Life Happens

I've been absent for a while. I know and if it's appropriate, I apologize. Life happened.

Life prevented me from being able to sit down and write a blog, but fortunately, it did not prevent me from reaching the pinnacle of my hypermiling on October 15 and posting a 60 mile estimated charge.

It also didn't stop me from taking a breather with my beloved Volt Zippy and getting us both a full detail, including a nice hot wax.

Technically, I suppose I can say that life didn't stop me from improving all my stats in VoltStats, but I must also say that my standings were held pretty much steady, mainly due to the many 2016 Volts coming onto the scene (although none in Florida), with their increased 53+ mile per charge range and all.

Why won't there be 2016 Volts in Florida, you ask? Chevrolet has decided to make 2016 a short model year for the Volt and only release it in the 11 states that uphold CARB 2 standards. 

Obviously, the Sunshine State does not make the cut.

We will see the Gen 2 Volt in late 2016, when the 2017 Volt (beginning production in March 2016) arrives on the scene with its (rumored) DC fast charging port.  This, we all want to see.

I'll try to bring more Volt news, more often... but life happens.

Four Weeks of Volt Driving Bliss

The love affair continues.

My Volt is so fun to drive and it just doesn't get old. Yesterday marks the four month anniversary of the Voltaissance. I've been told by some other Volt drivers that at some point I will let go of the hypermiling, the obsession with maximizing battery efficiency, the commitment to use no gasoline except in the most extreme emergency circumstances.

So far, no dice.

This past Tuesday, I had to drive about 200 miles to go to Stetson University, Valencia's East Campus, and the Osceola County Stadium complex for a variety of meetings. So I did what any dedicated hypermiler obsessed with her Voltstats would do, and swapped cars with my husband for the day. Yes folks, you read that correctly. Rather than run around kingdom come in my extremely efficient range-extended electric vehicle, I chose to guzzle gas in the hulking Dodge Journey that serves as our seven-seater family car. 

Ridiculous. I know.

As I was driving around town, trying to remember how to drive without regenerative braking, Brian and Sheridan were living it up running my Volt's air system on Comfort. Comfort! In case it's been a while since I discussed the Volt's air system, here's a recap: There are three modes for climate control: Fan Only, Eco, and Comfort. Those are clearly in order of most efficient (uses the least amount of battery) to least efficient (sucks the electrons like they are a melting Slurpee on a hot Florida day). What do I do? Usually I turn the system off all together and open both front windows. That's as efficient as it gets. If it's hot and rainy out, eliminating the windows-open possibility, I put the system on Eco at 78 degrees. This is good enough for me.

Not so much for my spouse and offspring.

I wasn't aware of the situation until this late afternoon text.

Blame the kid - it's the oldest trick in the book. So what did I do? i stalked them on OnStar's RemoteLink app for the rest of the day to make sure they still had enough charge to complete their remaining trips to the allergist and voice lessons.

Luckily, they made it home without using any gas - after all, that was my goal when I cooked up this car-swapping scheme - and the damage done to my stats wasn't too bad. Zippy started the day with 57 miles on the guessometer, and this morning showed 54 - not an unreasonable effect of riding around on COMFORT. 

In fact, I've cracked the top 60 on VoltStats.

And in the end, Brian and Sheridan are worth a little comfort air.

The fun continues. Charge on!

Much Ado about Volkswagen

Unless you live under a rock - and look, no judgements here as many days I find myself brushing the distinctive under-rock mossiness from my needs-to-be-washed hair - you know that when it comes to "clean diesel", an oxymoron if ever there was one, Volkswagen has been far-from-truthin.

If you somehow missed the full story, there is a great up-to-the-minute summary available here on CNN Money. Essentially, the bottom line in this: If you drive a VW TDI vehicle (2009-15 Passat or Jetta or Audi A3), you have been cranking 10-40 times as much nitrous oxide into the air than VW led you to believe.

And the rest of us have been breathing it.

