Workplace EV Charging: The Google Story

ChargePoint and Google had a joint webinar on workplace charging.
Here is the link: Workplace EV Charging: The Google Story

Here are a few of the key-points (several of these are arguable but I'll save that for later).

ChargePoint

• EVs are here to stay (and growing)
• 200-mile $30,000 vehicles are coming (in 2017) and will boost EV sales
• Workplace charging increases employee satisfaction and retention
• ChargePoint does not recommend Level 1 for workplace charging for several reasons
• Quick Charging (DC Fast Charge) can supplement Level 2 or work with valet parking
• Charging fees can encourage people to move their cars and improve utilization
• - One customer had free charging for the first 5 hours, then $10 per hour after that
    This got people to move
• Charging can be part of a sustainable transportation program (LEED points)
• Smart/connected stations allows for data collection and real-time availability/use data
• Currently there are no tax impacts for free charging
• Trenching costs can be more than the stations depending on where you put them
• EV driving reduces CO2 (even considering the electricity generation)
• Have a cord management plan (be safe)
• ChargePoint is great, we have great stuff, we're awesome...

Google

• Google wants to be a carbon neutral company
• Electrification of their fleet, shuttle busses, and supporting employees to do the same is part of this program
• Workplace charging is a nice company perk if you want to hire good people
• They started in 2007 with Level 1
• In 2010 Level 2 was defined, Google started a team to plan for EV charging
• 5% of parking spots electrified was their 1st target
• Level 2 allows for multiple charging sessions per day
• Bring your own EVSE Level 1 was not a positive experience
• Google wanted connected systems so they t data (Google loves data)
• When you wire a region, overbuild for future expansion
• They did install regular (level 1) outlets and RV 240V outlets too that older EVs and scooters could use AND these can be used for events in the lot or mobile command needs
• These were important for LEED certification too
• ADA considerations (there are many)
• Code requirements were different in different cities (copy exact policy did always work)
• Confirmed that this was not a taxable 1099 benefit
• Solar helps offset mid-day demand
• Mobile/temp stations worked in areas they could not modify
• They have DC fast charge for the fleet (with some employee use)
• They have about 1900 charging sessions per day
• They are promoting this with other groups
• They had 1000% growth in EVs on campus from 2012
• They are now targeting 10% of parking spaces to be electrified
• "Move cords, not cars" is current policy. They are installing stations in head-to-head spots
• Grassroots communities, mailing lists, "swap buddies" help balance out over subscription
• Growing to 20% of parking spots
• Looking at smart charging methods to control demand charges... This could become a product

Ω

100,000 Page Views

This blog recently had its 100,000th page view. I know many of these are internet crawling bots, but you (you reading this right now), you are a real person. So I say thank you to all for you real people for reading my scribbles.

I've published 632 entries (prior to this one) since starting this blog in 2009. I must admit that many of the posts are snippets from stories that interested me with little or no commentary from me. One of my most popular is my three year review of Nissan Leaf ownership. Nissan shared this one on their social media media channels.

In these 600 posts I've written about:

• My speculations about how autonomous vehicles will change the world
  
• My experience with the Oregon tax by the mile program 
• About fuel cells and how Toyota and others are using the wrong method to introduce this technology
• How Tesla has spurred the entire industry to make daring moves that no large encumbered corporation is comfortable with while also launching a sea of copycat startups
• How, driven by our longer running mobile devices, batteries are on a compounding improvement course and this will bring affordable 200 (and eventually 300) mile EVs 
• How solar panels on our home make more energy than our annual EV driving uses 
• Gave you a guide to determine how many solar panels you'll need to power your own EV
• The psychology of people that "don't get" EVs
• The transition to plug-in transportation will happen, but it will be a slow transition. There are are a lot of cars on the road and they are not swapped out like the seasons fashion. 
• One of my favorite posts was about innovate or die
  
• I've looked into the mind of Elon Musk
• 9 Reasons Oregon is Perfect for EVs
• A guide to workplace charging best practices 
• I incorrectly predicted that Tesla would move to ultracapacitors 
• About my adventures driving on the West Coast Electric Highway

Looking back, many of these subjects are due to be updated and I just might delete that one about the ultracapacitors. 

