wws944

When visiting Fairbanks Alaska a few years ago, we stood under the Alaska Pipeline. It is only a few feet in diameter. Yet when one looks at the maps of the pipeline that the anti-pipeline folks use, it appears about 100 miles wide! As an aside, there is a fantastic antique car museum in Fairbanks. Well worth the visit!

When we bought our house, early '90s, the folks we bought it from had made a hobby of making pottery and polishing rocks. Had an electric kiln for the pottery. He had installed the special electric meter to allow Time of Use metering. Peak rates were from noon to 6 PM on weekdays, off peak at other times. He told me to be sure and keep it as it was a big $$$ savings. I did, and am sure it save thousands over the years. When we installed a solar system, combined with net metering, it was great because I'd run the meter backwards during the afternoon when the rates were high - then buy power back when it was cheap. Fast forward to the last few years. California is on the verge of having too much solar during the former mid-day peak. The peak demand for non-solar/wind generation has morphed into two peaks - one in the morning before solar kicks in, and a bigger one in the evening when everyone is home cooking dinner and watching TV. As a consequence, PG&E and no doubt the other CA utilities shifted their off-peak TOU rates to be from midnight to 3 PM. So I'm selling most of my excess power to the grid at cheap rates and buying back expensive power now. (Fortunately most of my solar panels are aimed west, instead of south. So after 3 PM I still sell some back at higher rates.) I charge the cars after midnight when the rates are cheap again. Where this is all headed is home solar + battery storage. Charge the battery during the day with solar, then release the energy during the evening to handle household demand when it is expensive - or during a power failure. Taken even farther, there is talk of homeowners and businesses banding together to form "virtual power plants". This when the grid needs power at high demand times, you can then sell your excess and monetize it - rather than them having to start up an expensive "peaker plant". Last week Elon announced that Tesla Energy (formerly Solar City) will no longer be installing solar-only systems. All solar will now be integrated with their Powerwall battery systems. It both simplifies installation and is a step towards VPPs. FWIW - I use the 240V circuit that was formerly used for the kiln to charge my Model 3.

Here in California, the state is already adding a flat $150 to EVs annual registration fee to cover road maintenance. Other states are doing similar. Legitimate gripe for AACA members who eventually start to collect EVs will be that the $150/year fee will be a PITA for infrequently driven cars...

All largely true. I've never seen a charging station that accepted cash. Have seen and used a number of free ones though. With Tesla's Superchargers, Tesla has ones credit card info on file anyway - from when you buy the car. (Tesla doesn't have 'dealers' to sell you a car. All purchases are done via their web site. Kind an expensive "buy it now".) When you use a Supercharger, just plug it in. The car communicates with the mother ship and charging commences. It couldn't be any easier. In the non-Tesla world, EA is starting to support a Tesla-like Plug and Charge. A few cars are starting to support it - like the Porsche Taycan and the new Ford Mustang Mach-E. From the reviews it seems it is still a work in progress - sometimes it works, sometimes not. And when it does work, it may not be on the desired rate plan. Otherwise one uses some combination of phone app, RFID card, and/or credit card for identification and payment. The reason I wrote “signing up with Electrify America is also pretty much a given.”, besides simply coverage, is that EA has been primarily installing 150 and 350 kW charging stations. Where as the high speed DCFC stations folks like Chargepoint and EVgo have installed are still typically only 50-62 kW units. The latter were fine when something like a Leaf only had a 24 kWh battery pack. But most EVs now have battery packs that are in the 50-100 kWh range - and peoples expectations of fast charging have risen quite a bit. One thing the e-Tron has been praised for is that it can support 150 kW charging rates over a large portion of its charging curve - only starting to taper when it gets above about 70% State of Charge. So when on a road trip doing a mid-day charging stop, it can be obviously advantageous to use EA over the slower alternatives when possible. @edinmass- you might be interested in a series of talks on youtube by Tony Seba where he speculates on the future of ridesharing. Elon's "robotaxi" concept pretty much falls in line with Seba's vision. Tesla has now delivered well over a million cars that Elon claims have enough sensors and compute power that they are capable of "full self drive" - though the software to fully do FSD has been elusive. As FSD becomes more developed, a car owner could eventually let their car be used as part of the Robotaxi fleet. Their car would then be earning money, and people who only need to drive occasionally would have even less need to own a car. (I'd never put my car in the robotaxi fleet though. Who would want some drunk throwing up in the back of their car?)

