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dpollo

On The Verge

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I have been considering an ed Smart since I drove the 2nd generation. #3 is much better for my kind of drivingand tomorrow I have to s*** or get off the pot. My commute is 39 kms each way with power available at each end.I have been monitoring all my trips in any vehicle for a month or more and most are within 100 kms, leaving a little reserve.I will spend a sleepless night, I have no doubt. There is, at present no financial advantage whatsoever, but as dedicated I have beento automotive transit, the petroleum era is at an end so it is a statement that I wish to make....... I guess. Wish me luck or call me a fool,I would welcome any comments. ( I have followed marchanna's comments with great interest )I think I will keep my '08 gasser rather than be bent over on a trade. It has only 70 000 kms and is in good order.Comments welcome dp

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Go for it! (After due diligence, of course. Is an ED truly right for you? Is a smart ED truly right?)I would be all over an ED smart were it not for frequent high distance days well beyond the range even supposing a boost or two through the day. With the gas smart to handle the occasional longer day it sounds right for you.

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You should be able to do the return journey with no recharging even in bad weather. My general thought is: take the official range, divide by two and if that works for you, go for it. Clearly 39 km each way with a chance to charge on either end, makes it a no-brainer. Just demand the $2000 discount, plus the $1000 smart loyalty bonus. That's a cool three grand off before you even negotiate on price. These are factory incentives. Then Ms. Clark will give you 5 grand of public money for being so green.Yes, just do it. No need to lose sleep….

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I am feeling more positive by the minute. My favourite automobile is a 50 Plymouth and I use it for vacation andother long trips. With that car, I am also making a statement because I have not been without one for almost 50 years.Imagine a car that you never get tired of owning for that length of time ! as they say, You are what you drive ! In my case,a curmudgeonly farmer who only grudgingly accepts cars with OHV engines. I will keep you posted. Thanks dp

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my commute is 45km each way and I do not have the ability to plug in at the other end...so I think I will wait for more range. plus I only have 170k km on my cdi! I would go for it if your work situation is stable.

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Apparently the year-end discount is now $3000, plus $1000 smart loyalty bonus.Make sure you get these.

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I could commute 2-3 days on a single charge! And we have several ED Ford Transits in our fleet at work. Do charging stations have universal plugs compatible with all ED cars? If so, I would never have to pay to charge my own vehicle, I could charge it at work haha.

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Well I bought it , an all black Passion and found my way home with 45% left in the battery (but I took a side trip with a lot of hills)Lights on for a while and some heat. Was able to tease the eco meter up in the 90 % range but not on hills. Learned to use the paddle to get more motor braking. When I get over range anxiety I will enjoy the car more but this will definitely change the way I drive. Kind of like the early days when I could only put $2 in the tank. There is a readout kind of like a DTE (distance to empty) but it could be misleading unless the entire run was on level ground. Still in all it beats doing all the math in my head. I am now having the usual internal trauma that change brings and of course laying out a large amount of the other sort of change always causes me turmoil. Negotiated a fair price and am content with that. It was a waste of time asking for an appraisal of my 08 Pure. Almost walked out. Will keep it in the family instead.Daniel Low was the sales rep and I enjoyed doing business with him. I will be shopping for the best level 2 charger now. Bosch ,to me, seems overpriced.

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Congrats, now of course we need some photos. Of a black car, in the dark.

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"Well I bought it..."nice! what area of the country are you....so that we have an idea of the weather you are driving in?

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Thanks for all the kind words. I have never bought any high ticket item without a lot of doubts before and after so the support here is comforting to say the least. to answer Robm, I am on Vancouver Island so the weather is generally pretty mild. Some years we do not shut off the outside taps and if you are really brave you could run without antifreeze but maybe not for long. My commute is 39 kms each way to our family farm just 6 miles from downtown Victoria. It involves a mountain highway up to 1100 feet which has an effect on range, but there is, for me, an alternate route which does not go up and over. This saves 10% of the charge (calculated on the demonstrator) Both ways are possible but some prior planning is now needed.I had considered the electrical trades as a young man and always liked cars so this is an exciting adventure for me. I have also been involved with micro hydro and other off grid generating systems so the ED Smart is a logical extension of those interests.

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Good on ya! You won't regret it. A month in and I'm still grinning. On VI you will not have the cold weather issues. I would not be surprised to see you in the 100/120 range year round particularly if you can get away with seat warmers rather than cabin heating. Cabin heating is a big consumer. If you have to push your range just turn off all the consumers. Speed is the other big range eater. If you can keep it down around 80 you will do well. It has been a long time (too long!) since I've been on the island but my memories are of most highways being 80/90km/hI'm a little surprised that the change in elevation consumes that much. Physics says the energy it takes to go up a hill should be recouped going down the hill. I suppose it is just a matter of the energy losses in the motor and generator process. The combination of an ED and off-grid power generation is great. Too many trees on my suburban lot for me to get into anything interesting but if you have the land... I've read articles about using an EV as an energy storage device for the home. Fascinating but I don't know whether I would want to put the wear and tear on expensive Lion batteries. Have fun with it. Occasionally just forget about range and just boot it :)

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I could commute 2-3 days on a single charge! And we have several ED Ford Transits in our fleet at work. Do charging stations have universal plugs compatible with all ED cars? If so, I would never have to pay to charge my own vehicle, I could charge it at work haha.