1 Million Plug-in Cars on U.S. Roads

2015 has come and gone, along with it President Obama’s goal from 2010 to put 1 million plug-in vehicles (PEV) on the road in the United States by 2015 has passed by unaccomplished.

It was not a complete loss though, worldwide there were 1 million PEVs on the road at the close of 2015. The atmosphere does not have a national citizenship, so I'll still count this as a victory.

        

The atmosphere does not have a national citizenship.



Since the goal for US roadways didn't happen in 2015, when will there be 1 million plug-in vehicles on US roads? Let's make some estimations. First, I looked at the PEV sales data on EDTA and added a simple linear trend in sales growth. The result is the chart below:

This chart predicts that as 2018 closes and we ring in 2019, we'll be just shy of the 1 million vehicle goal. If this is accurate (unlikely) we'll hit the goal in January of 2019.

Of course, there are many factors that could influence this: gas prices, emissions and CAFE targets, incentives, technology breakthroughs...

For the sales trend above, I used the pessimistic linear trend. A polynomial or exponential sales trend is much more optimistic and would hasten the accomplishment significantly.

EV-pessimist and opinion writer at The Washington Post, Charles Lane, has made a significant bet that this 1 million PEV goal will not be achieved by the end of 2018. The above chart has him barely winning this bet. However, when the next generation of affordable 200-mile range EVs go on sale (Chevy Bolt, Tesla Model 3, next gen Nissan Leaf...) in 2017, there should be a significant step-up in EV sales and then sorry Charlie, 2018 will be the "year of 1 million PEVs".

        

2018 will be the Year of 1 Million Plug-in Vehicles on U.S. roadways.

Gallons of Sunshine - Part 2: How much does it cost to charge an EV?

How much does it cost to charge an EV? With a gas car, you can easily figure out the cost. Let's say gas is $2.50 per gallon and you need 10 gallons; that's $25. If you get 25 MPG, those 10 gallons will get you 250 miles. That is a dime for each mile you drive. If you drive a gas car, you can, of course adjust this for your local gas prices and your vehicle's MPG.

With an EV that you charge at home, you generally don't get a separate EV charging bill (although some utilities are offering "EV tariff rates" that are cheaper than the normal rate). Assuming you are not on one of these EV tariff programs, then EV charging shows up on your regular bill and it is indistinguishable from your TV or refrigerator's electrical usage. I don't know about your electricity bill, but mine is complicated. There are different rates for different levels of usage, there are distribution charges, connection fees, taxes... Each bill is about 20 items long. But you can simplify things. Just find the total kilowatt-hours (kWh) used and then find the amount due. From these two you can find final the cost per kWh. Our most recent bill was $173 for 1517 kWh. That is an average of 11.4¢ per kWh.

Once you have the price per kWh, you can figure out the price per mile for an EV. A 2015 Nissan Leaf, for example, has an EPA rating of 3.33 miles per kWh. That works out to 3.4¢ per mile. That is about one third of the 10¢ per mile from the gas example above.

You can think about this way, every $10 you spend on electricity saves you $30 at the pump.

Above we used the simplest method to compute the cost of a kWh. In 2012, we signed up for Portland General Electric's Time-of-Use (TOU) program. It's a time-of-day based rate system. TOU charges different rates for electricity at different times of the day. They have on-peak, mid-peak, and off-peak pricing. Here is the chart from our December 2015 bill.

Time-of-use chart

Most EVs are charged overnight. This is off-peak. The off-peak rate is listed as 4.2¢ per kWh, but there are distribution fees and other things that bring the actual cost to 8.8¢ per kWh. That works out to just 2.67¢ per mile. This is 73% cheaper than the gasoline example above.

        

Even with gas at $2.50 per gallon, charging an EV at off-peak times can be 73% cheaper than driving a gas car.



I started writing this post because recently there were some questions about TOU from my 2013 post on the topic here. So in the rest of this, I'll break down our December electricity bill in more detail.

Electricity is generally inexpensive here in the Pacific Northwest when compared to places such as southern California. So here, the default program is usually a flat rate (called Basic Charge by PGE). With a flat rate, a kWh costs the same at noon as it does at midnight. As you use more, you may move into a different pricing tier, but the time-of-day does not matter.

