Electric Cars in Alaska

At least in Sweden it is not usual to run the engine heater continuously. One uses a timer set to start the heater an hour or two before the car is needed. This works well for cars used for commuting, but of course is not practical for cars that might be needed at any time and at short notice.

I live in Alaska.
December, January, and February is Fairbanks harshest months.
Most people leave their car running.
Period.
Without a heated garage, its just best to leave your car/truck running.
If its 40 below and no end in sight, its just better to leave your car running 24/7.
And that’s with a plug-in to your battery blanket, engine block and in-line radiator heating elements.

I need more information on Americas most wanted, Allessandro Giordano.
Did he import Frigging Fiats or Fabulous Ferraris?

Is that wanted add for real?
Tell them to “Fuccardi-de-offa!”
Max

The very idea of using a true electric car, like the LEAF, in the far north is insane. The cold saps so much battery power that even the longest-range electric car would be reduced to virtually no distance at all. Especially considering the extra power needed to move the vehicle through snow.
If your car fails when it’s 60 below and you’re not right in town, you’re as good as dead (unless you’ve got a lot of survival gear, which, granted, is always wise to have anyway). With a gas-powered car, even if you get stuck in a ditch or something, at least you can run the engine, and thus the heater, until help happens along. And you can carry extra cans of gas for the really long stretches between towns (and they’re ALL really long stretches between towns in Alaska and the Yukon).
And finally power goes out all the time in Alaska. Often for weeks at a time; I remember at least twice being without power for over a month — both times right around Christmas, when it’s coldest.
I’d sooner dogsled than drive an electric car in the arctic. I’d be a lot more confident I could refuel my dogs.

Well your 10,000 mpy and one hour per day driving time says an average speed of 10,000/365 = 27 mph average. That seems pretty low to me; unless Fairbanks has a huge number of traffic lights that keep your car stopped most of the time.
I drive a Subaru Legacy ins Si Valley (actually two f them) and on level roads, at 45 mph, such as a couple of crosstown “expressways”, I get beteween 50 and 55 mpg (instantaneous). The car has an instantaneous mpg readout, as well as an average trip mpg. Then it has a needle like a rate of climb indicaor, that shows whether you are doing above or below the trip average mpog, so you can drive accordingly. When someone cuts in front of me, and then slows down (they always do that) or when one of the dumb traffic lights turns red, then my mpg drops and goes to zero at the light.
The Silicon Valley traffic control algorithm is very simple; a two year old child can make better traffic decisions. The core of the algorithm is “who should I let go ?” So most lights are mostly red, most of the time. If they made a simple change to the algorithm so that it is: “Who should I stop ?”, then most traffic lights would be mostly green, most of the time, and we would likely save about all of the oil that we currently import.
So my 50-55 running mpg averages 27-28 mpg as a result of all the zeros.
Well those lights are programmed by the same sort of people who gave us Micro$oft Windows, so that explains it.
Hopefully, Fairbanks never gets to the same traffic light density Si Valley has. They do breed, you know. You put in a traffic light to solve one imagined traffic situation, and that light backs up traffic for at least six blocks in all directions, creating new traffic problems so pretty soon you have to install at least one more set of traffic lights somewhere else. It won’t be long before that light comes into heat, and spawns another new light.
A couple of weeks ago, a third world person was crossing the road near my house, in the middle of the block and (s)he got hit by a car and killed. So now they are digging up that street, and the next street over, and the connecting cross street, to install new traffic lights, where none is needed. That will attract even more third world persons to the very same spot so they too can be killed by passing cars. It would have been so much easier if that person, had simply looked both ways, and not crossed until it is clear. The principal advantage of crossing in the middle of the block where there are no traffic lights, is that there IS only traffic coming from two directions to run you down. After they put in the lights, then you go there so that the traffic can run you down from four directions at once.
In some countries, they have some quite crazy pedestrian control ideas: such as “either cars move, or pedestrians move; but never both at the same time.” Well then you can let the pedestrians all go in four directions at once (actually it is a total of 12 directions at once) so you get everyone to their destination in a single pedestrian period, and nO cars move in ANY direction at that time; and now there is only one pedestrian period instead of two or four, or even 12, depending on who pushed the button.
With enough traffic lights in Fairbanks, you could have the cars freezing up anyway, while stopped at traffic lights.

A few modifications and additions:
Electricity prices in Fairbanks are high because the area is without significant access to natural gas. A portion of Fairbanks’ electric power is purchased from Anchorage where it is generated with natural gas. The local electric company also is a participant in the Bradley Lake hydroelectric facility, the energy from which moves over the Alaska Intertie to Fairbanks.
While the Obama regime is officially supportive of the Alaska North Slope Natural Gas Line project which would move North Slope natural gas to the lower forty-eight states and Canada, their fellow travelers in the environmental movement will do probably anything to prevent this project from happening.
Loss of electric power in Fairbanks in the winter is not a joke — it can be a matter of life and death. The same is true of a car that stalls out away from others and will not restart.

Now you’ve gone and drawn attention to Alaskan block heaters. If incandescent light bulbs can be banned on politically correct grounds, what do you suppose will happen to electric block heaters? I envision a “vegetarian sled dog” movement coming our way soon.

Has the EPA arranged for a drone to get Alessandro in Naples or wherever?

I grew up in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. You don’t need to go as far north as Alaska to experience -40 C/F in the winter, sometimes for several days in a row. We had block heaters in every car we owned. Around Dec 1, a sheet of cardboard was inserted in front of the radiator to reduce the heat loss that the radiator experienced when driving around town. The cars parked in the garage were on a timer that would power the block heaters about 4 hours before the car was needed in the morning. The other car was parked outside, and had a block heater running all the time when it was parked. One dead-calm, overcast morning at -35 C, even with the block heater running all night, the engine barely turned over, and then the fan belt shattered, as in hundreds of little bits. Good times.

George E. Smith,
The USA could reduce delays, save energy and increase safety by replacing most traffic lights and a large proportion of stop signs with roundabouts.
This is one area the government should take a leading role in. As people go from resistance to roundabouts to liking them once they experience them.
The money being thrown at solar panel manufacturers, etc, would save a great deal more energy if spent on installing roundabouts and educating people about them.