We know it's not your fault. You thought that diesel, which is known to burn very dirty, could burn at acceptable emission levels because Volkswagen told you that they'd unlocked the secret to clean burning diesel and were happy to sell you a car that could do it. You're not a mechanical engineer, and you're not a scientist. Why would you ever question a big, international conglomerate like Volkswagen? There's just no way that a company that's been around since 1937 could have survived for 78 years if it was engaging in dishonest practices.

And besides, half a million VW TDI units had passed emissions tests in the US alone. So obviously, VW cracked the code. Right? Right?

Wrong. And now you know - big corporations cannot necessarily be trusted to do as they say and say what they do. Shocker.

Okay, okay, enough sarcasm and negativity. I tried not to go there, I really did... but this travesty makes VW such an easy target right now.

Instead of taking a longer stroll down Negativity Lane, let's look on the bright side. And make no mistakes - for electric car advocates, this situation has a lot of bright sides.

Not only did VW lie... they lied about the feasibility of accomplishing something that would slow the immediate urgency of moving towards electric cars for the masses. If you're a big oil advocate, then you gotta love diesel. What could be more thrilling than using every single grade of the crude oil that is extracted from the earth? It just doesn't get any better.

But now we find it's all a lie. Diesel is a nasty fuel and it burns in such a way that you don't need to be a Californian to despise. No folks, this won't save us from running out of gasoline in the next 70? 100? whatever! years. It's time to move on and one of the directions we clearly need to move is cleaning up the grid, speeding up the electric car charging process... and putting battery power at the steering wheels of the masses.

Volkswagen has been ordered to clean up the problem and fix every one of the over 1 million cars worldwide that are belching their filth into our atmosphere. But the company may not survive. In addition to the cost of the recall, which hasn't even begun but is estimated to total about 7.3 billion dollars, there will be the fines - and the lawsuits. A lot of people will get rich over this but it's unlikely that these people will work for Volkswagen. What I'd really like to see (and I'm certainly not alone in this) is the investment of the fines paid by VW into cleaning up the damage that has been done to the environment or, better yet, beefing up the charging infrastructure around the globe. Can you think of anything more poetic? 

Well, maybe this...a 1970 VW Bug that's been converted to be an electric car.

You Might Be a Hypermiler

Set in the tone of Jeff Foxworthy's "You MIGHT be a redneck" schtick, I offer up the following ways you know that you might be a hypermiler.

(Disclosure: I made most of these up but did hack a few from a recent discussion on the Chevy Volt Owners Facebook group).

If you look forward to cloudy days because you know cooler air temps will lead to better battery efficiency...

You might be a hypermiler

If you curse when it starts to downpour while you're driving because you must now roll up your windows and turn on the climate system, if only to blow around some barely-cool air...

You might be a hypermiler.

If you choose restaurants based solely on proximity to a free public charging station...

You might be a hypermiler.

If you are constantly performing miles per kilowatt hour computations in your head while you drive...

You might be a hypermiler.

If a person you might typically find attractive smiles at you from the car next to you, and you don't notice at all because you're too busy staring at the dash mentally updating your efficiency stats...

You might be a hypermiler.

If you change into socks and shoes and put on a blazer when you get to work because it was 95 degrees when you left your house and you'd rather drive in flip-flops and a tank top than turn on your climate system....

You might be a hypermiler.

If you're always happy to be behind the truck going 20 miles below the speed limit in the right lane...

You might be a hypermiler.

If you can't remember the last time you used your climate control system...

You might be a hypermiler.

If you won't let your spouse drive your car for fear he or she will mess up your driving statistics...

You might be a hypermiler.

If, when your spouse inevitably DOES drive your car, you stalk him or her via your map service to make sure they are following your firmly set hypermiling rules...

You might be a hypermiler.

If your coworkers absolutely won't get in the car with you to go to lunch because you drive too slow and won't turn on the air or heat...

You might be a hypermiler.

If you laugh maniacally every time the price of gas goes up...

You might be a hypermiler.

If you inflate your tires every few days to get that extra mile or two per charge...

You might be a hypermiler.

If the people next to you think your Volt is a stick shift because the amount of shifting you do...

You might be a hypermiler.