Here, it only makes sense (and cents) to switch to a TOU program if you can move 50% or more of your usage to off-peak. As you can see in the chart above for December, we were right at the 50% mark.

We shifted our usage in two primary ways. First, we have 12.3 kW of solar panels. This generates electricity during on-peak and mid-peak, thereby reducing our grid demand during these times. Second, as discussed above, we have an electric car. The car's charging station is programed to charge the car up from 3 to 6 AM each morning. This fills up the car during the off-peak rate period. We plan on adding a 2nd plug-in car to our home fleet soon. This will increase our off-peak usage even more.

The concept of TOU is simple enough, but the impacts to your bill are more complex. The best way to understand it is to examine an actual bill so you can understand how it might save (or not save) you money.

December is a good month to examine since it's one of the worst case months. In the spring and summer, we save about $10 on each bill. In the winter we are close to break even, we may save a little or pay a little extra than we would if we were on the flat rate. Looking at it annual, we save money, so paying a little extra in the winter is no big deal.

So here are the details from our December 2015 bill:

Off Peak Rate	kWh	Subtotal	Adjusted	Adj Subtotal
$0.04195	761	$31.92	$0.08793	$66.91
Mid Peak Rate	kWh	Subtotal	Adjusted	Adj Subtotal
$0.07222	436	$31.49	$0.11820	$51.53
Peak Rate	kWh	Subtotal	Adjusted	Adj Subtotal
$0.12581	320	$40.26	$0.17179	$54.97

I should clarify that adjusted rate (Adj per kWh) is not listed on the bill. I computed this by adding up all the additional charges that are on the bill. There are 16 of them. Most of these are per kWh charges and are easily applied to each rate. A few apply to only the first 1000 kWh and others (like the $10 connection fee) are a fixed amount. To simplify all of this I just prorated all the charges as per kWh. While not 100% accurate, it is close enough and this method accounts for the entire $173 bill. By far the biggest of these adjustment fees was the $60 Distribution Charge. It accounted for 85% of the adjustment amount and it was a per kWh charge.

Here is our list of per kWh adjustments:

per kWh Adjustments	Fee per kWh
105 Regulatory Adjustments	-$0.0006600
109 Energy Efficiency Funding	$0.0031800
110 Energy Efficiency Customer	$0.0000700
122 Renewable Resource	$0.0001800
123 Decoupling Adjustment	$0.0003400
137 Solar Payment Option Cost	$0.0004700
143 Spent Fuel Adjust	-$0.0012700
144 Capital Projects Adjust	$0.0016100
145 Boardman Decom Adj	$0.0003700
Transmission Charge	$0.0024600
Distribution Charge	$0.0392600

And here is the list of fixed charges or charges that didn't apply to every kWh:

Fixed Rate & Capped kWh Adj
Basic Fee	$10.00000
First Block Adjustment	-$7.22000
Low Income Assistance	$0.84000
Public Purpose Charge	$4.88000
102 RPA Exchange Credit	-$8.55000

How much would this month have cost with the flat rate? The adjustments and fixed charges are the same on either the TOU or the Basic Rate plan.

Basic Rate	kWh	Rate	Adjusted	Adj Subtotal
1st MWh	1000	$0.0650	$0.1110	$110.98
Over 1MWh	517	$0.0722	$0.1182	$61.11

This adds up to $172, so we would have saved $1 if we were on the flat rate plan. Again, this is more than made up for by our summertime savings. In fact, I'll make this deal with any of you. For every $10 that you give me in July, I'll give you $1 in December :)  PGE does not let you switch between the Basic Rate and TOU rate each month. When you sign up for the TOU rate program, it's a one year commitment. So I can't take the $10 in July and then skip out on the $1 in December. The good news is that in the first year on the TOU program they guarantee that your total annual bill will not be more than 10% higher than it would have been with the Basic Rate plan. This way, if TOU is not the great deal that you thought it would be, you can cancel the program after the first year and not be out too much money.

There you have a it, a break down of EV charging cost and the TOU rates and fees on a Portland General Electric bill.

2015 Driving on Sunshine

Above you can see how much electric car driving I did (shown in blue) and how much energy our solar panels made (shown in red).

