Earth Day becomes Electric Vehicle Day (for me)

[saintyohann]

So maybe not Earth Day related, but at least Earth Day adjacent. Yesterday I went up to Fremont and checked out the Tesla plant, and then crossed the freeway to pickup the EV I could afford, a Chevy Volt. Along with my wife replacing her Prius in February with a Volt, it means that all three cars in the household are EVs of some sort.



The hardest hold out was my Wife, it literally took nine years to ween her from a Jeep to a Prius and finally the Volt. In the two months she's had it, I think she's used a gallon of gas and everything else was Electric.

[Speedy]

Congrats. How do you plug them all in given your narrow driveway?

We love our now three week old (to us, used 2013) Volt. My wife has used no gas since we brought it home save for .03 gals when she turned up the heater or something accidentally.

[saintyohann]

There's one charger in the garage, one charger on the outer wall and about 800 scattered about town. I do most of my charging out and about...

[OWC Jamie]

How much is electric there ?

[saintyohann]

From the utility, $.138KWh, but we have a solar array which covers everything most months.

[DinerDave]

I am jealous, I want the new generation 2 Volt so bad, and I want the Chevy Bolt as our second car next year, and I want solar installed NOW!

Enjoy.

Dave

[sekker]

Nice!

[Speedy]

saintyohann wrote:
From the utility, $.138KWh, but we have a solar array which covers everything most months.

And, I too, am totally jealous.

[RAMd®d]

I really like the look of the Chevy Volt.

Of electric hybrids, it's my favorite.

Two general questions to display my ignorance of this segment of motor vehicles-

1 )Is there something unique about the Volt's application of electric power compared to the Prius and other name hybrids? I'm not talking about small details, just some basic philosophical application of electric hybrid tech.

And b) Can the 'average' electric and hybrid be charged overnight, say within 10-12hrs, on 110VAC? I know there're higher capacity charging options, but I'm just wondering.

You know, in case I want to snake an extension cord over to the neighbor's outdoor patio outlet.

[Speedy]

RAMd®d wrote:
I really like the look of the Chevy Volt.

Of electric hybrids, it's my favorite.

Two general questions to display my ignorance of this segment of motor vehicles-

1 )Is there something unique about the Volt's application of electric power compared to the Prius and other name hybrids? I'm not talking about small details, just some basic philosophical application of electric hybrid tech.

And b) Can the 'average' electric and hybrid be charged overnight, say within 10-12hrs, on 110VAC? I know there're higher capacity charging options, but I'm just wondering.

You know, in case I want to snake an extension cord over to the neighbor's outdoor patio outlet.

Yes to your first question but I don't know the details - they are all a bit different. The answer to your second question is: it depends. The shorter range (40 miles) plugin electric hybrid vehicles like the a Volt can be charged in 10-12 hours on 110v at about 8 Amps. But the longer range battery-only vehicles like the Leaf take longer. I don't know if the Tesla even offers 110v charging but it would take quite some time to charge.