Getting a Charge out of Charged Magazine

How do you know that your favorite technology is here to stay?

One great clue evidences itself when there are magazines devoted to the topic.

I'm not entirely sure how I signed up for this magazine. It could have happened when I joined the Electric Vehicle Association. Maybe I signed up on chargedevs.com. But the fact that my work address and title are on the table tells me that I was the lucky winner of the let's-send-the-engineering-dean-free-magazines lottery. This lottery also accounts for the reason I receive free subscriptions to Architectural Digest and Wired magazine. 

It's all good.

In any case, I recently received this and read it cover to cover. The magazine is divided into three sections: The Tech, The Vehicles, and The Infrastructure. Self explanatory really. Each section includes both short (half-page) snippets and feature articles. To give you a feel for the types of stories, I'll list the titles for all three sections for this one issues. All stories are short unless otherwise stated.

The Tech

BorgWarner to buy Remy International for $950 million in cash 

24M introduces semisolid lithium-ion cell 

Lux Research: China's energy storage market to quadruple by 2025 

DOE report examines opportunities for US battery manufactures 

Chinese and US agencies work together on standards 

French chemical giant and utility join to create energy storage R&D lab 

BRUSA's new DTSP1 motor/gearbox combo

Skeleton Technologies' new ultra capacitors target heavy transportation market 

DOE offers funding for medium- and heavy-duty powertrain electrification projects

MobileBattery can boost EV range and provide home back-up power 

Continental develops integrated powertrain for the Chinese market

New device dynamically reduces offset error in DC measurement

Voltabox inaugurates battery pack assembly line in Austin, Texas

A Closer Look at Torque Ripple (feature)

Tesla Tweaks its Battery Chemistry: A Closer Look at Silicon Anode Development (feature)

The Vehicles

Tesla trims projected production

New independent EV builder makes the scene (this is about Faraday Future)

Chevy Bolt EV on its way to the masses - not the elite

Two more California cities order Proterra electric buses

Volkswagen brings new plug-in Passat to Europe

BYD sells 50 e6 EVs to San Diego ride-sharing fleet

Kandi makes $89-million deal as Chinese auto market moves online 

New report from Germany assesses over 500 EV models

California Air Resources Board chief: Automakers need to end production of ICEs around 2030

Survey: Automotive engineers don't expect CAFE standards to be lowered

Tesla to raise about $650 million with new stock offering

New report: Marine hybrid propulsion market to reach $4.46 billion by 2022

2016 Chevrolet Volt (feature)

An Upgraded Operating System (feature about Motiv Power Systems)

Chinese auto parts giant invests $1.6 million in wireless charging pioneer Evatran

Tesla reveals prototype of snakelike automatic charger (kind of old news)

The Infrastructure

California DOT orders 11 portable solar EV charging stations from Envision Solar

Electric Highway links Western Australia with fast charging stations

ClipperCreek launches HCS-50 EV charging station

BRUSA licenses Qualcomm Halo wireless charging tech

EV charging and distributed energy sources meet in the cloud

South Korean plan turns ordinary 220V outlets into charging stations

France moves to unify charging networks

Oregon state employees must pay for workplace charging

Volkswagen working on automated DC charging

BMW pilot pays drivers to delay charging, helping to stabilize the grid

Manhattan parking garages installing Tesla chargers

Workplace Charging with Smart Grid Response (feature)

Connecting to the Best Rates (feature about Seimens VersiCharge SG)

In addition to all this EV reading goodness, the ads themselves are eye candy. Frankly, I'm sick of newspapers and magazines devoted to gas guzzling 8 cylinder monsters. It's quite refreshing to see something like this taking up space on the bottom half of the page:

I truly look forward to the day I see ads like this in Car & Driver and in general, any magazine.