The blue line is rather straight. I tend to drive the roughly the same amount each month. The red line is the more interesting one, it represents 5.6 MWh generated on our roof in 2015. The red line is shown in miles rather than kWh. This is because we installed solar panels primarily to "fuel" our electric car driving.

This "miles" chart does not look exactly the same as it would in a kWh chart. In the winter, it takes more energy to drive a mile. The heater uses energy and the batteries don't perform as well. This means that a kWh in the winter generates fewer miles. Combine this with the fact that we generate less energy in the winter and you can see why the line is relatively flat from January through April.

The line spikes up in September because we upgraded our solar panels that month. Next year we'll generate far more energy and we should see our first 10+MWh year.

This chart follows the calendar year, but it would sure look a lot better if it started on April 1st. Then it would show plenty of net-metered solar miles waiting to be used during the low yield winter days.

This concludes our 2015 solar and EV driving energy review. I have a LOT more data, but this is the single chart that best displays how it is possible to drive on sunshine when you have solar panels and an electric car.

If you want to talk to SolarCity, you can use my referral and you'll get your first month's electricity free.

More Home Solar

New solar panels getting installed

This year we upgraded our PV system from 4kW to 12kW. In 2007, when we installed our first PV system, we paid for it mostly out-of-pocket. There were some state and local incentives, but the federal incentive was capped at $2000. This meant that we were paying tens of thousands of dollar for something that would take decades to payoff if you only look at the electricity that it generates. But people spend money on vacations or new cars that never "pay back" financially. So this was our indulgence. We felt good about doing the right thing, so we considered it money well spent. 

Our 2015 upgrade was a very different story. In 2015, we added 8.3kW to the 4kW that we already had. The new system is from SolarCity. This time we didn't buy the system, we signed a power purchase agreement. These are a great idea. Instead of paying thousands of dollar upfront, we just buy the electricity that the panels produce. We paid zero out of pocket and we are getting solar power. Now we pay SolarCity instead of our local utility for these kWhrs.

        

Most people cannot afford to spend thousands of dollars on solar panels, but nearly everyone can pay their monthly electricity bill. SolarCity allows you to have solar panels at the cost of your monthly electricity bill.

We are still on the grid and use the utility at night and in the winter. When we generate surplus on those long summer days, our meter runs backward, allowing us to use power that night or even later that year for free. This is Net Metering. Here the net metering year starts on April 1st, so we have all winter to spend any energy that we banked during the summer. Anything that we have not spent by April 1st is donated to our utility's need assistance program.

Above, I said that we pay SolarCity rather than our local utility. That's true, but the deal is a little better than that. The deal that we have with SolarCity is that we pay 9.7¢ per kWh for the 20 year life of the agreement. Currently, the standard rate from our utility is ~13¢ per kWh and it goes up (albeit a small amount) every couple of years. So we are paying less and getting solar. Also, as I discussed here having solar has allowed us to switch a time-of-use program and pay less for the electricity that we buy from the grid. So we are saving money on both the solar energy and the grid energy.

Additionally, since SolarCity owns the panels and the inverter (we just buy the power), if anything goes wrong, they fix it. On our old 2007 system the inverter died twice. It was covered under the 5 year warranty both times and the latest one seems to be holding up. However, if it goes out again, the warranty will no longer cover it and I'll have to buy a new one and pay to have it installed. Whereas if the SolarCity inverted were to die, I am buying less power from them and they are motivated to repair it quickly to recover their revenue stream and it costs me nothing.

I am generally skeptical of things like this. It sounds too good to be true. Well, the savings are not that big, it's only a few cent per kWh. And it is not too hard to believe that by generating and consuming the electricity locally avoids many of the taxes that are associated with a legacy utility company. I counted 16 adjustments to our utility bill for various programs; granted a few were credits, but most were taxes and fees. And SolarCity gets all the state, local, and federal incentives to pay for the upfront costs plus low interest loans. This reminds me of internet phone services like Ooma. They use a different model than traditional utilities and can afford to offer services cheaper.