Yup. It is standardized. At least for Level II chargers. Level III DC fast charge might be different - don't know if they can supply level II on the same plug. No biggie though - I think Tesla is the only one that does DC in any big way.

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my commute is 45km each way and I do not have the ability to plug in at the other end...so I think I will wait for more range. plus I only have 170k km on my cdi! I would go for it if your work situation is stable.

or sweet talk you boss into installing a charging stn :). or at least a secure 15amp plug.Capital cost of a charging stn ranges from $800-$2,000 depending on capacity. But then there is the cost of getting the power to the parking lot. That can be the biggie.

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I have not yet owned it 24 hours so the learning curve is still pretty steep. preliminary calculation through the unwarmed seat of my pantsis that regeneration recovery may be about 30 % but the demonstrator did not have the paddles where regen can be increased. This is akinto gearing a standard down and saves the brakes. I am about to leave for Victoria, 45 km one way will be using lights and returning in the daylight. It is rainy so I may need defrost fan. I spent a somewhat restless night but that is the Scotsman in my ancestry fussing about the investment. The Irishman says I could still trade it in for a gasser at any time and maybe have enough left over for a Guinness.

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[i like the way you think! The Guinness that is :)I just read that tapping the brakes will also increase the regen - have to try that today - no paddles on my car.

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Had to change plans and it is all my fault. The garage circuit I plugged into shares the furnace circuit, so all went well until the blower came on. Charge stopped at 70%. Shut off furnace, reset breaker and began charging again. So later in the day, I will return home, put that outlet on its own circuit where it belongs and by then have 100% to enjoy around home. Seems to me some acceleration tests would be in order. My daughter and I had a brief encounter at a traffic light. She was driving the gasser. Acceleration is more than adequate for me. Will start again tomorrow with 100%.

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I get the idea you are in an older house and the wiring is also aged?As an industrial electrician who has seen many electrical melt-downs, be sure to check and tighten the breaker connections and the wall receptacle as well. Renew the receptacle if it is not nice and tight to the plug, get a proper industrial duty one. A dab of copper anti-seize on the plug blades is good too.Sitting there drawing a full 15 amps for hours and hours is very different than plugging in a kettle for five minutes or a steady low load of a few amps.

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Thanks, Alex, all is well with the wiring except that the outlet I chose to use was sharing a load with a furnace fan motor. It had been doubled up rather than snaking a new home run. It has been corrected. Voltage checked out at 120.2 under load. Have a watt hour meter measuring that circuit now. I am going to start a new topic to keep everyone updated and hope you all will continue to share experiences. When I returned home today in another vehicle , the charge was up to 100 %. Went driving. Look to the new topic....... EV experience.

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I get the idea you are in an older house and the wiring is also aged?As an industrial electrician who has seen many electrical melt-downs, be sure to check and tighten the breaker connections and the wall receptacle as well. Renew the receptacle if it is not nice and tight to the plug, get a proper industrial duty one. A dab of copper anti-seize on the plug blades is good too.Sitting there drawing a full 15 amps for hours and hours is very different than plugging in a kettle for five minutes or a steady low load of a few amps.

Thanks for the reminder Alex. I just plugged in where it was convenient saying I'll rig up something better later. That is on the 'old' garage cct. I had a new cct put in last summer for outdoor power and that's the one I should be using for the car. It is just on the wrong side of the garage. The old cct is AL so your warning is particularly appropriate.The outlet in the garage is a GFI that protects the other two outdoor plugs. Do you think the GFI will have trouble with the continuous load? Since code requires the GFI I don't think I have much choice.I don't commute anymore and even with my wife driving it on her rounds we seldom use more than 40% charge. Makes it difficult to justify spending money on a proper level 2. My reading has also suggested that slower is better for extending the life of the battery. I suppose the best answer, money notwithstanding, is to use a level II and just turn on the current limiter in the car. Edited by swl

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GFI: There will be a big transformer involved, if it is the grounded type there may be nuisance trips of the GFI. Try it is all you can do. Is it a GFI outlet or a breaker? And who will know if you change it out? Most inspectors even if they see it will overlook it with a reasonable story about how the ED charger make it trip at random, usually 5 minutes after you check it before bed when you really need a full charge in the morning. But try it first.

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