Some key observations about this issue of Charged Electric Vehicle Magazine:

• As you can see from the article titles, there really is something for everyone. This is a comprehensive publication.
• Some of the articles are extremely technical. There is not a whole lot of fluff, although some oft he articles in the vehicles and infrastructure sections are a little more accessible. You practically have to be an electrical engineer to understand half of the stuff in the tech section. Fortunately, I am one.
• If you appreciate magazines with an international flavor, this is a great publication for you. I really enjoyed learning about what was going on in other countries with EVvehicles and infrastructure. I know quite a bit about what goes on in areas where the Volt is sold due to my social media Volt owner connections, but there are many countries in which the Volt is not available, so it was cool to learn what the state of EV affairs was in, say, South Korea.
• This is a high quality magazine. Very nice, glossy photos. I want to frame the entire Volt article. It's gorgeous and great reading with lots of technical details for the true Volt fan.
• If there is a cover price for this magazine, I can't find it. But I know I want to keep on receiving it.
• The magazine comes out every two months. This was the July/August issue. It's number 20, so the mag has been around for almost two years. 
• I cannot overstate my love for the magazine's motto on the spine: EVs are Here, Try to Keep Up. So much love for that.

The verdict: run, don't walk, to the newstand (do those still exist? maybe you should try Barnes and Noble) and get yourself a copy.

Reflections on National Drive Electric Week, Orlando Edition

Now that it's over, I can't believe it's done. In my wildest dreams, I didn't imagine that NDEW Orlando would be this great, but it truly was a very special EVent.

As of the evening before, we had 172 attendees registered and 42 cars including 4 Tesla Model Ss, 2 Cadillac ELRs, a large number of LEAFs and Volts, and a handful of one-offs. The weather looked a little scary - the forecast was for rain all day. I couldn't sleep much - excitement and anxiety about all the things that could go wrong kept me up a good bit of the night.

But September 12 dawned clear and pretty, and it looked like we might get lucky. Brian and I loaded the kids and our 2 large coolers into our fully charged Volt and headed over to Valencia's West Campus via highways. After a quick stop at Publix for ice, we arrived on campus a little after 9:30am to begin setting up for the 1pm EVent.

I ran a cart over the Dunkin' Donuts to pick up our 1000 donated munchkins while Brian and Bryce put out the road signs.

We set up the tables and started up the technology in the lecture hall where the presentations would take place starting at 1:15pm. By 11am, we were pretty ready. A few minutes later, our first attendee, Jim, arrived early from Ocala. That's a long trip to make in a Nissan LEAF, so he wanted to make sure he'd be able to get a full charge before running out for some lunch. We ended up pointing out Dunkin' Donuts to him (taking care of one of our two big sponsors) and he helped manage traffic in the parking lot, which was excellent and if he reads this, I thank him profusely.

Volunteers began to arrive in time for our 12pm meeting in the lecture hall. We had some latecomers, so I gave the speech twice. By 12:30, folks were streaming into the parking lot. I parked myself in the lecture hall around 1:00 to be ready for my 1:15 presentation, "Introduction to the Electric Car," and Brian handled the steady stream of incoming organization representatives and attendees, along with our very organized volunteers, Karen and Anna.

At one point, almost all 16 tables that we had put out were occupied by folks from First Green Bank, the Sierra Club, the Central Florida EV Association, Reed Nissan, and a host of other supporting organizations. The biggest excitement, however, was probably what was going on in the parking lot. Brian got some footage of the rows of vehicles and narrated it for us.

My presentation was very well attended and received. I had a little helper assisting with slide transitioning. 

Credit for that photo goes to my cousin Meryl, who came out to show support and hopefully learned something about electric cars that I had not already told her.

Following my talk was the indomitable Thron Crowe, one of the biggest EV advocates in central Florida and a former Valencia student who certainly helped to influence my decision to drive electric. I don't have a photo but he was on the front page of the local and state section of the paper on September 14, which is probably making him more famous than would an appearance in my blog.

Following Thron, we had a great presentation by City of Orlando Fleet and Facilities manager David Dunn, who talked about what the city is working on in terms of electric vehicle infrastructure and sustainability. 

Next, we got a wonderful overview of how and why Seminole State College utilizes electric car conversion to teach students about project life cycles in their engineering technology program. Jason Gaschel and one of his students were entertaining and informative.