Probably end up like me - where I only bother to charge the car once or twice a week. I usually charge to 90% - so I don't stress the battery pack and also have full regen. Then let it drop to 20-30% before recharging. A few days ago, I saw an e-Tron with Texas plates here in N. California. So there are some brave souls who do road trip in them. Plugshare and ABetterRoutePlanner web sites and phone apps are musts. With an e-Tron, signing up with Electrify America is also pretty much a given.

A 30 amp circuit is 24 amps continuous. (NEC requires derating circuits with continuous loads to 80%.) So you'd be charging at about 5.7 kW. I'd figure about 3 miles/kWh for the e-Tron - giving about 17 mph. For in-town driving, it will probably be better than that.

Setting aside "climate change" - both political and otherwise, there is Economics. On a per-mile/km basis, the variable costs of driving a EV vs typical ICE car falls in favor of EVs by a factor of 3-4x. This doesn't even include all the maintenance that ICEs require and EVs don't. The upfront cost has been the barrier. When the Tesla Roadster came out about 12 years ago, its battery costs were over $1000/kWh. Its 53 kWh pack represented about half the cost of its $100k price. The 2011 Volt had a 16 kWh pack plus ICE, and the 2011 Leaf had a 24 kWh pack. So one can easily see why the latter two had MSRPs in the $30-40k range. However with Li-ion battery production ramping up and resulting economies of scale, times have changed. When GM released the Bolt EV in 2017, somehow it was leaked (but never confirmed) that they were paying LG only $145/kWh for the Bolts 60 kWh pack. Huge price difference. Sandy Munro thinks Tesla/Panasonic's costs are below $100/kWh. It has been widely stated that $100/kWh is the threshold where ICE becomes more expensive than EV to purchase. I would argue that gov't tax credits or rebates should disappear completely. The "invisible hand of the market" will naturally move increasing numbers of new car purchasers to EVs.

I used to have a '90 Buick Regal with the 440T-4 transmission. Pan drop and fluid/filter at 30k and 60k miles. Then around 75k miles, the 1-2 shift started clunking - depending on how heavy your foot was on the gas. Dealer dropped the pan and found bits of a thrust washer in it. They, and a couple of other transmission shops, told me to just drive the car until it dies - then install a new one. So we drove the car another 15 years, and at least 200k miles (odometer broke - twice), with occasional fluid/filter changes. It still had the same tranny when I sold it. Postscript: Sadly, I found it in a Pick N Pull about a year and a half later. Nearly broke my heart as it had been in the family since new.

Well, as the late, great, Henry Joy would say - "ask the man who owns one". The only way you'd get 9 mpg in a Volt is if there was a hole drilled in the gas tank. Well... Perhaps there is another way. When the outside temps are very low, the car will run the ICE for cabin heat. It isn't actually using the ICE for propulsion until, once again, the EV range is depleted. This is the "ERDTT" (Engine Running Due To Temperature) mode. So I guess under this scenario, the display might report 9 mpg. Depending on the year of the Volt, one has a couple of menu selections for the ERDTT threshold. (E.g., on my 2016 it is 35F and 15F.)

Just (re-)watched Prof Kellys video on the history of ATF at GM. Factory fill in 1990 seems have been Dexron II(D): I've heard that over the years with high mileage/poorly maintained cars. It is why some recommend only doing a pan drop, and not try to do a full flush.

(Shrug.). I'm just trying to share some info on an interesting and somewhat misunderstood car. For someone looking for a relatively inexpensive "gateway drug" into EVs, it is hard to go wrong with a used Volt. The drivetrain is really well engineered. Same with the Bolt EV for that matter. in the dozen years I've been on the AACA forum, I've never done an 'ignore' on any fellow member, and don't intend to start now. (Facebook is another story...)

Not really true. Due to the way the clutches and planetary gear set(s) are set up the ICE and the two MGs can be configured in a variety of ways on the fly. Gen 1 has two EV-only modes and two extended range modes - one of which is a series configuration. Gen 2 has two EV and three extended range modes - none of which are series. One of the extended range modes is similar, but not identical, to the Prius.

