Electric Cars: Chev Bolt seems to be the first practical one.

[IslandTractor]

I guess those Chevy 15 pax vans are so bland they can hide in plain sight! Stealth vans.

 

[aczlan]

Thanks wasn't really sure what ford did

No problem, we had a 1993 and then a 1999 growing up, so I spent a lot of time in one.

Aaron Z

 

[California]

... searched for highest mile Volt and this article came up for a 2012 Volt

Highest-Mileage 212 Chevrolet Volt Still Going Strong at 3, Miles, One Third on Electric Power Alone | Transport Evolved


Commutes over 220 miles a day and still managed a life time average of 59 MPG... and now has traveled over 300,000 miles and still going strong.

Thanks for posting that! I'm impressed. He goes less than half of each way on battery, yet still uses so little gas that his lifetime average is 59mpg. He has clearly found the best solution for his particular circumstances.

Based on his photos it looks like his commute is mostly rural, so moderate speed. Since wind resistance goes up with the square of the speed he has the best operating environment for fuel economy, both electric and gas.

I was following a Volt down I-80 yesterday in fast traffic between home and ranch. It was zippy, he smoothly matched speed and put it into gaps in the adjacent lane as they became available. One thing I noticed was there was so much roof pillar between the back and side windows, that the driver must have a substantial blind spot to the right rear like Prius. I've read the Bolt seating position is much higher so hopefully Bolt, with similar exterior appearance, doesn't have such a big blind spot.

That Volt owner in the article said he would eventually replace his Volt with another, not a Bolt, because he has had occasional charging failures so he wouldn't want a pure electric car to commute to work. I'm retired so a delay departing from anywhere would only be a nuisance. But maybe Bolt's $750 optional adapter for a 30 minute/90 mile recharge at a public charging station would be a good idea.

 

[California]

Interesting article - here's how you level out demand on the utility. I predict we will see more of this, and soon.


US utility offers clients cheap Tesla batteries for grid backup
Customers can get a Powerwall for $15 a month or a flat fee of $1,500.

 

[sd455dan]

Interesting article - here's how you level out demand on the utility. I predict we will see more of this, and soon.


US utility offers clients cheap Tesla batteries for grid backup
Customers can get a Powerwall for $15 a month or a flat fee of $1,500.

Not bad for $15 a month...
The big drawback would be during a long term outage,
but since the idea is load leveling - looks like if they get enough installed in one area with a high enough demand for (leveling) it should make a great case study another thought would be to also use some Bloom boxes ( if they are still in business) powered by natural gas at several nodal points and would be be interesting to see
how well it could all be made to work together.

 

[dmccarty]

Not bad for $15 a month...
The big drawback would be during a long term outage,...

7,000 watts is not much 120v AHs for a house but for shorter outages it could keep some dedicated circuits up and running. With a generator one could charge the battery in longer outages which would mean less generator startup and one would be more likely to correctly load said generator. But according to a AUS article I read, Tesla's warranty does not include using a generator to feed power to the battery OR, and this is ironic given the power company installing these batteries, feeding the battery from the grid.

Powerwall 2 Full Specs Reveal Cheap Storage And Limited Warranty

Category #1: Tesla warrant the Powerwall 2 DC, for 10 years and unlimited cycles when used for 都olar self consumption / backup?

They include a footnote that defines this as:

Storing solar energy generated by an onsite array, and using that stored solar energy (i) for daily self-consumption and/or (ii) for use as backup power.

But this definition does not include:

Charging the battery with off-peak electricity as is often done with battery systems that are on-grid and is something that services such as Reposit do.
Charging the batteries with a generator which is often done with systems that are used off-grid.

I am surprised that Tesla won't allow these two common activities without the warranty falling into the second, worse category:

Later,
Dan

 

[California]

according to a AUS article I read, Tesla's warranty does not include using a generator to feed power to the battery OR, and this is ironic given the power company installing these batteries, feeding the battery from the grid.

Powerwall 2 Full Specs Reveal Cheap Storage And Limited Warranty

Interesting. The utility is encouraging solar and home storage only to reduce their own need to add peak capacity, not to let the homeowner save money by enrolling for night rates. (for battery recharge). That's sort of progress in the broader sense but its not what we would hope to see.

Aside from electric cars, I'm interested in this topic of home generation of renewable energy. It could eventually reduce the need for new utility-level transmission capacity and generation, and so reduce the overall cost of energy. Benefits could also include reduced pollution from generation, and a reduction of the 'dead soldiers per kwh' indirect cost associated with importing fuel from unstable overseas regions. If the western world could afford to ignore the Middle East and its petroleum reserves then life would be simpler for everybody.

Tesla's move into local energy storage plus their new solar-panel roof tiles show they are anticipating this evolution and they expect to make a lot of money doing it.

 

[dmccarty]

... If the western world could afford to ignore the Middle East and its petroleum reserves then life would be simpler for everybody.
...

The problems in the Middle East have existed for centuries. If one could wave a magic wand and remove oil from the Middle East Problem equation, the problems that have existed for centuries, will still exist.

I hope Tesla can reduce the cost of Lithium Ion batteries but if they are not using LiFePo chemistry, I would be very skittish about attaching their PowerWall to my house. LiFePo seems to be a very safe battery chemistry. Other Lithium chemistry scare me. Lead acid has its own problems but runaway, hard to control fires is not one of them.

Later,
Dan

 

[buickanddeere]

Interesting. The utility is encouraging solar and home storage only to reduce their own need to add peak capacity, not to let the homeowner save money by enrolling for night rates. (for battery recharge). That's sort of progress in the broader sense but its not what we would hope to see.

Aside from electric cars, I'm interested in this topic of home generation of renewable energy. It could eventually reduce the need for new utility-level transmission capacity and generation, and so reduce the overall cost of energy. Benefits could also include reduced pollution from generation, and a reduction of the 'dead soldiers per kwh' indirect cost associated with importing fuel from unstable overseas regions. If the western world could afford to ignore the Middle East and its petroleum reserves then life would be simpler for everybody.

Tesla's move into local energy storage plus their new solar-panel roof tiles show they are anticipating this evolution and they expect to make a lot of money doing it.

Middle east oil has little to do with electrical grid power generation in the US. Coal, nuclear and hydro electric carry the load.
There are these warm fuzzy feelings, nice thoughts, best wishes etc...........These nice things don't change the laws physics or reduce costs. The solar roof and Tesla battery will never pay for themselves unless your electricity is 50-60 cents per kw.
I don't know how greenies are so certain that the dreams of green technology are going to save the world , end pollution and provide limitless cheap energy. Ask the technical people such as engineers and accountants that deal with real world facts, they say something else.

 

[buickanddeere]

Not sure if this article had been posted but,
I got thinking about the longevity question and searched for highest mile Volt and this article came up for a 2012 Volt

Highest-Mileage 212 Chevrolet Volt Still Going Strong at 3, Miles, One Third on Electric Power Alone | Transport Evolved


Commutes over 220 miles a day and still managed a life time average of 59 MPG... and now has traveled over 300,000 miles and still going strong.


hard to argue with those #s and that No battery degradation has been observed

No battery degradation ha been observed.......................... I wonder how they measured battery capacity and how they avoided normal deterioration that occurs with battery use?