June 2021, Virginia. Guest writer Courtney Noctor describes her new Volkswagen ID.4.
I picked up my first EV – a Volkswagen ID.4 Pro – several weeks ago and I am obsessed with it. The ID.4 is a cute little crossover SUV that is similar in size to a sedan but very spacious. It has 30 ft3 of storage behind the back seats, and 64 ft3 of storage with the back seats folded down.
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July 2020. California.
Last week we took our Model Y on a short road trip to visit Crater Lake National Park in Oregon. Crater Lake is 350 miles from our town, not very far, but it was a long enough drive to get a feel for what it’s like taking the Model Y on road trips.
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May 2020. California.
Our Rav4 EV is 7 years old now, has 88,000 miles / 140,000 km on the odometer, and continues to serve us well. Nowadays we use it most for commuting back and forth to work (35 miles / 55 km per day), for shopping, and running errands. But we’ve also gone on lots of family trips in our Rav4 EV over the years.
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February 2020. California.
This weekend while visiting the Mount Shasta area we stayed overnight at a Lodge / RV campground and charged our car on an RV electrical hookup. I plugged in that night and we left the next morning with 281 miles of rated range (and a warm cabin).
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October 2019. California.
I bought a 2018 Long Range RWD Model 3 in April 2018. I have fully charged the car 5 times. At 24,000 miles a 100% charge gave me the full advertised rated range of 325 miles (520 km). At 43,000 miles a full charge gave me 300 miles of rated range. At 5 years and 67,000 miles I got 291 miles of range.
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July 2019. California.
We purchased a solar power system to produce and offset the electricity we use in our house and to charge our Model 3. Our primary goal was to produce as much electricity as we used each year. This post describes how well our solar system meets our needs.
June 2019. Puerto Rico.
Many of my posts are variations on “Yo people, electric cars, they get the job done”. This post shows how EVs can work in Puerto Rico.
On a recent work trip to Old San Juan we arrived at our lodgings around 10PM, and I was surprised to see a Model 3 parked on the street near our building. Later I was fortunate enough to meet the owner and talk about his experiences.
May 2020. California.
We bought our Rav4 EV seven years ago today. Never before did we remember or mark the day we bought a new car, but we do love the Rav4. This EV continues to do it’s job very well for us. It’s a very good commuting car and has plenty of storage for family duties, shopping, and regional camping trips.
April 2019. California.
Today we crossed 80,000 miles (~128,000 km) in our 2012 Rav4 EV. We purchased this car new almost 6 years ago and it’s still working great. Our motor drive became slightly noisy 2 years ago and Toyota replaced it under warranty at 58,000 miles. It’s been smooth and quiet since then. Otherwise this car has worked perfectly.
February 2019. California.
We don’t often get snow in my town. According to my neighbor it’s been 23 years since honest-to-goodness snow has fallen in our part of California’s Central Valley. But when we get the urge for snow we don’t have that far to drive.
January 2019. California's Central Valley.
When we bought our home over a decade ago we set goals for ourselves: To make the electricity we use; and to drive electric cars powered by our solar power system. We’re not there yet, but we’ve made progress.
December 2018. California.
I drive my Model 3 about 50 miles (80 km) a day during the week, and a bit less on weekends. I charge every night in the garage. At the end of each day I pull into the garage, plug in. It’s that simple.
One way to compare gasoline powered cars to one another is fuel economy, the miles per gallon rating that the EPA gives to each car. The average car in the United States gets about 25 MPG. So how can we compare the efficiency of electric vehicles (EVs) with gas-powered cars since EVs store electricity in the battery pack? Continue reading