the past week. There’s a good reason for that. I’ve been immersing myself in the joys of owning and learning about the nuts and volts of an electric car.
Yes, that evil old Anthony Watts, doubter of Anthropogenic Global Warming, is now driving an NEV (Neighborhood Electric Vehicle) to and from work every day, to lunch, and on errands in town. I put 100 miles on it the first week. Of course this sort of energy efficiency isn’t anything new for me, since I put solar on my home, and on one of the local schools when I was a trustee. But never mind that, I’m still “evil” for doubting AGW. 😉
It would be interesting to see what some other pro-AGW folks drive. I see Jim Hansen has a 85 mile each way commute from his house in Kintnersville, Pennsylvania to Columbia University in NYC.
The NEV is a 2002 Ford “Think” which is no longer in production since California dropped the ZEV (Zero Emissions Vehicle) mandate in 2003. It is one of the rare “pickup truck” models, and as seen below, the former owner drove that point home:
If you are a Ford pickup truck owner, you’ll recognize the logo. The famous Ford F-150 pickup truck is rated for a 1500 pound cargo capacity. This vehicle is rated at 500 pounds, hence the designation, though not an official one.
Those who have owned Fords are often reminded of these famous F.O.R.D descriptions:
“Fix Or Repair Daily”, or “Found On Road Dead”.
Since this operates on 6x 12V Gel Cells, which are under the seats, I’ve added a new one:
Found On Road Discharged
Though not really, I get about 25-30 miles of range from this vehicle, and finding a power plug is easy between my home, office, and some folks around town I know. Currently it has a top speed of 25MPH, which is limited by a controller, but the vehicle can be modded with new programming and an enhanced efficiency motor to reach up to 39MPH. I’m not sure if I need that, as I have not found the speed to be an issue. I mostly take the back streets anyway, and my office is about 2 miles from my home. The only place I can’t go is the Highway, but I don’t need to.
The complete vehicle specs are listed here, from testing done by the US Department of Energy.
Now here is the really important part, look at the DOE rated energy cost:
Energy Cost: @ $0.10/kWh: $0.016/mi
In California, I pay about 15 cents per kilowatt/hour, so my cost would be: $.024/mile or 2.4 cents per mile. With battery replacement every 4 years, I figure that will rise to 3, maybe 4 cents a mile. Even if I’m off by a factor of 100%, and it costs me 6-8 cents a mile to drive, it is still a bargain. In my regular vehicle, given the $3.89/gallon gas price, I figured I was spending about $40-$50 per week in gasoline costs just doing my daily routine and errands.
So, my mission here is simple; I’m not saving the planet, I’m saving money.
That is infectious, and my local newspaper editor, David Little, did his weekly Sunday column on it and the electric car club in town. He’s hooked.
Right now the vehicle is in my garage, I completely disassembled the body and dash so I could locate an intermittent electrical connection and give the entire vehicle a good cleaning and inspection. The former owner lived in a desert area, and there was a lot of sand in it. It has been a joy to work on. It is simple and efficient in design, and easily maintainable with simple hand tools. I’ve located the electrical problem and fixed it. Once I get the vehicle reassembled, I’ll get back to blogging more on the issues related to USHCN and surfacestations.org
In the meantime, I’m having a ball! Bumper sticker suggestions are welcome.
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I ride a bike, and occasionally rent a car. Fuel for the bike is really cheap if I stick with pasta but is raised somewhat from my appetite for meat 😉
Renting a car is actually convenient as I don’t need to wash, maintain and clean it. And it certainly prevent unnecessary use. I do realize however that you need a significant interest in environment stewardship to do without the car, but it works.
Wow. So they just plain don’t want people to drive, regardless of whether they’re polluting or not. Idiots.
Anthony, I know AGW and policy isn’t your thing, but you and other readers may find this interesting: Lower fuel efficiency may be an unintended consequence of higher gas prices.
Top 10 Bumper stickers:
10) “Nuclear powered: when I can get the good stuff”
9) “Feeling Guilty? Carbon Credits for Cash”
8) “My Footprint = Al Gores Little Toe print”
7) “This car available for celebrity photo-ops”
6) “It comes with golf course blinders, for the headlights”
5) “Is that Another gas station I just passed up??”
4) “This car is emission-free! The driver … not so much.”
3) “Caution: Eco-Redneck is a baaaaad man”
2) “I stop for wattage”
1) “Wattsssssuuuuuuupppppp!!”
” I see Jim Hansen has a 85 mile each way commute from his house in Kintnersville, Pennsylvania to Columbia University in NYC”
Anthony do you have a source for that info? This would definitely be a good one to demonstrate the hypocrisy of the warmers. They don’t seem to be interested in setting good examples.
REPLY: Look at the links in the post. I have his home address from his 2007 testimony before congress, and then there’s the link to Google Maps showing the actual commute. So yes, I have a source right there in the posting.
Hopefully something at this conference will pan-out.
http://www.advancedautobat.com/
Then those of us, that have serious snow-shovel experience, will be able to join in the electric car fun.