Volt is a plugin hybrid. It operates as a pure EV until the traction pack is depleted. Then the range extending engine works to power the car. Gen 1 (2011-2015) Voltec architecture is fairly different than Gen 2 (2016-2019). Both have two motor/generators plus the ICE. Gen 1 has one planetary gear set plus some clutches to combine power in various ways. Gen 2 has two planetaries and a different configuration of clutches. EV range on Gen 1 is mid-30s miles on average - depends a bit on year, as there were a couple battery upgrades. Gen 2 about 54 EV miles on average. By plugging in nightly, you can literally go for weeks without using the ICE. (After six weeks of no ICE use, the car will use the ICE for a few minutes in "engine maintenance mode" just to keep it limber.) When the ICE does run, like if you are driving a lot one day, haven't charged lately, or on a road trip, MPG in Gen 1 is mid-30s on average, and low 40s in Gen 2. By plugging in nightly, you may never use the ICE at all - except when EMM is required. It is a great car. Similar interior and features as a Cruze, so decent but not luxury. And quite a deal now in the used car market. I should add that the Volt also keeps track of the age of the gas in the tank. If it gets over a year old, it will run the ICE in "fuel maintenance mode" until the fuel is burned down enough, and you add enough fresh, to bring the age down below a year. Many Volt drivers just keep a couple gallons in the tank, and only fill it when going on road trips. Covers the gas needed for the every six week EMM, and less fuel to burn off at the annual FMM. Due to COVID, our Volt hasn't been driven much. My wife filled the tank just before the shutdown, and last month it started doing FMM whenever we drove it. Ran it almost to empty - no worries about being stranded as had a full EV charge to take over. And added three or four gallons to make it happy.

It seems like most recommendations in the manuals are based on mileage - and not time. Coolant and maybe engine oil being the exception. GM doesn't provide any recommendations at all for PS or brake fluid. I guess if one considers 15 years to be the average life of a car, then the factory fill can be "good for the life of the car". But many folks here own cars that are several sigmas off the side of the bell curve...

Depending on which stats I was looking at, NY was #4 or #5. (Alaska last place.)

Could have posted this in the Reatta forum, but may be of more general interest. My '90 Reatta only has 17K miles. Of course the engine oil/filter and coolant have been replaced fairly recently. Also brake fluid was done a while back. But tranny and PS fluid are still 'factory fill' from 31 years ago. So how often should one change these 'other' fluids in cars that are infrequently driven?

Some time back in the 1970s, my dad visited Los Angeles and came home with a Dale brochure. Not sure where he got it from. It disappeared long ago - probably when my mother cleaned out their house before she sold it. I've since seen the exact same brochure scanned and on the 'net.

A little more googling shows that as of a year or two ago, Washington was #2, Florida #3, and Texas #4. Just that California is about 50% of the market. So all other states pale by comparison. I could easily live with a 2013 Model S (85 please) as my only car. The once in a while I'd need a truck I could rent for the day. Around town, range is of little concern. How often does one drive 200+ miles in a day? When on a road trip, bladder is the constraint - especially as I get older. Plan a Supercharger stop to coincide with a 'bio break' and little time lost.

I think Texas and Florida are #2 and #3 in U.S. Tesla sales, after California. And that is despite the anti-Tesla dealer tactics in Texas.

About 20 years ago, I had a consulting gig in Monterey for a couple of years. So I used to commute along Highway 1 though Moss Landing several times a week. Fun doing the reverse commute between the Bay Area and Monterey. The twisties on Highway 17 between Los Gatos and Santa Cruz, combined with the beautiful farm land and driving along the coast between Santa Cruz and Monterey. Always fun to do in the 944. Though I usually drove the beater '90 Buick Regal I also had at the time. Farms north of the power plant grow Watsonville strawberries. South of it grow Castroville artichokes.

The battery storage system is all on-site at the power plant. The area has been fenced off for decades. I think the fuel oil tanks were once in the same spot. Not much farmland adjacent, though quite a bit starting a couple miles away. Perhaps interesting to folks here - there is a Pick N Pull just uphill from the Moss Landing site that I occasionally frequent for old car parts. They just downsized the yard a couple years ago. Used to be another wrecked car yard there too, but it has since closed down.