I looked into SolarCity's business model, because I wanted to figure out if they were likely to be around for the 20 years of this service contract. While there is certainly no guarantee of this, there were two things that reassured me. First, they are a publically traded company and the market is generally bullish on the stock. Certainly there have been plenty of public companies that have pulled shenanigans, misreported, or blatantly lied (anyone remember Enron), but SEC reporting provides some level of transparency. Second, they have an insurance trust at Berkshire Hathaway to provide for the maintenance of the systems if anything should happen to the company. Additionally, the company is growing and rather than just being an installer, they are vertically integrating by getting into the financing and solar panel production aspects of the business too. This will give them more profit from each installation going forward. The nice thing about each of their installations is that it is a 20 year contract, not just a one-time sale.

If you are still reading this, you must be genuinely interested in solar. If you want to talk to SolarCity, you can use my referral and you'll get your first month's electricity free.

10,000 CHAdeMO, 1 Million EVs, & 1 Billion Tesla Miles - The Big EV Stories of 2015

2015 was a big year for electric vehicles. Here is my list of the things that mattered most for plug-in transportation in 2015. If you think I left something off the list, please let me know.

In no particular order:

• More than 100,000 plug-in car were sold in the US in 2015. With the cheap price* of gas, that's impressive. This put nearly 400,000 plug-in cars on US roadways.
• September '15 saw the One Million EVs Sold Worldwide milestone crossed  
• COP 21 put CO2 top of the world's mind. Many CO2 reduction plans came out of Paris and many of these include increasing the number of EVs on the world's roads. 
• Dieselgate, the VW scandal,  made people realize that diesel is a fossil fuel, not a green alternative.
• Tesla, LG, & BYD all break ground on battery gigafactories. 
• Grid storage battery applications were announced. This helps in multiple ways: it advances battery tech, increases the volume (lowering prices), and increases the amount of renewable energy that can be used on the grid.
• Now that some plug-ins have been out for 5 years, a real used market has emerged and there are some great deals. This will open the market to more people and to people that would only consider them as a second car. As we know, many of them will fall in love with that smooth ride.
• With CAFE increases, the gasoline tax is dying. Several states are rolling out alternatives; however, it's not clear if these are simple funding replacements, or punishments to EVs and fuel efficient car drivers. 
• Nissan offered a Leaf with a larger battery pack. This is the first step toward the promise of affordable 200+ mile EVs coming soon (Bolt, Model 3). 
• Tesla auto-pilot: an innovation breakthrough that is a big step to autonomous vehicles.
• Tesla was not bought out by Apple, Google, or anyone else. These stories were annoyingly hyped in 2015. 
• In December Nissan sold their 200,000 Leaf in worldwide sales
• The Case for a Carbon Tax: The state of Oregon specifically made progress toward establishing a carbon tax. This would do much to reduce gasoline use while simultaneously increasing the amount of renewable energy on the grid (which powers EVs and everything else that plugs in).   
• In June '15 Nissan/Renault crossed the 250,000 electric cars sold milestone.
• Tesla drivers passed 1 billion electric miles mark in December.
• Toyota launched their fuel cell car, the Mirai. This is the next step in the fight between electricity and fuel cells to be Fuel 2.0. 
• Electric cars dominated the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, placing first and second. The elevation gain of more than 4,000 feet makes it hard for the gas cars to calibrate for the O2 intake change. EVs will soon dominate in other races (like the TT) and leave their gas-power brethren in the dust.
• According to energy.gov there are 29,627 charging outlets at 11,667 locations in the US. EV infrastructure continued to grow in 2015.
• In December of 2015, the number of CHAdeMO stations crossed the 10,000 mark for worldwide deployment.  
• CCS fast chargers finally began their proliferation in the US. They are still far behind CHAdeMO & Tesla.
• China has struggled to get EVs to sell. In 2015 they finally found the right incentives and infrastructure deployment to start ramping EV sales. BYD outsold all other manufacturers.
• Plug-in car plans were on display at the 2015 Detroit auto show. Porsche, Volvo, Audi, Ford, VW, Jaguar and others all announced big plans in 2015 for future EV growth.  

The future is going to be electric! Happy New Year.

* Cheap at the pump does not mean cheap cost when all the externalities are considered. 

Nissan Leaf Turns 5 - Incremental Improvements Add Up

The first Nissan Leaf was sold on December 11, 2010. The 2016 model year vehicles are currently available, making this the  sixth model year. Let's look at how the Leaf has evolved.