Our wrap-up speaker was Daniel Gehking, who uses solar power in his home for charging his car and running his home electricity. His talk was educational and interesting, and we all learned about the competing solar choice amendments in Florida. I'm not sure how many petitions were signed following the talk, but I know Dan was very excited by the stack of signed documents he took with him at the end of the day.

The feedback has been so positive, I hardly know how to get my head in the door. In addition to the Sentinel coverage, we also had WESH 2 news cover the event, as well as WFTV Channel 9.  This was in addition to all of the pre-event coverage that we had, including an article in the Sentinel Saturday quoting me quite extensively.

Here I am talking at length to the WESH 2 reporter. Sadly, none of my super-pro-EV statements made it to the cut, but it's just as well. My hair was a sweaty mess.

I'm pleased to say that although it did rain, the bad weather never got really bad, and the rain didn't come in until about 45 minutes before the event ended. By that time, we were down to the 100 or so hard core attendees who were happy to pitch in and help move everything indoors. Everything was cleaned up shortly after 5 by the volunteers before I even left the lecture hall.

All told, we had over 170 folks show up and 50 cars - which was more than actually registered. So much for expecting a 60% turnout! This goes to show that if you hold something in Orlando four miles north of Universal Studios, people will come.

It was a true joy to meet some of the folks from the Chevy Volt Owners group in Facebook. These people have truly taught me everything I know and it was such a pleasure to share the day with them. I hope we can entice more of the CVO folks to Orlando next year.

All in all, an amazingly successful event and I want to thank EVERYONE who made it possible. There are too many people to list individually without fear of missing someone important, so I will limit myself to my amazing husband, Brian, who really took on a huge job making sure everything got where it was supposed to go and everyone knew where they were supposed to be. Next year, he's my co-captain.

Speaking of next year, we will soon begin planning for the next event. Step One is to clear it by my boss to make sure we are okay with Valencia as a venue. After that, I'll be sending out a survey with a few ideas for extending the event to a full day or perhaps two half-days to make sure everyone in attendance has time to do everything fun that there was to do if we also have speakers and tables next year.

THANK YOU to everyone who came out and to those who helped. NDEW-O was a resounding success because of YOU and I can't wait for NDEW-O 2016.

22 Hours

In less than a day, my workplace, Valencia College (West Campus) in Orlando, Florida will be stormed with 170 participants at our very first National Drive Electric Week event, ever.

As you may recall, I volunteered to serve as Orlando City Captain for NDEW about 7 weeks ago, when I was scouring for an NDEW event to attend in Orlando and found none. In the weeks following, I have had incredible opportunities to connect with folks from various industry groups, government entities, and service organizations. It's been amazing. I cannot believe that in 25.5 hours, it will all be over.

Have there been difficulties? Yes, of course. We wanted to have test drives, but the restrictions on campus safety were prohibitive, and once the legal aspects were explained to me, with good reason.  Planning began too late in the game to expect food vendors to be able to scramble donations in time, but we did get waters and Munchkins donated (thank you Valencia and Dunkin' Donuts!) The last week has been insane because while working my "day" job, I've also been responding to many inquiries about the EVent, which I've loved... but I haven't gotten much sleep.

If there have been challenges, there have also been glorious moments as well. Connecting with fellow EV-lovers is so fulfilling. I've met so many people with the passion to expand electric vehicle ownership in our geographical area, even if it means sharing the charging stations around town... incredible folks and I wouldn't trade the sleepless nights for anything. In addition to the EV peeps, there are also the renewable energy folks, and they are just as awesome. I look forward to partnerships that last well beyond this EVent.

Expect a full report when I come up for air... Sunday or Monday. Maybe Monday, because I'll be a bit busy Sunday assisting the amazing Sheridan Macon with her "Plastic Alternatives" exhibit with the junior makers at Maker Faire Orlando.

Also in the near future, I received rather out of the blue a very welcome subscription to Charged - the magazine all about electric vehicles. I am reading the issue cover to cover and will provide a review sometime next week.

For now, I'm going to finish preparations to change this parking lot into an EV wonderland. Can't wait!

Charge on!