Recent content by idunk

Generally speaking, when manufacturers and tier 1s talk about electric power-train, the battery is included, althugh 95% efficiency looks a bit too high to me.

Got my car pool stickers today. 4/27 - Took delivery 6/? - DMV ran out of car pool stickers 6/28 - Sent car pool stickers application (got license plate info from dealer) 7/1 - Sent EV parking stickers application 7/12 - EV parking stickers check cashed 7/20 - EV car pool stickers check...

Car pool lane stickers check cashed today (sent around 6/28). EV parking stickers check cashed on 7/13 (sent around 7/1), stickers not received yet.

Just called the special processing unit (916-657 8035), they received the new stickers and now are in catch up mode.

Two months in and the answer is exactly the same as day one. NO: I love driving my LEAF!!!

The old rule of batteries is that lifetime is halved for every 10 degrees C (18 F) of average lifetime temperature. Charges and discharges (driving) have a much larger impact that just sitting in the sun or in the garage at high temperature. That's why electric vehicles don't like heat. One word...

PG&E is neither encouraging nor discouraging the second meter, or at least the person I dealt with wasn't. He just asked what I wanted to do and told me what needed to be done. I have sensed 0 pressure in any direction (E1, E9-A, E9-B). But maybe it was the specific person whom I dealt with or...

My house is very hot, I can't even sleep in days like Tuesday. Today no AC needed though. I actually have started measuring temperature everywhere (especially in the attic) trying to figure out the best of of cooling the house without AC (e.g. solar fans in the attic). It'll take me a while though.

Every large battery pack is balanced (or equalized, the words are often used interchangeably). Even laptops are. If you don't, your car will lose range very quickly (I am talking about many percents over few thousand miles) because of the difference in coulombic efficiency between cells. Let...

I've seen plenty in the last month. Probably 15 in the San Jose/Los Gatos area. I haven't seen a red one in the wild yet though. In our pediatrician parking lot one day there were three LEAFs parked (including my black). The owner of the blue with the zero emission decal almost certainly works...

Seen a different LEAF every day for a week from 5/16 to 5/22 in the San Jose/Los Gatos area. I often see a LEAF parked not far from where I live and it's been there since at least February/early March. I have seen all colors but red in the wild.

Linkim, people in PG&E area, you can check your hour by hour consumption on PG&E's website. Being PG&E, it's a hassle to do it, but it is doable. You'll get roughly 3 months of consumption. I am waiting to switch to E9 because I am close to 100% of baseline without my LEAF, and I don't have...

Yup, you are right, I was at the . I haven't had a formal quote, but the informal ones I got (including one from Robert) were in the $3,000 range. At this point, I'll wait until after the summer to make an E1 vs. E9A to see how my AC usage + my EV usage affect my bill and then make a decision.

AndyH and I are still disagreeing, but I still like him :P

Off the top of my head BYD makes LiFePO4 (Iron phosphate) batteries. They are inherently more tolerant to faster charges and discharges. The downside is that they are heavier and bulkier. If I am not wrong, iron phosphate cells cost more too. So, you have different trade-offs when you design a...