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Serge

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    St-Jean-Port-Joli

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  1. Mike, you contradict yourself as Pingu implied. Your cie leaf is more appropriate than my EV since you say « it's fully suitable for 95% of what it's used for », while mine is suitable for only 90%. So, 95% of those who use it have no range anxiety, or all of them 95% of the time. That's great !! Pushing it to the limit is your choice and not in the intended use of the car. If I want to go to Montréal, I might suffer of range anxiety but I won't since I know what I will be doing on purpose of testing its outermost capacity. The same when I carried 2800 pounds of wood in a trailer behind my smart car. It was way off the intended use of the car. And the same when I pushed the limit of my smart to know how many km on a tank of gas. Much anxiety not knowing if it would restart !About « range anxiety ». It doesn't exist, except in the first few weeks I said , and Mike replied « Maybe for you. Not for most. ». Go and read forums on EV, you will find that people suffering from range anxiety are those who don't own an EV, or a few owners in the first few days or weeks. Later on, no RA except -- and I will agree with you -- except the very few times when there is an unforeseen event, and the driver decides to push the limit , knowing what he is doing. The same with an ICE low on gas and you decide to go home anyway. So M. don't transfer your imaginary RA on everyone's shoulder, you should consult.... there are very good therapist for those suffering from bad anxiety !!!! ( Ha ha ha sorry M). We- first acquierer -- have of course lots of limitations. But be sure there is also lots of pleasure to be pioneer. When the whole infrastructure of easy recharging will be in place, with double the autonomy or more, and 50% or more EV on the road, they won't be fun anymore to drive, but just plain ordinary cars.
  2. I kind of don't understand all the negativity against electric cars. I own an EV and a smart. Let me tell you that I have been very reluctant to use my smart for the last 6 month. Not that I don't like the smart car, it has been my best car ever for 6+ years. You can see then how electric is fun to drive, if the smart was my best car ever before this EV. Saying EV are of no use because they have little range is like saying Smart is of no use because it has only two seats. No car can ever satisfy all our needs. A corolla cannot carry 6 passengers or a cord of wood. One need a 4wd in bad deep snowy road. EV are for now « proximity cars » . In the near future, they might be long range cars with fast charging. So, household with two cars do fine with an EV as second car. And let me tell you the EV won't be second very long. There might be fight over driving the EV. EV are so much interesting ( to me) that even going 120 km to the next city and having to recharge 5 hours there to be able to come back, I prefer taking the EV, except if in a real hurry. I plan ahead so to change my way of driving and re-schedule my 5 hours waiting into some usefull activity. Even next summer, going on a 1600km journey, I plan to use the EV , exchanging fast travel for leisurly activity while recharging. Ice car is more a pain than a pleasure for me now. About « range anxiety ». It doesn't exist, except in the first few weeks. I have never been out of energy and always know where I can go with the actual charge. I have always been able to go where ever I wanted to go. It is like putting 5-6 liters of gas in your smart. You will know how far you can go. Since I average 3,3 liters/100km for the life of my smart, driving the same way in my Mitsu can go a long way. Do your own math. Another objection.... Subsidies are not more silly than subsidies to oil industries. I saw the other day that worldwide sub for oil indus were 500 billions last year. And the recent 500 milions Harper gave recently to Ontario car manufacturers for suppose research ( it is more to keep Us car manuf. in Ontario, otherwise they will go to southern US). And these EV subsidies are not for consumer but to help car manuf of EV get a good start. And I am not one of « the wealthier individuals who can afford an EV with or without a subsidy ». I live well with a quarter of what the average individual use for living. The last word : I don't advice anyone to buy an EV ...... except if they know what they are buying.... like any other car. And then they will have real pleasure driving an EV.
  3. PrairieBoy, My statement was just : « A reservation at a particular dealer doesn't give any priority right,.... except if the dealer has an orphan car » Only Nissan corp can take reservations. Go there and you will find all you need to know about the Nissan Leaf (Reference Guide) Owner's manual and even the Shop repair manual we cannot even have from smart. http://www.mynissanleaf.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=255
  4. (written jan 5 after PrairieBoy first post) I would be very surprise that your reservation intitled you to be the first owner of a Nissan Leaf. In the states, Nissan Corporation is the only one taking reservations with deposit , so people get on the list of « first order first buyer ». After few month, people on the list can choose their dealer and so on until delivery. A reservation at a particular dealer doesn't give any priority right,.... except if the dealer has an orphan car .... then he can sell to the first on his private list. I inquired here in Québec city with the four dealers. One didn,t answer. Two told me only Nissan corp will take reservation later in april for delivery in december or later, and the last one say he takes reservations with a deposit of $1000. ( thousand yes). I will go next week to confront the guy and hopefully make a reservation if there is any advantage. I doubt it. Most certainly a way to cash some money. Test on range conducted by Nissan has shown it is between 100 km and 222 km, the first being in urban traffic in winter minus 10°C 24 kmh average speed. The 222 one was in perfect conditions constant speed in summer. There is not as you say a « much more expensive charger » on 660 volt. You can charge on a regular 120 volt plug with the cord provided with the car in up to 20 hours or buy a special cord installed for around $2000 on 220 volt for a max 8 hours recharge. The 600 volt charger refer to future provider along main hyways to recharge 80% in some 20-30 minutes. The 600 volt is DC ( direct current) charging directly the battery thru a special plug in front of the car, while the 120 or 240 volt plugs are for AC current feeding a charger in the car. There are many brochure available. I already studied the 350 pages owner.s manual. Early adopters in California are crazy about their new EV. I understand them and will certainly be one of the early adopters here in Québec.
  5. Imo sealing the rad won't give more heat, because the coolant doesn't pass thru the radiator in very cold weather. I sealed the front completely last winter without improving engine heat ( I check the engine T° on my scanguage). Just putting the heater fan full blow make the engine coolant much cooler.I beleive the best would be to put some kind of insulation under the engine compartment, or just an air deflector, or a plate of some kind so not to allow the flow of air to cool the engine.
  6. Serge

