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kootenay andrew

Andrew is an environmental engineer by day, "youth activity volunteer" by evening, and EV advocate / blogger in his remaining spare time. He is very passionate about the future of energy generation & usage. He prefers bikes & buses to cars, but acknowledges that Canadian cities have been developed primarily with cars in mind, so if we're going to drive, let's make them all EVs!

We bought a….

Ok I promise I’m actually going to tell you which electric vehicle (EV) we bought in this post! (Unlike the last teaser post haha!)

As a reminder, or for those who haven’t been following the blog regularly, we’ve now owned a Nissan Leaf for 4.5 years and an electric cargo bike (Xtracycle Edgerunner) for 3 years, and just recently took the last step to becoming an “EV-only” family by replacing a 2011 Subaru Forester.  In this post I’ll share what we bought, and some of the reasons for our choice.  Drum roll please….

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So what are we getting?

So what are we getting?

If you haven’t heard already from our recent 4.5 year cost update post, we are selling our fossil car, retiring the 2014 Nissan Leaf to be a city commuter, and purchasing a new long range EV.

Edit:  and no, I’m not telling you which vehicle yet 🙂  Look for another blog post soon(ish).  Feel free to guess by leaving a comment below!

Read More »So what are we getting?

Cost Update – 4.5 years at 172,000 km

Welcome to another edition where we show all of the costs for our 2014 Nissan Leaf SL electric vehicle (EV) to-date, which is 4.5 years now.  This post is one in a series, the rest of which can be found at Cost Info Posts.  Note that all costs are in $CDN.

First off, the usual detailed 6 month interval update, then a look at the forecast costs for the Leaf into the future (this edition with new charts), and lastly a surprise!

If you find this information of value, please consider a small donation via Patreon.  Cheers!

Read More »Cost Update – 4.5 years at 172,000 km

Cost Update – 4 Years at 153,000 km

Year 4 of ownership has now passed by in my 2014 Nissan Leaf SL electric vehicle (EV).  This post is one in a series, the rest of which can be found at Cost Info Posts.  Note that all costs are in $CDN.

I’ve included a summary of costs over the 4 years.  Further down you will find my usual detailed 6 month interval update, and below that any tidbits of news or information I found interesting from roughly the fall of 2017 to the spring of 2018.

If you find this information of value, please consider a small donation via Patreon.  Cheers!Read More »Cost Update – 4 Years at 153,000 km

Kootenay fast chargers: first trip! (and what they mean to short-range EVs)

The Accelerate Kootenays direct current fast charger (DCFC) network is filling in right now during the winter of 2017/2018.  In December, Radium and Canal Flats came online, and in the last two weeks, Greenwood, Christina Lake, Castlegar, Salmo and Creston all came online as well (as I write this, Jaffray might be online now too!)  That brings the total tally to 8 (or 9?) out of 13 installed so far.  I recently had a trip in our 2014 Nissan Leaf (a short range electric vehicle, or EV) that I think will illustrate what the fledgling DCFC network will mean to those of us with (or contemplating buying) short-range EVs.  If you want to skip the trip report itself, head right to the big heading of “Conclusions” near the bottom.Read More »Kootenay fast chargers: first trip! (and what they mean to short-range EVs)

Cost update – 3.5 years and 135,888 km

Time for another electric vehicle (EV) total cost of ownership (TCO) update for my 2014 Nissan Leaf SL.  This is the eighth in a series – the earlier posts can be found at the “Cost Info Posts” page.  I’ve now crossed 136,000 km (~85,000 miles) at the time of writing at just over the 3.5 year mark.  Note that these costs are all $CDN.

I’ve also included a few bits of news I found of interest from the EV world in the last 6 months down below the cost information.Read More »Cost update – 3.5 years and 135,888 km