Looking back before we look forward

Chevy S10 Electric Vehicle

My first electric vehicle (EV) driving experience was in 2007. Lucky for me, there were still a few EVs around from the late 1990s. Thanks to Don't Crush (now Plug In America), not every EV from the turn of the millennium era suffered the same fate as the GM EV1. I found a Chevy S10 Electric pick-up. It was great. It had more than enough range for my commute, it went 70 MPH, and having a truck was pretty handy.

One day a couple other S10 EV drivers and I got together to swap stories. When we met, of course we started checking out each other's trucks. The other two were the 1997 models, while mine was the 1998. The differences were subtle, but very noticeable to an owner. The '98 added a rubber seal between the cab and the bed and there was a valance on the bumper. These were minor changes, but they looked like small efforts to improve the vehicle's aerodynamics.

Looking at even these minor improvements, we wondered what a 2007 electric Chevy truck would look like. Unfortunately, there was no 2007 model (or even a 1999 model year) since GM stopped making these trucks after these first two model years. That question has stuck with me. How would EVs improve year over year with continued iterations and technological advancements?

2011 launched a new generation of plug-in vehicles

With the reintroduction of EVs in 2011, we finally have a several model years of some plug-in cars to compare. Both the Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf came out in December of 2010 and the specs for the 2016 vehicles are available. This gives us of 5 years of cars and we can see how they have evolved from the 2011 model year to the 2016 vehicles.

EVolution of the Nissan Leaf

As we look at each year, I'll be focusing primarily on the range, drivetrain, and battery tech. New paint colors or backup cameras are nice, but not important in this context. The 1st year Nissan Leaf was EPA rated at 73 miles of range and it had an efficiency rating of 99 MPGe or (my preferred format) 2.94 miles per kWh.

The 2012 Leaf had the same EPA range and efficiency. This model year also added heated seats and a heated steering wheel. This allows the occupants to be warmed directly, rather than heating all the air in the car first. The high-voltage battery pack has more insulation and a warming system for extremely cold environments.

Nissan integrated electric powertrain

2013 brought the first redesign of the Leaf. Nissan integrated the motor, inverter, DC reducer, and power delivery module (PDM) into a smaller and lighter package. This reduced the volume of these components by 30% and their weight by 176 pounds. This increased the luggage space by more than 10%, improved the regenerative brake system, and reduced the amount of a rare earth element by 40%.

Nissan continued to improve the heating system by exchanging the immersion heater for a heat pump. The heating system has turned out to be very important in an EV. When a vehicle has the energy equivalent of less than one gallon of gas, it is important that anything that consumes this energy is highly efficient (just ask Mark Watney).

All of these changes resulted in a notable improvement in the driving efficiency. The EPA rating jumped from the 99 MPGe of the 2011/12 to 115 MPGe (3.45 miles/kWh). The EPA range, however, was only 75 miles. The reason the EPA rated range didn't increase a corresponding percentage is complicated. With a full charge, the 2013 Leaf earned an 84 mile EPA range. However, in 2013 the EPA changed the test. A new rule stated that if the vehicle offered an 80% charge (which the Leaf did to extend the battery life), then this would be tested too. With an 80% charge the Leaf only scored a 67 mile range. The final 75 mile range was the average of the 100% range and the 80% range (84 and 67).

In 2014, there were only minor physical changes. One notable software change was that the 80% charge option was removed. This meant that the EPA would now rate the Leaf's range only on its 100% charge. With this software change the Leaf scored a 84 mile range. Minor changes to the EPA test reduced the efficiency rating to 114 MPGe or 3.33 miles/kWh.

The 2015 model was again a small change. The range and efficiency remained the same as the 2014 vehicle at 84 miles and 3.33 miles/kWh. There was, however, one important battery improvement that does not show up in the EPA tests. The 2015 introduced the much anticipated “lizard” battery. This was an improvement to the Leaf's battery chemistry to make it more tolerant to extreme heat. Owners in places like Phoenix were experiencing advanced battery degradation due to heat. This was bad PR for Nissan and the new batteries were an important part of repairing the relationship with these early adopters that took a chance on the technology.

