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kootenay andrew

Andrew is an environmental engineer by day, "kid activity/school 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 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! (But let's get EV buses and take those where possible first.)

Cost update – 96,000 km and 2.5 years

Another ~20,000 km have flown by in the last 6 months and time for another cost update.  If you would like to see where we started in this series of posts, they are linked below:

Lucky 27,777km and February 2015 Cumulative Cost Update; Cost update Feb to April 2015; 50,000 km and cost update; Cost update 63,500 km, Dec 2015 and Cost update 77,777 km and 2 years

Phew!  I’m going to have to stop listing all of them in each blog post.  Moving on…Read More »Cost update – 96,000 km and 2.5 years

Dear Tesla: Suggested features for the Model Y

Dear Tesla Motors:

My family lives in a mountainous region of BC, Canada called the Kootenays.  The venerable Subaru is kind of the unofficial car of our region for a number of good reasons.  We in fact own a 2011 Forester as our 2nd car for all the journeys that our electric Nissan Leaf cannot do.  It has a good AWD system, decent ground clearance, and can traverse any gravel road we encounter on our way to remote lakes and mountain hikes.  In the winter, the AWD and clearance makes the drive to the ski hill a non-event.  And, for a small SUV, it gets decent gas mileage.  However, after driving an EV for a few years, driving the Forester feels archaic.

We would love to replace our Forester with a Model Y in the next few years, and while on a recent road-trip in our Forester, we thought up a list of features we would like to see in your next take on an SUV.

(For blog readers unaware, Tesla will be making a SUV/CUV vehicle after the Model 3, and it will be based on the same platform and called the Model Y; similar to how the X is based on the S platform.)Read More »Dear Tesla: Suggested features for the Model Y

Day-trip: Nelson to Crawford Bay area

Our neck of the woods near Nelson is a really beautiful part of British Columbia.  The roads along the lakes, valleys and over the passes are amazingly scenic.  You can drive a little slower with the windows down and really enjoy the scents and sounds of the mountains, or you can tighten your grip on the wheel and enjoy the twisty roads (safely of course!)

On this day-trip from Nelson, we head along the North Shore of the West Arm of Kootenay Lake to Balfour, where we catch the longest free ferry in BC across the lake to Kootenay Bay (this ferry, and several others, should be converted to be electric!)  From there, we hop over a small ridge to Crawford Bay, a very neat village with a dense collection of artisans.  After browsing and shopping for a few hours, we decided to head north on the east side of the lake to check out Riondel, and then south of Kootenay Bay onto Pilot Bay Peninsula to visit the restored lighthouse.  (Data about the drive from a Nissan Leaf electric vehicle point of view is at the end of this post.)Read More »Day-trip: Nelson to Crawford Bay area

Cost update – 77,777 km and 2 years

Almost 80,000 km in 2 years (I drive too much!)  The Leaf remains as perky and smooth as day 1, which is pretty amazing.

I changed the format of my cost updates somewhat and will issue them on a roughly 6 month basis going forward.  The new format of the chart should be easier to read and thus more informative.  Previous updates are linked below:

Lucky 27,777km and February 2015 Cumulative Cost Update

Cost update Feb to April 2015

50,000 km and cost update

Cost update 63,500 km, Dec 2015

Read More »Cost update – 77,777 km and 2 years