    VW 1 seater

    It looks like the 1,0 li/100 car VW decided to build in limited edition at a cost of around 60000 $.
  7. It looks like a big red forest fire over blue water
  8. Concerning the safety of the hand trottle lever..... I discovered yesterday that there is no safety concern about it..Trying to brake while keeping the gas pedal depress, I fund out that the computer cuts the gas while applying brakes. Found something new on my smart after 3 years of experiments. So, about safety, there is no problem keeping the hand trottle on while braking.
  9. The bluecar won't be on sale in Canada but only in five countries of Europe this next fall. If everything goes well, expansion will take place to Japan and America, they say. The fact that we pre-order the car will show the interest of canadians for electric cars. Moreover, the LMP Lithium metal polymer) batteries were conceived by Hydro-Québec some 10 years ago and greatly improved since. The hydro company -- Batscap -- was sold to Bolloré in 2007, for the purpose of this electric car. Since Hydro-Québec manifest a lot of interest for electric car --- having a bunch of them under experiment --- they might help put pressure on EV manufacturers to bring'em here in Canada. In Europe, the price seem to be accessible at 323 euros.(rent per month). It seems expensive but considering the very low cost of maintenance and running cost (petrol), that's not bad. I beleive this bluecar is a beautiful one with a Pininfarina body, good batteries and ultracapacitors, solar cells on the roof mostly for air conditioning at rest and some recharging. What might be best are the Michelin smartwheels on future cars ( a wheel that include electric motor, active suspension and braking). Next best EV in my opinion is the Mitsubishi iMiEV. The smart ev is still behind with its shorter autonomy and not specific EV configuration. It seems to me that we will see an invasion of EV offering in the following years. Japan and Europe will be first and some cities of north america like LA . Those who install infrastructure right now will be first. Canada is lagging behind badly. Will these offering be short like the diesel invasion of the 75-80 ? Even a Chevy chevette had a dsl , but what a bad car it was.
  10. Why don't you pre-order this nice Bluecar instead. Pininfarina body, 250km autonomy, Montréal built LMP batteries, etc.... only 323 euros/month. It will put pressure on manufacturers to sell electric cars in Canada. Bluecar
  11. Here is a new motorcycle from the netherlands with a smart dsl 800 cc engine. smart motorcycle
  12. 3,7 li/100 yesterday on a return trip to Québec city, 252 km. This is from an ex-almost-hypermiler trying to become a normal every day driver. It's hard to be normal after achieving such good results as 2,2 on a full tank of 1184 km. Also last year average of 2,8 and first year of 3,7. I try as much as I can. This round trip was done in cold conditions around +2°C, windy and rainy and a little snow on the road at the start, winter tires of course. It was mostly highway at a constant speed of 90, higher speed on the city peripherical higway to follow traffic. No drafting closer than 75 feet. There was also some inner city street at low speed. Scanguage is pretty accurate compare to real life, adjusted at 15% correction. It gave the following: 3,7 li/100 on 252 km, Max 110, AVG 74
  13. Daveayotte, if you ask for max fuel efficiency .... you said : « is there an optimum maximum rpm at which to shift up between gears for best fuel efficiency? » .... then I would say upshift at 1800 rpm and even at 1600 from 4th to 5th. Nobody will agree but if max fuel efficiency is required go for it ! But then to keep your engine happy, don't accelerate fast so no arrow will appear on the display.
  14. 3,23 li/100 . I am always amazed at how efficient this car is when carrying loads. This time, 1370 km of moving furnitures and stuff with a trailer ( not heavy load but wind resistance) in hilly country. Empty trailer up and full trailer mostly down. All this moving with half regular slow speed. Avg on SG for the 2 tanks was 58 kmh.Last year I did carry heavy loads (firewood) around 1800 pounds on trailer, up empty and down full load. The result was 3,72 li/100 on 300 km.
  15. Serge

    Production Volt

    I beleive the best will be to buy two smart cars, one electric only for the usual short run around, and a diesel for long drives. And that's two for the price of a GM Volt at around $45k.
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