We bought a Nissan Leaf in early Jan to cut down on our gas cost as the big Toyota Sienna was not the right car for me driving alone most of the time on local roads.
It was one of the best decisions we made and now the Leaf has more than 2500 miles on it already!
Also, Daddy Narayanan seems to be setting a record of sort with ~4.7 miles/ kwh, if the readout is to be believed. Even at flat rates of 13 cents/ kwh, that crudely works out to 70$ in electricity bill for almost three months of use. My Sienna gas bill (mostly filled at Costco at cheapest rates possible) was ~ 270$/month!
So far so good. But there was a bigger incentive. If you went on an E-9 plan which has peak rates and off peak rates, you got cheaper electricity if you charged from midnight to 7AM. The Leaf comes with a charging timer, but ... there is always one, it can charge within that timeframe only on 220V. If you charge at 110V, it takes 21 hours.
This did not deter us. I would usually drive only 50 miles on a day and the max range was 110 miles and that meant top of charging as the strategy till we got the 220 V Blink charger installed.
Little did we know that it would be an ordeal. The whole charger install rebate program is winding down and it borders on a scam. You get assigned to electricians who are not residents or licensed in your city. The city will not let anyone install it unless they pay for a City business license and Cupertino seems to be one of the most expensive city's just to get a business license, which you end up subsidizing out of your rebate! They need to make this part easier.
After San and me ran from pillar to post to work the permit process, install and final city inspection, we finally have the Blink Charger installed in our garage! It took almost 8 weeks, but it is finally here.
Now we get to charge the leaf between midnight and latest by 4AM. The thing sends me an email saying it has finished charging, connects to our wifi automatically and sends data to Ecotality for them to do the math, see where else I charge.. so they can figure out where to put charging stations, etc. etc.
In one way I feel happy to be an early adopter to help change the way we drive and consume gas. In another way it is interesting to see how the machinery does not favor a green solution as a default. The other interesting thing is that I now drive differently. If I see a person in front of me stopped at a signal light, I don't go as fast as possible and stop behind that person. Instead, I coast to a halt. I also drive at speed limit in the slow lane where possible. There is no range anxiety and I get to my destination..
The usual round trips are
local grocery store 4 miles
Indian grocery store 4 miles
Kumon class 2.5 miles
swimming class 4 miles
Bikram Yoga 9 miles
work 24 miles
Which pretty much is the sum total of places I hit 90% of the time baring the visit to a friends place or some other destination during weekend! For this the Leaf more than does its job.
Do observe that there are at least 20+ Leaves that hit the same routes. Even the drivers kind of nod to each other on Lawrence expressway in the morning which I find amusing.
There is also a lot of Leaf haters out there, most of whom are in the 20-25 age demographic. Yes, I hate the racial profiling but it is true in this case.
Every time someone has taken a freeway exit on to the local expressways or main roads and they encounter a Leaf (not mine necessarily), they expect the other driver to just give them way to the point where even if there are other lanes, they won't move over. There wa this one kid in a brand new black Lexus going at 70 mph after he exit the freeway and ended up on a 50mph zone, where I was driving at 50 on my way back from work. He kept honking for me to move over to end up in an exit lane and when I refused he had road rage and kept honking and giving me the finger. He even came directly in front of my car and put on the brakes abruptly. Knowing the kid was not stable, I was driving cautiously and was able to coast to a stop as other cars on the road watched with amusement. Maybe his parents should have gotten him a Leaf instead of the Lexus! That way he could really go far if he goes fast and they can keep track of his every move!
As for these kids with the fast cars and no road sense, only wish the DMV had better scrutiny before handing out drivers licenses or we have a system where we can report such drivers. When I came home that day after this kid did all the honking, was really worried because he definitely seemed to have an issue with me to the point where he pointed his fingers at me as though he was going to shoot me. So came home and was tossing with the idea of calling the cops to let them know what had happened. After being on the phone for 25 minutes with various people, got put on to someone at Highway patrol.
The conversation was very short at that point.
Operator : You reporting a rash driver?
Me : Yes.
Op : when and where ?
Me : xyz location, almost 30 mins ago
Op : vehicle kept driving in which direction ?
Me : South
Op : what car?
Me : Black Lexus.
Op : Black, White, Hispanic or Asian?
Me : (was shocked by that question actualy. was expecting her to ask me male or female driver first..) White.
Op : Male?
Me : yes. young kid.
Op : Ok. Hangs up on me.
That was it! I kept saying .. I have the last three digits of license plate.. but nope. she hung up! Guess that was enough info for her. A young white kid driving a black lexus south on a freeway 27 minutes ago..
Like I said, we need a better reporting system.
Only one thing remains with respect to completing the Leaf Saga.. and that is to get the HOV lane stickers. That way I can keep going in a steady pace on the local expressways without dealing with these road rage folks. Can avoid the freeways altogether.
Someday, sooner or later.. more folks will adapt to a battery operated car. The planet cannot keep going the way it does. It is just a question of time and economics and technology improvement.
Battery cars will be the default the same way Cell Phones, Digital Cameras and E-mail have replaced ther predecesors.
It is fun driving this car. It is a good ride. When you see folks race to stop behind someone, it feels bad now. But, I was one of those people and if I can change my driving habits so can the rest.
Time will do the job!