Author: 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.)

Beach bumming on an e-cargo bike

As the snow melts and the snowdrops start to bloom in Nelson, BC, my family starts to dream about all of our favourite summer activities.  We live near the shores of beautiful Kootenay Lake, so one of those activities is hanging out at the beach.

Our electrified Xtracycle Edgerunner cargo bike (aka Edgy) saw a lot of use on the weekend soccer and market runs, but it also did a bunch of trips to various beaches in the area.  The most remote was to Troop beach, which is more often accessed by boat, and is located on the south side of the west arm, on a prominent sandy point.

Continue reading Beach bumming on an e-cargo bike

Cost update – 63,500 km, Dec 2015

I’ve now covered over 64,000 km in our electric vehicle (EV), a 2014 Nissan Leaf.  The cover image for this blog post shows that I finally “turtled” the car (on purpose!) this month (December 2015) – another blog post in the near future will explain why I was doing this!  (Turtling the car means you go into reduced power mode and have less than 1 km to drive, the car continually limits your power to force you to pull off to the side of the road safely – this protects the battery from discharging too far.) Continue reading Cost update – 63,500 km, Dec 2015

Winter driving in the Leaf up to Whitewater

Last year, I posted about one of our first trips up to the Whitewater Ski Resort, near Nelson, BC, with our electric vehicle (EV), a 2014 Nissan Leaf SL.  We went on to drive up to the hill many many more times over the course of the winter, and the weekend ‘pilgrimage’ has started again, as of early December 2015.

For those more into video, I filmed portions of the drive up and down on a recent sunny weekend.  I kept a running commentary on different topics (see below), interspersed with time-lapse portions with music.

Continue reading Winter driving in the Leaf up to Whitewater

An intro to electric vehicles and the Nissan Leaf during my work commute (video)

Some time ago, I came across a YouTube Channel from an electric vehicle (EV) owner in Norway where he filmed his drives around scenic Norway, talking about various EV topics, though primarily related to the Tesla Model S (Bjorn Nyland).  I enjoyed a number of his videos, and many others seem to as well, so I thought I would try my own! Continue reading An intro to electric vehicles and the Nissan Leaf during my work commute (video)

Day-trip: Nelson to Fletcher Falls and Ainsworth Hotsprings

I’ve decided that I should be adding more posts of regular trips that my family embarks on around the Kootenays themselves, since most of the EV “adventure” posts have so far been about longer journeys outside of our region.  I also will be adding a Page in the near future that will serve as a database of local trips that includes real data that I have collected so the growing collection of EV owners in our region have real data to work from!

Anyways – Marley’s mom is here visiting from Hamilton, Ontario this week, and with the beautiful fall weather, we thought a day-trip up the lake to see Fletcher Falls, with a soak in the Ainsworth Hot Springs on the way home, was just the ticket for her last day in BC.

Continue reading Day-trip: Nelson to Fletcher Falls and Ainsworth Hotsprings

Hello from the New West EV Family

[Editor’s note:  the post that follows is the first of a series of posts from David on a recent trip to Seattle, and the planning he had to undertake to utilize the Direct Current Fast Charging (DCFC) network south of the border.  He is also located in BC, in New Westminster, owns a 2013 Leaf SL, and has an EV Family!]

Hello from the New West EV Family! Ha! Sorry Andrew- I’m copying your blog title out of a complete lack of originality on my own part. This is my first blog/guest blog post ever, on any blog. I have contemplated blogging for many years. Nissan Leaf ownership has pushed me over the edge and Andrew has volunteered to humour me by hosting these guest posts on his blog! Please be gentle as my thoughts unwind on you. Please let me know how I can improve too and perhaps soon I’ll start my own blog. Continue reading Hello from the New West EV Family

Day Trip to Larch Ridge near Rossland

When I was coming back to the Kootenays from Kelowna in early October in my electric vehicle (a Nissan Leaf), I travelled through the Strawberry Pass on my way to Rossland and noticed that the larches were all a brilliant golden yellow.  There is a set of trails in an area just north of Rossland known as Larch Ridge, and I wanted to take my family to show them before all the needles fell, so we decided to go the weekend right after I got home.

Continue reading Day Trip to Larch Ridge near Rossland