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This is the Kodak Moment for the Auto Industry

Plug-In Drivers Not Missin' the Piston Electric vehicles are here to stay. Their market acceptance is currently small but growing...

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Supportive Government Policies Stimulate Electric Vehicle Market in Turkey, Finds Frost & Sullivan - KPTV - FOX 12

Supportive Government Policies Stimulate Electric Vehicle Market in Turkey, Finds Frost & Sullivan - KPTV - FOX 12: "Turkey is set for the era of electric vehicles (EVs), as original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) prepare for the launch of new EVs and the development of charging infrastructure gathers pace. EV market growth in the country is mainly driven by reduced special consumption taxes (SCT) for EVs as well as demand from global companies that are increasingly focusing on green policies."

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Peak Driving in Oregon

Peak Driving in Oregon | Sightline Daily:

2011 Nissan Leaf Battery Lifespan

In 2011, I took a leap of faith. After spending more than a year on the waiting list, I bought a brand new, 100% electric car. This was the first new car that I had ever bought.

I considered leasing it so I could walk away if the technology turned out to be less than I hoped. However, I don't like leases and after driving electric for the 4 previous years, I knew EVs had great potential, so I paid cash on the barrel-head and became the owner of a new electric car on May 18th 2011.

Two and a half years later, I still love the car. It still has all 12 bars of capacity and the range has not diminished. I plan to keep the car for 10 years, so maintaining battery health is important to me. So I generally avoid quick charging and I have the car in "Long Battery Life" mode so that it only charges up to 80%.

Even with these precautions, batteries will degrade slowly with the passage of time. I recently started running a program called Leaf Spy that, along with a cheap ELM from Amazon, allows me to read messages from the car's CAN bus. This shows a lot of data. Among this data is the current capacity and health of the batteries.

Here is a chart of the data I have collected so far:

For purposes of the chart, I made the assumption that the car started out at 100% capacity and health. I was surprised to see how much the capacity changes with the weather and use. The spike in capacity occurred when my car received a firmware update in the later summer of 2013.

This chart will be interesting once there are multiple years worth of data, where seasonal changes and longer term trends can be seen.

Sunday, September 15, 2013

‘Teslanaires’ put all their eggs in one electric car

‘Teslanaires’ put all their eggs in one electric car | The Columbus Dispatch:

EV Futures: Electric dreams - from nightmare to nirvana - SkiddMark

EV Futures: Electric dreams - from nightmare to nirvana - SkiddMark: "Jaguar, Porsche, Ferrari, Audi and BMW will all release the most jaw-dropping beauties that will give the most ardent of petrol heads a bad case of ‘electric dreams’ – destroying the illusion for ever that EVs are little more than a ‘sensible’ form of sustainable transport."

Thursday, September 12, 2013

How solar and EVs will kill the last of the industry dinosaurs : Renew Economy

How solar and EVs will kill the last of the industry dinosaurs : Renew Economy: "The working title for the book is “Disrupting energy – how Silicon Valley is making coal, nuclear, oil and gas obsolete.” It is pinned on the theme that decentralised generation and storage will replace the centralised, hub and spoke model that has prevailed for the last century. The impact of decentralised generation is already being felt. The striking part of Seba’s prediction is the speed with which it will happen.

First, on the technology cost issue. For EVs, Seba says the success of Tesla – in sales and in reputation – has changed the conversation around EVs, particularly after it won the 2013 Car of the Year award.

“Basically, EVs were supposed to be expensive and underpowered and weak and 50 years away. Tesla showed all that was wrong. The EV will do to oil what solar will do to coal, nuclear and gas. EVs are a disruptive technology, there is no doubt about that."

Oil rises 1 percent on doubt for Syria solution

Oil rises 1 percent on doubt for Syria solution - Yahoo Finance: "Syria is not a major oil producer, but oil traders say the possibility of a wider conflict could interrupt production and shipping routes in the Middle East and cause prices to rise."

In other new, electricity prices remain stable.

Minnesota faces a bumpy road in trying to fund transportation needs | MinnPost

Minnesota faces a bumpy road in trying to fund transportation needs | MinnPost: "major sources of transportation funding, though the gasoline tax base admittedly is eroding as vehicles become more fuel efficient and electric cars become more prevalent. Meanwhile, the cost of labor and building materials is rising, adding to the funding gap."