ERG4ALL
Well-known member
Like many of you I have been following the LEAF for about a year and a half. Several of my ICE friends are believing all the anti-EV hype that has been reported by some journalists. I'd like to see how many creative suggestions we can generate to tell the truth about EVs and the LEAF in particular.
Here's some thoughts that I've had. Being from Detroit and having read quite a bit about Henry Ford. I can see a pattern here. Imagine when Mr. Ford started. First, he failed twice before starting the Ford Motor Company in 1903. Now he comes out with the Model T. I'm sure many people were used to driving a horse and carriage. For them all they had to know was that a slap on the reins to go forward, a tug to on the reins to stop and a pull on the left or right rein to steer. Now Mr. Ford comes along with a product that 1) requires you to set the throttle on the steering column, 2)then set the spark advance for starting and then 3) get out of the vehicle to crank the engine to get it started (the first electric starter didn't come about until 1912). Then you had to get into the vehicle and 4) reset the spark advance, and then make sense out of three pedals 5) to shift the planetary gear set from first to second, 6) the clutch pedal to disengage the engine while shifting and 7) the brake pedal when stopping. Added to that there was very little infrastructure to refuel during long trips and the roads between cities for the most part were mud bogs in the spring. I'm sure that for a few years that must have put some people off of owning a "horseless carriage".
The pattern repeats with the LEAF. The biggest complaint I've heard is that the LEAF only has either a 100 mile range or a 73 mile range if you drive the vehicle like an ICE. I try to tell people that according to Chevrolet (an American company to be trusted [maybe]) that 70% of the people only drive 40 miles or less during an average day. Those folks drive for a week and spend many minutes at the gas pump each week. I tell them that it takes less than a minute to hook up and unhook the LEAF in their garage to charge over night at reduced electric rates and costs a fraction of what it costs with an ICE to go the same distance in a LEAF. Thus, in a week's time they will have spent no more time than they do at the gas pump at the same time they will have traveled 300 miles or more with the LEAF. And these folks have more than one car. In the early days I would like to know how many families bought a Model T and still had their horse and buggy for back up.
The Sierra Club has an interesting article (http://www.sierraclub.org/electric-vehicles/myths.aspx) talking about EVs. Although I have not been able to identify the actual studies that relate to coal generation plants being less polluting than equivalent mileage in an EV, it becomes a moot point for many of us that are using PV to charge the LEAF. It seems that for many the environmental impacts of ICEs don't register. Thus, I believe we need to explain the practical aspects regardless of one's environmental disposition.
I could go on but you get the idea. Is change insurmountable to the American public at large? Maybe we could go the Sierra Club one better and come up with a document that we could post on our LEAFs that would help people get over their fears.
Here's some thoughts that I've had. Being from Detroit and having read quite a bit about Henry Ford. I can see a pattern here. Imagine when Mr. Ford started. First, he failed twice before starting the Ford Motor Company in 1903. Now he comes out with the Model T. I'm sure many people were used to driving a horse and carriage. For them all they had to know was that a slap on the reins to go forward, a tug to on the reins to stop and a pull on the left or right rein to steer. Now Mr. Ford comes along with a product that 1) requires you to set the throttle on the steering column, 2)then set the spark advance for starting and then 3) get out of the vehicle to crank the engine to get it started (the first electric starter didn't come about until 1912). Then you had to get into the vehicle and 4) reset the spark advance, and then make sense out of three pedals 5) to shift the planetary gear set from first to second, 6) the clutch pedal to disengage the engine while shifting and 7) the brake pedal when stopping. Added to that there was very little infrastructure to refuel during long trips and the roads between cities for the most part were mud bogs in the spring. I'm sure that for a few years that must have put some people off of owning a "horseless carriage".
The pattern repeats with the LEAF. The biggest complaint I've heard is that the LEAF only has either a 100 mile range or a 73 mile range if you drive the vehicle like an ICE. I try to tell people that according to Chevrolet (an American company to be trusted [maybe]) that 70% of the people only drive 40 miles or less during an average day. Those folks drive for a week and spend many minutes at the gas pump each week. I tell them that it takes less than a minute to hook up and unhook the LEAF in their garage to charge over night at reduced electric rates and costs a fraction of what it costs with an ICE to go the same distance in a LEAF. Thus, in a week's time they will have spent no more time than they do at the gas pump at the same time they will have traveled 300 miles or more with the LEAF. And these folks have more than one car. In the early days I would like to know how many families bought a Model T and still had their horse and buggy for back up.
The Sierra Club has an interesting article (http://www.sierraclub.org/electric-vehicles/myths.aspx) talking about EVs. Although I have not been able to identify the actual studies that relate to coal generation plants being less polluting than equivalent mileage in an EV, it becomes a moot point for many of us that are using PV to charge the LEAF. It seems that for many the environmental impacts of ICEs don't register. Thus, I believe we need to explain the practical aspects regardless of one's environmental disposition.
I could go on but you get the idea. Is change insurmountable to the American public at large? Maybe we could go the Sierra Club one better and come up with a document that we could post on our LEAFs that would help people get over their fears.
part for them, so that is what we are doing. By being the first ones with Leaf's, we will answer alot of questions and people will start to see that if we can do it, they can do it too.