The 2016 Leaf was a big change from the 2015. This is the first year that Nissan offered two different battery size options. The 24 kWh battery is the same as the 2015 with an EPA-rated range of 84 miles. The new 30 kWh battery pack, provides an EPA rated range of 107 miles.

Here is a snippet from Nissan press release:

The new 30 kWh battery design adds capacity without increasing battery package size by improving the cell structure of the laminated lithium-ion battery cells. Improved electrode material with revised chemistry results in higher power density and enhanced battery durability upon charge and discharge.

It is also worth noting that the base price for the 24kWh Leaf dropped to $21,510. This is significantly cheaper than the $29,010 base price of the 2015 Leaf.
Correction, the base model MSRP was not reduced in 2016. Fueleconomy.gov has an incorrect price listed. Thanks to reader "aarond12" for the correction on the MyNissanLeaf forum.

Here's a table of the Leaf model years to-date:

Year	Range (miles)	Efficiency (miles/kWh)	Notes
2011	73	2.94	1st Year
2012	73	2.94	Added heated seats & steering wheel
2013	75/84	3.45	Integrated elec. powertrain
2014	84	3.33	80% charge opt removed
2015	84	3.33	Heat tolerant "lizard" battery
2016 (24kWh)	84	3.33	New lower MSRP
2016 (30kWh)	107	3.33	1st battery capacity increase for the Leaf

So, Nissan addressed cold weather areas by adding a better heating system that use less energy and they addressed hot weather regions by improving the battery chemistry. They also increased the battery capacity in 2016. Nissan will undoubtedly increase the range again when competitors such as the Chevy Bolt and the Tesla Model 3 come to market.

Nissan Leaf ratings from fueleconomy.gov

How Driverless Cars Change Will Our World

1930s Elevator Operator

When you hop on an elevator are worried that there is no elevator operator there to close the doors and guide the elevator to the floor that you want? Unless you just popped out of a time machine from 1930, you probably don't think twice about getting into an elevator and pressing a button and letting the elevator automatically take you there.

Today, many people are concerned that driverless cars will not be as good or as safe a driver as a person. We think things like: Well, maybe it will be better than most drivers but certainly, it won't be better than me because I am a far better driver than most people on the roads. The illusory superiority (from which we all suffer) tells us that we're better than average, when in fact most of us fall within two standard deviations of average.

According to the Portland Herald Press "About 33,000 people die each year in auto accidents. In 80% of cases the cause is alcohol, speeding, or a distracted driver." If you have been driving for any significant amount of time, I'm sure you can think of a time that you were tired or distracted and should not have been driving. Autonomous vehicles won't have any of these distractions. Given time, autonomous vehicles will be better than nearly every human driver on the road. You can argue how long it will take for the technology, regulations, and laws to advance, but for the sake of this article, let's assume that it's now 2040 and driverless cars are commonplace and people are just as comfortable with them as we are with elevators today. In this imagined future, if you want to see a manually operated car, you would have to go to vintage tracks or a car museum, where children will point at steering wheels and ask "What's that?".

Vintage Car

Assuming a future where vehicles are fully autonomous and fully trusted, how would our world change? How would it impact employment, traffic, car ownership, parking lots, suburbs, inner-cities, roadways, vehicles, vehicle ownership, home locations... Let's speculate.

        

Generation-next will be as comfortable in autonomous cars
as we are in elevators.


Today, most cars are parked 22+ hours per day. Once you have an autonomous vehicle, why not put it to work when you aren't using it. It could operate in Uber or Lyft networks. It could run many of your daily errands, pick-up groceries, dry cleaning, etc. It could be common to list the license plate number of your car on pick-up orders and have the business load items into the trunk. Of course, the trunk will have connected streaming video cameras to make sure they don't take anything out that they shouldn't. Your car could even drive itself in for its maintenance appointments.

Many people have said that once we have autonomous vehicles, that there won't be any traffic congestion. This is not a certainty. If it is cheap and easy to send a vehicle out, they could end up driving many more miles. Another congestion-alleviating item that is often attributed to autonomous vehicles is that they will be able to travel significantly faster than human-piloted vehicles. Again, this is debatable. Even with radar vision and nanosecond reaction time, the stopping distance depends on the vehicle weight, tires, and road conditions. Unless there is a radical vehicle redesign, these factors will not change significantly. This should limit any speed increase.