Brilliant – it isn’t about AGW, just like energy saver lights, it’s about money.
Has the added advantage of not using a commodity too valuable to burn, whatever the type of combustion. Plastics will be hard to replace without going back to heavier materials.
The next step should be filling stations providing pallets of batteries to exchange those near discharge – a slot out/in system.
Of course there is also the prospect of cutting off revenues to inimical states.
Suggestion for a bumper sticker: “Watt’s up with this?”
On a more serious note, I also agree that a major consideration involved in building a sustainable, clean energy future is wrapped up in the phrase: “I’m not saving the planet, I’m saving money.” I’m afraid I don’t have time right now to go into detail, but I think there are two things to keep in mind:
(1) There is currently a large discrepancy between the cost of liquid fuels specifically devoted to transportation (e.g., gasoline and diesel) and the cost of fuels devoted to powering the grid. As you point out, even considering replacing your battery every 4 years or so, it still works out to 6-8 cents/mi. I have no idea what a gas-powered golf cart gets in terms of MPG, but assuming gas is $4/gal, it would have to get between 50 and 75 MPG. My guess is you’re in the ballpark right now. However, as battery technology improves while gas gets more expensive, I’d say the advantage is in your favor. As I am wont to say (over and over), it’s a question of spending money now or spending even more money later.
(2) There are several grid technologies that are very close to competitive with fossil fuels, especially when all the externalities are considered. And more are likely in the near future. The problem is, they don’t match well with current policy. In most cases, changing the policy could be done at little to no cost overall. The hard part is convincing all the players that it’s in their best interests to change the policy. After all, if the way utilities make money on the basis of the amount of energy they provide (which is the way things are set up in most places), it stands to reason that they are not going to be very interested in promoting energy efficiency. However, if they can make money on the basis of how much energy they save, it likewise stands to reason that they will promote efficiency. Similarly, in order for intermittent, load-following, and distributed sources of energy to become real players in the energy equation, it stands to reason that smart grid technology has to become available. But that won’t happen unless the cost burden of providing it is shifted away from the utilities. Sure, the end result would be better, more energy efficient and more cost-efficient for everyone. But until the policy changes, what’s the incentive?
That is a golf cart. I know because I played golf once.
REPLY: Looks don’t equate. Actually there are a lot of differences. For example it has a regenerative braking system. It also has double the range of a golf cart. It has street wheels and tires, Mcpherson struts, a magnesium alloy roll cage. Safety glass, seat belts.
bumper sticker: Rubber Baby Elecro-Buggy Bumper
Joe S (23:35:31) – That was the idea!
Pierre Gosselin (06:47:28) – 300SDL 6-cylinders and better mileage than my old four-banger
Back on-topic: Across much of the prairies you will find electrical outlets for block heaters, so Anthony can recharge on a cross-country; mind you, he may have to drive in winter…
I like the idea of the “solar during the peak hours” concept and I have a south facing barn roof and 300 sunny days a year that would make a good bit of power to run my air conditioning (and, like you, I also have a deep well with a full horsepower pump to run).
But…
My average electric bill last year was $110 per month. I need the price of solar photovoltaics to come down quite a bit before I’m willing to cover the barn with solar panels even with gummint rebates.
bumpersticker “Take that Saudi Arabia”.
Bumper stickers:
“In case of Rapture, this car will be Mann’s”
“I keep the spare on my keychain”
“These wheels save money for meals”
“Hansen’s in the trunk”
“If you can read this, I’m 12 inches from death”
“I don’t brake for bikers
They have to brake for me”
“Assembled by Elmer’s”
“F50: 1/3rd the truck, 1/4th the price, 1/5th the speed”
I’m being facetious on some of these, of course. All in good fun.
As an accountant, cost-benefit governs my decisions. If an electric car were feasible for me, I’d already be driving one; but everyone’s situation is different, and that’s the beauty of choice in the free market.
REPLY: Hey, don’t knock it, Evel Knievel drove an electric car before he died.
here he is driving it: http://www.clear-lake-reflections.com/evel2.jpg
Portion of Job ad from 10 years in the future:
Benefits: We offer a comprehensive benefit plan including full medical and dental coverage, a 401K plan, 3 weeks paid vacation, and free recharges for your electric car while you work.
I’m from Québec, Canada and here with the snow and the cold it’s almost impossible to use these small electric cars. But still we see a lot of Smart cars around here.
But did someone ever realize that if big oil companies see their gaz sales going down, they will, like any other companies, raise the price of their products to gain the same profits years after years… !
K.
If the demand goes down, price will go down. Or not go up as fast as it would have otherwise. The good old supply-and-demand curve.
I am all in favor of whatever option is cheapest. I strongly prefer that the gummint does not interfere. Not that it hasn’t already. As it is the gvt. pulls in around five times as much on a gallon of gas as Big Oil makes.
Whenever i point out that oil companies make around a 10% profit, no one wants to believes me. It’s true, though.
