Drive Across the USA with a LEAF and Plant a Tree every 250 Miles!

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UBUYGAS

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 20, 2013
Messages
1,368
Location
Central NJ
Here's a Cool Campaign on IndieGoGo

This guy is going to drive across the USA in his 2013 #NissanLEAF and Plant a Tree every 250 miles. He plans to Plant 100 Trees!!

Check out The First Annual Negative Carbon U.S. Road Trip on #indiegogo!
http://igg.me/at/Anticarbon-US-road-trip

I Backed him at the Corporate Level which allows me to stick a Bumper Sticker to his LEAF :)

I am thinking about using the "I Re-Gen for Animals" on his Car. It's Cute and hopefully some people will get it since the original saying is "I Brake for Animals". Maybe they'll put 2 & 2 together and surmise that Braking and Re-Gen are similar.

Let Me know if you think I should use a different one: www.evBumperStickers.com and why. Thanks!

Sal
Aka Lasareath
#UBUYGAS
 
Okay, I just pledged to this campaign, not much but a little. I have to say, however, I mostly did so as I am going to follow his blog (http://www.evchargehub.com/NegativeCarbonRoadTrip.html) and trip. I love the unbridled enthusiasm of youth, but this guy sets the bar to an all new level.

His plan calls for a 26,219 trip in 100 days to all 48 lower states- in a LEAF that already has 27K miles on it (sorry I don't know what year or model) . Now that is 260+ miles per day. IF you could average 40 miles per hour that's 6.5 hours of driving per day - before you add in charging times to that. I don't think the vehicle (let alone the human driving it) is capable of maintaining that kind of pace given the strain on the battery alone and perfectly working charging stations wherever you go.

Anybody else want to watch this? It starts on August 26 and is supposed to end 100 days later on Dec 6 but I don't think you'll need popcorn for that many days....
 
jpadc said:
His plan calls for a 26,219 trip in 100 days to all 48 lower states- in a LEAF that already has 27K miles on it (sorry I don't know what year or model) . Now that is 260+ miles per day. IF you could average 40 miles per hour that's 6.5 hours of driving per day - before you add in charging times to that. I don't think the vehicle (let alone the human driving it) is capable of maintaining that kind of pace given the strain on the battery alone and perfectly working charging stations wherever you go.

Anybody else want to watch this? It starts on August 26 and is supposed to end 100 days later on Dec 6 but I don't think you'll need popcorn for that many days....

oof, did you see the thread on how long it took me to drive my car 200 miles the day I bought it? With Chademo the pace is fine but any time you have to stop at a L2 it takes forever. If he has the 6.x KW charger it won't be as bad for him as it was for me but I still can't imagine he'll make 200+ miles every day without getting stuck (delayed) at some L2 chargers along the way.
 
dhanson865 said:
did you see the thread on how long it took me to drive my car 200 miles the day I bought it?.
I did, and a couple other stories of new owners whose initial drive was a long one. I may have bought mine in Iowa City, but it was on a tow dolly for its initial trip to Indiana. I have one trip of 100 miles on a single charge just to say I had done it, but that is as adventurous as I get. This is "just a bit" unrealistic
 
dhanson865 said:
jpadc said:
His plan calls for a 26,219 trip in 100 days to all 48 lower states- in a LEAF that already has 27K miles on it (sorry I don't know what year or model) . Now that is 260+ miles per day. IF you could average 40 miles per hour that's 6.5 hours of driving per day - before you add in charging times to that. I don't think the vehicle (let alone the human driving it) is capable of maintaining that kind of pace given the strain on the battery alone and perfectly working charging stations wherever you go.
...
oof, did you see the thread on how long it took me to drive my car 200 miles the day I bought it? With Chademo the pace is fine but any time you have to stop at a L2 it takes forever. If he has the 6.x KW charger it won't be as bad for him as it was for me but I still can't imagine he'll make 200+ miles every day without getting stuck (delayed) at some L2 chargers along the way.
I only found out about this via an email I received from Plug-In America on Aug 20th. The text of the email is at http://www.pluginamerica.org/press-release/cross-country-ev-planting-trees-along-way.

They point to his blog at http://www.evchargehub.com/NegativeCarbonRoadTrip.html.

I made comments at http://negativecarbonroadtrip.evchargehub.com/2015/08/t-minus-8-days-and-counting.html?showComment=1440147362450#c6258693948184656374 to the effect of what you guys said. I think it's frankly impossible to average 262.219 miles/day or more in a Leaf over a sustained period w/the current charging infrastructure in the US, even w/multiple drivers and you count RV parks/campgrounds as part of that infrastructure. I don't know if he'll have multiple drivers but the biggest issue is just the charging time, since there will be HUGE pockets of NO CHAdeMO at all.