Speaking is a radical redesign, vehicle trains are an item that could reduce future congestion. Next Design has an idea to create interlocking pods that allow vehicles to couple to vehicle trains on the fly. This could double the capacity of our roadways.

Swarming modular self-driving vehicle concept design by Next

As vehicles change from machines that we operate to traveling domiciles, the interior space will change to meet our new needs. The first-class seating area on a transcontinental flight might be a better model for future car interiors than the vehicles we drive today. Once we are no longer driving, travel time will be an opportunity to work, play, watch movies or TV, or to sleep and rest. There will be places to plug in our mobile devices, cameras for video chats, and windows that can be tinted when you want to sleep or to have privacy.

      

Intercontinental first-class seating is a better model for future autonomous
vehicle interiors than the cars we drive today.

Lie-flat first-class intercontinental seating 

City center property is expensive. Today, out of necessity much of this high-value land is dedicated to parking. Once you have autonomous vehicles, they won't need to park near your work. Large parking areas, 5 or 10 miles from the city center, could ring the city. Parking would be significantly cheaper or free there. That is, assuming your car parks at all. Rather than parking, your car might spend its day available for hire and running errands as discussed above.

Rather than competing with public transportation, autonomous cars could be the first/last mile solution that makes public transportation accessible to many more people.

       

Rather than competing with public transportation, autonomous
cars could be the first/last mile solution that makes public
transportation accessible to many more people.


Assuming you have a job that requires you to be in the office occasionally, if you have a fully connected mobile office in your car, it might give telecommuting a new definition. Today, commute time is a drain on your time. If instead, commute time were productive, it could become a standard part of your workday. This might even mean that you could take a job that is farther from your home. Imagine projecting a telepresence (Skype/Facetime) into your office space that your coworkers could walk up to and chat with you as your ETA is displayed as you are being shuttled to work.

What about people that drive for a living? I started this article discussing elevator operators. The people that once had this job found other ways to make a living. Today, in the U.S. more than 2.5 million people have driving jobs (1.7 million truck drivers, 650,000 bus drivers and 230,000 taxi drivers). This is about 2 percent of the U.S. workforce. The change will not happen overnight, so there won't be 2.5 million people put into unemployment all at the same time. However, disruption is coming, so I would not encourage anyone to start a career as a driver today.

This is, of course, just speculation. It will be interesting to see what happens as the technology rolls out. Autonomous vehicles are coming, the question is how will we adapt to them.

♌

Model 3 Will Be The Cornerstone of Tesla's Uber Fighter

First there was Tesla Motors, the electric car company. Then, in 2015, Tesla Energy was introduced. What's next for Tesla? Based on comments in the recent earnings call, we may be seeing Tesla Transportation, the autonomous taxi service.

During Tesla's Q3'15 earnings call Adam Jonas from Morgan Stanley asked Elon Musk “If Uber wants to buy 50 thousand autonomous cars, why not cut out the middle man and deploy your Tesla autonomous mobility service?”

Elon laughed and refused to comment. Jonas persisted, asking if that was a dumb question and asking why Elon was laughing. Elon replied “It's quite a smart question actually.” Jonas continued to press and Elon said that “Our strategy is not fully baked. We'd prefer to announce something when we think we've got the full story understood.”

This certainly implies that Tesla is considering something in this space. What other things has Tesla done that might indicate their plans?

Tesla has previously released a video of the "charging snake" that can automatically plug in a car for recharging. Plugging in is not that hard for a person to do. It is not a significant problem that would warrant the engineering effort needed to make a Doc Ock arm.  

If, however, these self-driving cars need to charge up, they would not have a driver to plug them in. So, perhaps the charging snake was part 1 of the autonomous fleet plan.

What will Tesla's plan look like when it is "fully baked"? Will it be a car sharing service or an on-demand taxi? Will be be pay-per-ride or a membership?

The affordable mass market Tesla Model 3 will undoubtedly play a large roll in whatever Tesla has planned in the mobility on-demand space. If they want to put vehicles in major markets around the world, that would be expensive to do with $100k vehicles.

So someday soon (2020?) you may be able to summon an autonomous Tesla to chauffeur you around.