I'm always looking for blog material. So when Chevy provided us some *free* tickets to go to the Los Angeles Auto Show, I jumped on it. I thought I would do something different and give out my own awards. Here it goes:
NetZeroEV LA Auto Show Awards
Best Mascot: Kia Hamster {Check out the commercial here}
Best Lux PHEV: BMW i8 {Watch the sexy video here}
Aside: Two of BMW's cars have carbon fiber frames. Is it a coincidence that the steel industry had a big display touting the sustainability of steel? Hmm.
Back to the Awards
Most Fun Interior: Fiat 500e
Most Fun Marketing Campaign: Fiat 500e's EnvironmentallySexy.com
Most Interesting Inspiration for a Hybrid Vehicle: A track athlete huddled down in the starting blocks, which inspired the Mazda's Concept XR-PHEV {AutoTrader.com thinks it won't see production}
Best Auto Show Design: Volvo w/ a 3D driving experience provided by Oculus Rift and Google Cardboard {Let's get a production EV, Volvo. I'm waiting for you, but maybe not for long.}
Lastly, kudos to the following companies for having hybrid or fully electric vehicles in their Ride & Drive line-up: MOPAR/Fiat (EV), Ford (Hybrid), Kia (EV), Lexus (Hybrid), Subaru (Hybrid), Toyota (Hybrid), Volkswagen (EV). Lots of choices folk! Get out and drive!
What kind of electric car am I?
The Sierra Club has a snazzy web tool called 'pick-a-plug-in' to determine whether or not an electric car will work for you. So, I decided to give it a spin to see what the Sierra Club would pick for me. Would it be a Leaf? Would it be a Tesla? I was genuinely curious to see how my habits would line up with the benefits and attributes of the chosen EV. So, let's see what the inputs are in this matchmaking process.
Right now, my drive is mostly local. Requirements are: four seats and all electric. I have access to another vehicle for long trips and electrical outlet. Drum roll for the results......A variety of choices, including the Mercedes Benz, Tesla, Ford Focus, Mitsubishi i, Leaf, Ford Focus, Fiat e and Spark. I'm glad that my own car made the list. But, when my drive is more than 70 miles a day (i.e. I become fully employed again), the only car on the list is a Tesla. Well, that's not happening. I'll have to cross that bridge when it comes. Until then, I'll be driving my sporty Spark around and spreading the word about it.
Now it's your turn. What kind of electric car are you?
I spent last week in Boston for the EDF Climate Corps fellow network event in Boston. It was my first time to this particular city and to New England in general. I thought I would use the opportunity to get the lay of the land, from an EV driver's perspective. Perfect way to gather material for this blog.
How to start? First, I break open my handy dandy app Recargo to see where the charging stations are located. Conveniently, the closest one to me is the Lenox Hotel, across the street from where I was staying and coincidentally the host hotel for the EDF fellows. So I walk over and take a look. Oh, fancy - it glows at night. White when it is free for charging and green when it is charging. After a little research, it turns out this particular charging station was Boston's first commercial charging station when it was installed in 2011 (check out this Clean Cities piece on the installation). Kudos to Lenox Hotel, a true believer in "If you build it, they will come."
On my train ride to the airport, I saw a very curious advertisement involving ostriches with glasses saying the following to promote Lenox Hotel's charging station. "The Lenox Hotel has Boston's first privately owned electric car charging stations!" says the ostrich with glasses. "That sounds cool. I think I'm liking this stuff!" says the ostrich without glasses. The ad suggests that readers should text 'charge' to find out whether or not electric cars are cleaner than those that run on gas. So I give it a try and get this bit of wisdom "Building any car causes CO2 emissions. But most CO2 come from driving. Electric cars emit less CO2 overall and will get even better with more renewable energy." I definitely agree with the last statement and am wondering if the use of ostrich as the symbol for a recent EV convert is intentional. If nothing else, it was fun to read while on the train.
But, I have to admit I didn't see many cars charging at Lenox Hotel's charging station. The total for the four days I was there was one Chevy Volt for a short evening charge. I was looking for electric vehicles on the road and saw the white Tesla in the photo, but it was from Connecticut (license plate TESSLA). So, no luck on spotting an EV on the road in Boston. Why? I'm not sure. But I hope the start of the MOR-EV program in June 2014 will help. This is Massachusetts' electric vehicle rebate program, which is similar to California's program that I took advantage of. So far, the program has provided 407 rebates for a total of $963,500 or $0.14 per person (state population of 6.693 million). Hopefully this program will scale up to reach California's $3.69 ($141,306,983 for population of 38.33 million). What an impact that would make!
