05 Sep The Right Amount of Electricity
This series will be a bit of a departure from our usual fare, at it really has little do with our core business/industry – however, it’s a pretty common topic for debate around here and I do get asked a lot of questions, so let me just answer a few of those up front:
- It’s a Chevy Spark EV (ugly little spud, isn’t it? And they actually manage to squeeze 4 doors into that thing)
- No, you probably haven’t heard of it before
- It varies on how you use it. Somewhere between 80 and 100 miles.
- Quite a lot of fun actually. So much fun that my wife (who owns a very nice Infiniti) usually steals it in the morning and I rarely get to drive it. (Personally, I think that last little tidbit should say a lot about the realities of driving an electric car in 2014. If my wife would do everything in her power to grab my little electric sub-compact to commute to work instead of her luxury 4-door, Chevy must be doing something very right here)
And before you dive in with your negative, please keep the following 3 points in mind:
- It’s not for everyone
- It’s really great fun to drive
- It’s not for everyone
The most common complaint I hear? “Well shoot, that’s not enough range. What if I need to drive to Texas?” My response, because I typically like to answer questions with one of my own, “When was the last time you drove to Texas?” It’s kind of like the argument I often get from folks who drive massive trucks – “I might need to haul something”. (“Yes, but when was the last time you did that?” Maybe it was yesterday, in which case you’ve probably got the right vehicle-that’s cool)
I’ll close (for now) with a couple of fun facts:
- BEC (Before Electric Car) I used to spend roughly $450/month in gas. (And yes, I do realize that my 8-series BMW is NOT a paragon of fuel efficiency) Instead of enriching the oil companies, I give SoCal Edison $40/month.
- I’ve got a white sticker on my car that lets me drive in the car pool lane by myself, whenever I want to.
More to come…
Aaron Sonnenberg
Posted at 09:32h, 03 NovemberI love my #Ford #Focus EV…My white sticker is in the mail coming to me. can’t wait!