From what I can tell at http://negativecarbonroadtrip.evchargehub.com/, he has a '13 S trim, and I'm presuming he has the "charge package" w/6 kW OBC and CHadeMO inlet. And from http://negativecarbonroadtrip.evchargehub.com/2015/08/small-townfinal-preparations_22.html, it seems he has just shy of 28K miles on it already.

He's either going to have to extend his trip by time or cut it short.
 
Well he has started on the road!

I know I will be following closely. I hope others will be here as well. Although I have expressed my doubts, I do wish him well and I hope others here will do so as well. I also hope if he makes it anywhere near where members here live, they will be willing to provide a little help and encouragement.

If nothing else, it will be fun to follow along.

Check out: http://negativecarbonroadtrip.evchargehub.com/
 
I too wish him well, but my wild guess is that about the most miles he'll be able sustain over the length of the entire trip is somewhere a bit shy of 200 miles/day.
 
Again, I wish him well, but it seems like his planning could be a lot better.

From http://negativecarbonroadtrip.evchargehub.com/2015/08/montrealthe-northern-city-of-brotherly.html, it sounds like he doesn't carry his registration and proof of insurance. I can't speak to all 50 states, but that's a big no-no in California.

And he crossed into Canada, possibly not realizing he'd be doing international roaming, which might be not enabled on his phone or account. But even if it were, it could be VERY costly. Carriers charge an arm and a leg for intl roaming. And, for some reason, he chose to be dependent on navigation apps that depend on cellular signal vs. a standalone GPS unit (since his car has no nav system) that has all its own maps in internal storage, no cell signal needed.

And from http://negativecarbonroadtrip.evchargehub.com/2015/08/when-close-call-conclusion.html, (when I had asked him to go for Leaf Spy), he said "I have the dongol and Leaf Spy lite already. I don't really bother with either. There's a reason why I don't but I won't go into it now." Uhh... the lite version isn't too useful other than verifying his setup works.... and he already ran car to battery dead this early on.

He hasn't posted his mileages and I'm not sure if he's driving solo (haven't followed closely) but if he is driving solo, there's no way he's going to be able to average 262.219 miles/day in a Leaf.
 
Well, I've already been called out by Brian for being sardonic so I'm trying to be more positive. He is driving alone, but seems to have a lot of support (at least so far) on in the trip. I hope he does so all along the journey. I'm trying to follow, but obviously its hard for him to blog and drive.

I hope more members here will follow and try to support him where possible. He seems like he is going to need a lot of help as there do seem to be just a few things he might not have planned for where he might need some good will from strangers. Ah, the young...

Again fellow LEAF owners, check it out:
http://www.evchargehub.com/NegativeCarbonRoadTrip.html
 
cwerdna said:
Again, I wish him well, but it seems like his planning could be a lot better.

From http://negativecarbonroadtrip.evchargehub.com/2015/08/montrealthe-northern-city-of-brotherly.html, it sounds like he doesn't carry his registration and proof of insurance. I can't speak to all 50 states, but that's a big no-no in California.

And he crossed into Canada, possibly not realizing he'd be doing international roaming, which might be not enabled on his phone or account. But even if it were, it could be VERY costly. Carriers charge an arm and a leg for intl roaming. And, for some reason, he chose to be dependent on navigation apps that depend on cellular signal vs. a standalone GPS unit (since his car has no nav system) that has all its own maps in internal storage, no cell signal needed.

And from http://negativecarbonroadtrip.evchargehub.com/2015/08/when-close-call-conclusion.html, (when I had asked him to go for Leaf Spy), he said "I have the dongol and Leaf Spy lite already. I don't really bother with either. There's a reason why I don't but I won't go into it now." Uhh... the lite version isn't too useful other than verifying his setup works.... and he already ran car to battery dead this early on.

He hasn't posted his mileages and I'm not sure if he's driving solo (haven't followed closely) but if he is driving solo, there's no way he's going to be able to average 262.219 miles/day in a Leaf.

omg, just read the posts you made on his blog and his responses. I don't have high hopes for his safety or success on this trip. He seems to be trying to make every mistake possible.
 
He answered that he is driving solo.

Although this blog entries don't seem to indicate mileage progress, I just realized that http://www.evchargehub.com/NegativeCarbonRoadTrip.html does on the right side.