(Why would anyone want to invest in a company that gets accused of price gouging and hit with windfall profit taxes when it pulls down a lousy 10%?)
Stickin’ It To The Mann!
My Other Car Is A…. Car!
Don’t laugh, it’s…
OK, laugh.
It does have airbags…
When my wife rides shotgun!
(sorry ’bout that last one, but I just had to go there)
Lukewarmer on board!
Good idea. I have considered buying an old harley and convert it to electric. Then I could put all my tools in a trailer, tow it to the job sight the first day and ride the bike the rest of the time. But it would be my luck, I would ride up to the sight and my trailer would be gone. I still may convert a harley to electric.
First On Race Day
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
My primary transportation has been motorcycles for the last 30 years!! My car is literally rusting away!! I supplement with my bicycles and public transportation. As you say, it is CHEAPER!!! AGW is a bad joke.
I’ve been keeping an eye on alternative energy motorcycles, but, too limited or expensive so far.
Anthony, I bought the “Ford Think” from the folks that won it from the local radio contest….just yesterday. I’m looking forward to fun new adventures but am having doubts about the mileage it will get per charge. Hoping I didn’t get screwed. So far it hasn’t gone very far on a couple of quick charges, but havn’t tried it yet on a full overnight charge…we shall see. Do you have any suggestions where I would go to get the batteries modified or updated?
REPLY: Batteries plus on lower Skyway can provide new gel-cells.
Here is a help forum you can look at for ideas:
http://www.4dsonly.com/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl
I drove it from my office on north Cohasset near the airport, to downtown, to KPAY, and back to my office on north Cohasset on a single charge. The key to battery life is to constantly charge it. Deep cycling the batteries will create lead sulfate in the battery plates much faster. Always plug it in when you can, even if you’ve only used it a little bit.
” I see Jim Hansen has a 85 mile each way commute from his house in Kintnersville, Pennsylvania to Columbia University in NYC”
Actually, here is the full story according to the book “Censuring Science” by Mark Bowen:
“Jim leads an ascetic life. He and Anniek keep a tiny apartment a few blocks from his institute, the Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), which is located on the campus of Columbia University. On days when he doesn’t get up at 4:30 A.M. to catch a train to Washington for a meeting at NASA headquarters or the Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Maryland, he tends to spend the early morning thinking and writing in the peace and quite of the apartment…At some point in the morning, when a meeting or some other pressing duty calls, he will rush downstairs and walk–more exactly run–a few blocks south to GISS, where he will work into the night. He claims that his only regular exercise comes from running up the stairs to his seventh-floor office. He and Anniek also own a small farm in rural Pennsylvania, to which he commutes by car about once a week–less in winter.”
Hope that helps put it in perspective: He lives during the week in a tiny apartment that he walks to work from, he takes the stairs up to his office, takes the train when he has to go down to D.C. for a meeting, and commutes out to his farmhouse that you mentioned at most once a week.
Congratulations on your electric vehicle!
How does your automobile insurance company feel about this rig? Any restrictions? What is the annual rate? (if it isn’t too personal).
REPLY: It costs $180 per year, not too bad.
Hi Anthony,
I support the use of rechargeable electric vehicles, especially for urban use. I would, however, like to know more about their full-life-cycle energy efficiency, operating and capital cost.
My objective is not to reduce atmospheric CO2 – since the science of catastrophic humanmade global warming is fatally flawed.
We have now experienced a ~900% increase in humammade CO2 emissions since 1940, and the latest data shows there has been no net global warming since that time.
My primary objective is greater energy independence for our next-door neighbour, the USA.
Some good ideas have been discussed here – following is an email I sent two months ago which covers similar points.
Re: Robert Bryce’s idea of a “superbattery”.
First, I know a fair bit about energy and agree with Bryce’s views on corn
ethanol. I had a corn ethanol plant in Wyoming in the 1990’s. The energy
input to produce such fuel often equals or even exceeds the energy output
when the fuel is consumed. Hence the foolishness of such technology, and the need for huge subsidies. Also there is the water consumption issue.
Wind power suffers greatly from the lack of a superbattery and requires
almost 100% conventional backup. However I am not convinced that anything,
even a superbattery, will save wind power from being a total boondoggle.
Nuclear energy also suffers for lack of a superbattery, since nuclear plants
reportedly are not easy to ramp up and down, even overnight. I expect that
even large coal-fired plants are somewhat inflexible in this regard. Natural
gas-fired plants are most flexible for providing peaking power.
Back to the superbattery:
If a significant percentage of the vehicle fleet were (over time) powered by
electric motors and batteries, which could be refueled overnight during
non-peak periods, this would significantly level-out electricity demand.
Added benefits would include significantly lower urban air and noise
pollution. Adequate batteries exist today, but are not inexpensive, and
there is always room for continued technological improvement.
My “guess” is that moving in this direction would be vastly more beneficial
for society than the current governmental mania to subsidize wind power and
ethanol-from-food, both expensive boondoggles that produce no energy
benefits and cause significant societal and environmental damage.
Best regards, Allan
Calgary