For weekend fun cars, sure. I love old cars and wouldn't be frequenting this site if I didn't. But for a daily driver, EVs are increasingly the way to go. Model 3 weighs high 3000 lb range - not too far from other well-equipped cars of its size. Battery pack is under the floor and between the wheels. So very low center of gravity and excellent weight distribution. It is great in the mountain twisties around here, just like my old 944 is. But in some ways even better. (Instant TQ blasting out of curves. :D)

@mike6024- It is true that Diablo Canyon is going to be shut down in 2025, and we lost SONGS a few years ago. I used to be a big fan of nuke, and to some extent, still am. Wish we had replaced all the dirty coal with it decades ago. Ironically, the enviro-wackos prevented it. But nuke is a 'base level' generation capability. It doesn't follow varying loads well. So it must be supplemented with other forms of generation that are more agile. For the past 10-20 years, that has meant natgas - and more specifically modern combined cycle and "peaker" plants. Combine those with cheap, yes "fracked", natgas has meant nuke and coal have been on the way out for a while. Even older non-combined cycle natgas plants have been shut down as uneconomical. One example I can point to near me is at Moss Landing CA. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moss_Landing_Power_Plant) The plant was originally built to burn natgas and fuel oil. Over time, the original generation was replaced with combined cycle. Now the site is morphing into a major battery storage system site - to capture excess daytime solar production and feed it into the grid at night. All the grid connections are already there. It is really interesting to watch the stats at the Cal ISO web site on grid demand and how it is being supplied. (http://www.caiso.com/TodaysOutlook/Pages/index.html and http://www.caiso.com/TodaysOutlook/Pages/supply.aspx) Both have changed A LOT over the past decade. On the demand side, it used to be that peak grid demand was in the mid-afternoon, on weekdays. This coincided with peoples workdays, A/C usage, and so on. However with the advent of customer owned rooftop solar, the mid-day peak had completely disappeared during most of the year. There are now two peaks/day - in the early morning before solar kicks in, and in the evening when everyone is home cooking meals, lights, and and watching TV. On the Cal ISO Demand web page, they also show a second graph where they subtract grid-level wind and solar from the demand to see what the demand is from conventional sources (e.g., natgas, nuke, and hydro). If you look at the supply side web page, you can see that for weeks now we have actually exported power to surrounding states during part of the day. And that is with Diablo Canyon only operating one of their two reactors. There is now so much solar on both the grid and customer sides of the meters, the need for "base load" generation is quickly disappearing. It easily explains why the failures at SONGS were probably a blessing in disguise, and Diablo Canyon really does need to shut down soon. (Google "duck curve".) For much of the U.S., especially in the South and West, the future really is solar/wind as they are the cheapest form of generation, combined with battery storage. The neat thing for us homeowners is that we can often do the same on our own roofs - and treat the grid as a backup, rather than primary source of energy. The march of technology is unstoppable. So it will happen. Like EVs, this is all going to take years to play out - no matter what the pols in WDC think. Lots of stranded assets to use up and write off.

Padgett - you _really_ need to test drive a Tesla. Then you'll see why they are becoming so popular. Model 3 is selling at near Camry/Accord levels here in CA. It's not just a "status" thing, and frankly doesn't have a lot to do with the price of gas. They are fun to drive! Yeow! If the house is so old it still has K&T wiring and fuses, um, it has bigger problems than which car the owner drives. The original part of my house was first built in 1950 and even it had breakers - though mostly wired with the old two-wire, no safety ground, cloth covered "Romex" of the day. I replaced the panel did some rewiring 25 years ago when we upgraded to 200 amp service. And 98% of the wiring replaced when we enlarged and mostly rebuilt the house in 2009.

I'd argue there are more electrical outlets in the U.S. than gas stations by several orders of magnitude. Just over 100K gas stations, and 80M homes. Each home has dozens of receptacles. Some even in the garage. The vast majority of EV charging takes place at home. Also a lot of companies offer free charging for their employees as a perq. (My wife benefited from workplace charging for several years.) In my mind, there are two main use cases for public charging facilities: 1.) Road trips, and 2.) Condo/apartment dwellers The first is quite doable. I've driven all over California, and cross country to the Midwest and back in my Model 3 with little problem. The Tesla Supercharging network is reasonably fast and reliable. Various DCFC networks for non-Teslas are being built, but aren't quite as seamless as what Tesla is doing yet. A large amount of the VW Dieselgate settlement money is being used for this, in the form of Electrify America. The second really is a problem. I think laws/regulations, or removing them, such that some form of EV charging facilities are "encouraged" are a Good Thing. And increasingly, EV owners will choose condos/apartments that have facilities over those that don't. So there is the "invisible hand of the market" factor as well. It will take many years though. In one of my postings above, I was using an example of a 30 amp/240V connection. But in some use cases, even the lowly 15 amp/120V receptacles we all know and love can be useful. Super slow charging - and cold climates the battery heater will use most of the power. I wouldn't tolerate it, but some people who don't drive much do just fine. And for the once in a while they need to charge up fast, hopefully there is a DCFC site nearby.