Skip to content

Data Analysis

New West EV Family Goes to the Zoo – Part 2/2

Hello again from the New West EV Family!

This post is the third in a series and discusses the second half of our Seattle Zoo trip in our 2013 Nissan Leaf. My first guest post was an introduction and review of charging requirements for the trip. In part one of my trip report we discussed the drive plan and our trip south from New Westminster to the Seattle area and our stops for charging along the way.

On my last post we ended day one enjoying a nice meal at the Cheesecake Factory while charging to 100% on L2 at the Bellevue Square mall. We returned to our hotel in Everett with 73% remaining and 7 battery temperature bars while Leaf Spy showed the battery temperature to be nearly 40 degrees C. Now for most of you in California or Arizona this isn’t an uncommon temperature but we barely saw 6 bars this summer, 5 is normal, and we will probably see 4 bars all ‘winter’. Regardless, the battery cooled to about 24.5 C overnight on this trip. (note: the ambient temperatures I am guessing were ~12 C overnight; high battery temperatures are something to be minimized over the long term).Read More »New West EV Family Goes to the Zoo – Part 2/2

Two trips to Kelowna – and many new Highway 3 chargers!

I’ve gone from Nelson to Kelowna twice in the last month and thought I’d share some photos, data, and random insights from each trip… and in between the two trips, several new chargers were added on Highway 3, happy days!!

Don’t worry, this isn’t a novella (unlike the Sechelt trip report!)

September – Nelson to Kelowna via Revelstoke, back via Osoyoos

September Map

Click to enlarge…

Since I completed my last trip to Kelowna in the spring in our electric vehicle (EV), a 2014 Nissan LEAF, a new Direct Current Fast Charger (DCFC) had come online in Revelstoke, so when I planned this trip, I really wanted to take the slightly longer northern route.

Read More »Two trips to Kelowna – and many new Highway 3 chargers!

2015 Green Energy & Home Show

I participated in the Nelson EcoSave Green Energy & Home Show again this year as an Electric Vehicle (EV) ambassador.  I also gave a short 5 minute talk and 3 minute Q&A afterwards.  Many people were there to look at the EVs; Murray took a number of people for a ride in his LEAF, and Dave in a Tesla Model S also came down from Rossland.  I also brought our electrified Edgerunner cargo bike.  Lots of interested people with many many question!

This post contains the presentation I gave, along with a number of “infographics” that I prepared and left on a display table for the public to view while at the Home Show.  Click on any of the files/images below to download or to view as a larger image.

Read More »2015 Green Energy & Home Show

Cost update – Feb to April 2015

The car just rolled over 36,000 km and it is 1 week away from owning the car for one year now – right about what I had estimated for kilometres.  Time for a cost report update!  (The first cost report I posted can be found here.)

The big news item in the intervening 3 months was the return of the Clean Energy Vehicle incentive, which for a Leaf is $5,000 off of the purchase price.  I have added a Leaf with this incentive added to illustrate what the incentive would have done, in my case anyways.

Read More »Cost update – Feb to April 2015

Skiing and a Christmas Tree

For a video update on winter driving, go to the bottom… (original post follows)

Ski season started recently in the Kootenays!    I love skiing so this is one of my favourite times of the year.  There are a few ski hills close to Nelson, so in the fall I plugged the data into my spreadsheet model to see which trips were viable:

EV energy usage model by trip

EV energy usage model by trip

Read More »Skiing and a Christmas Tree