Since he still has all his capacity bars, I wouldn't be surprised if he's loses 2 or 3 capacity bars by the end of the trip, possibly even 4 or 5. If he becomes a 4 BL before 60K miles, then at least he can get a free replacement battery out of it. The continual driving and charging will mean little time for the battery to cool at all, judging by my limited experience w/Leaf Spy Pro, so far. Charging at L2 seems to heat the battery and driving seems to slightly, as well (from internal resistance).

And, if he does multiple QCs a day (in the areas where he can), the battery temp will really rise and might take awhile to drop significantly.

I'm thinking he maybe should buy a Spot beacon (http://findmespot.com/en/#) like what Tony Wililams had for his BC2BC trips. It seems like there are plenty of B&M retailers that carry them. At least we'll get position updates and if he stops moving for a more than say 12 hours, we'll know something's wrong and his location.
 
cwerdna said:
Since he still has all his capacity bars, I wouldn't be surprised if he's loses 2 or 3 capacity bars by the end of the trip, possibly even 4 or 5. If he becomes a 4 BL before 60K miles, then at least he can get a free replacement battery out of it. The continual driving and charging will mean little time for the battery to cool at all, judging by my limited experience w/Leaf Spy Pro, so far. Charging at L2 seems to heat the battery and driving seems to slightly, as well (from internal resistance).

And, if he does multiple QCs a day (in the areas where he can), the battery temp will really rise and might take awhile to drop significantly.

I agree that the heat will be an issue. Not sure what his current aHr or SOH% is at start of trip.

If he actually uses that leafspy to report his aHr/SOH% drop over the trip that would be nice.

Vehicle Nissan Leaf 2013
Miles Traveled 1062 / 26,219
Charge Events 21 / 500
States Visited 4 / 48
Provinces Visited 1 / 1
Trees Planted 2 / 48

He needs to add a starting aHr/SOH% somewhere and just add the losses to that update section.
 
I need to respond later, but I find it highly unlikely that per his reply to my comment at http://negativecarbonroadtrip.evchargehub.com/2015/09/there-must-be-ev-god.html that his '13 Leaf S w/33K miles only has 3% degradation, esp. w/the amount of heating due to his trip.

I'd guess it's at least 10% degradation by now.

My '13 SV that I bought used is at ~59 Ahr now w/under 26K miles. Build month was 5/2013. When I bought this car used in mid-July 2015, it was in slightly better shape in terms of SOH and HX than my '13 SV w/under 24K miles that I returned at end of lease.
 
cwerdna said:
I need to respond later, but I find it highly unlikely that per his reply to my comment at http://negativecarbonroadtrip.evchargehub.com/2015/09/there-must-be-ev-god.html that his '13 Leaf S w/33K miles only has 3% degradation, esp. w/the amount of heating due to his trip. I'd guess it's at least 10% degradation by now.
Well, I wondered about that when he made it 110 miles between Alexandria MN and Fargo NC on a single charge despite the age/miles on the car but I, like him, did not consider that on average its all down hill. I, at least, have the excuse of being from Indiana and Wisconsin where the elevation never changes. Of course being from NY his vehicle has been in far cooler temps (on average) than yours.

I'm trying to be encouraging, so I wish him well. I'm glad he has seen that making 260+ miles a day is just not feasible over the long run. I think he is due in Indiana soon. I was trying to set up a meet and greet for him with some people from blue Indy here, but have had little luck. Blue Indy is a set of electric vehicles that are available all throughout the center of the city for short-term lease (like as short as 20 minutes) for running errands or one way for trips around the city. The company running it has a similar set up in Paris, France. Of course its heavily tax payer subsidized, but so are busses and this is WAY cooler. Check it out:

https://www.blue-indy.com/

They also have a plan where EV owners like me can use their parking/charging spaces so this has added some 200+ charging stations in the city available for EV owners Ever cool!
 
I wonder if he's still doing ok. It looks like his last check in or comment was on Sept 18th, unless I missed something.

It doesn't look like he got a http://findmespot.com/en/ beacon as I suggested. Tony Williams had some beacon from this company for his BC2BC drives.
 
Brian Kent, the Guy driving this LEAF had to go back home for a Funeral this past weekend and today he is heading back towards my house and we are going to a Car Show tonight! Two LEAFs side by side!

I'm going to be making a 14-50 Receptacle to a L6-30P so then I can lend him my adapters from evseupgrade.com and he'll also be able to use his #JESLA with many other receptacles.

I also lent him my http://www.Quick220.com to take with him on the road.



BrianKent01.jpg
BrianKent02.jpg
BrianKent03.jpg
 
Here's Brian planting a #TREE on my front lawn with Plug In America's President Michael Thwaite. (Brian is on the Left)

BrianKent04.jpg
 
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