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Electric Mobility Services Ltd., Hong Kong (2026)

18/04/2014

How long will electric vehicle batteries last? Tesla’s Roadster could be a guide
Apr 16th 2014

One of the most important questions to the electric vehicle industry does not have a clear-cut answer. However, certain factors such as temperature and charging habits are known to have a great effect and the Tesla Roadster provides intriguing real world data.

The question of battery longevity does not have a simple solution. Many factors affect cycle life of a battery pack, most notably climate, charging habits, driving style, and battery chemistry, and all the tests in the world cannot exactly replicate how each individual driver will use the battery over the life of the vehicle. How long will your vehicle’s battery hold on before being reassigned to a solar system on someone’s roof?

One of the most important variables in battery longevity is temperature. In general, temperatures above 86 degrees F place great stress on the battery and speed up capacity loss. Vehicles that have a liquid-cooled battery, like the Chevrolet Volt or Tesla Model S, are less vulnerable to high-temperature effects as long as they are not parked in the blazing sun.

However, the Nissan LEAF may be notably susceptible to rapid degradation in extremely hot climates. The results of an Idaho National Laboratory study released in March found that the test LEAFs lost 22-26% of their initial capacity after just 40,000 miles. This is most attributable to two factors: the vehicles were tested in Pheonix, where the hot climate accelerated capacity decline; and the vehicles were discharged to less than 5% capacity twice per day.

The second of those factors should not be overlooked. Charging habits, or depth of discharge, directly affect how long the battery will last. It is a well-established fact (though not widely known among the general public) that lower depth of discharge leads to longer cycle life. This is the reason conventional hybrid vehicle batteries can last for the life of the vehicle despite undergoing tens of thousands of charge and discharge cycles in routine driving over their lifetime.

An electric vehicle battery does not last as many cycles because it is discharged much more with each cycle. While a conventional hybrid battery will maintain a low depth of discharge, perhaps 20% of the battery’s capacity and last tens of thousands of cycles, a plug-in electric vehicle battery will allow a much higher depth of discharge window in order to achieve more range. The trade-off is that the battery will have a much shorter cycle life, on the order of hundreds of cycles for a lithium-ion battery depending on the depth of discharge and the particular battery in question.

For this reason, an automaker trying to squeeze every last mile of range out of the battery is knowingly reducing the life of the battery pack in number of cycles. Fortunately, as an EV owner you can use this phenomenon to your advantage. If you avoid fully depleting your vehicle’s battery and charge up more frequently you will be reducing stress on the battery and effectively extending its cycle life (the obvious compromise being that you would achieve a greater number of cycles but travel fewer miles on each cycle).

Per Battery University, cutting the depth of discharge in half can very generally improve longevity from 300-500 cycles to 1,200-1,500 cycles. And don’t worry about partial discharge leading to so-called “memory effects” – they don’t apply to lithium-ion batteries.

Though tests can provide an indication of what affects battery life and to what degree, the best way to validate longevity is through real-world results, though none of the mainstream models have been on the road long enough to obtain legitimate results. Luckily, we do have results from a survey of Tesla Roadster owners and they are encouraging for those following the EV industry. As reported by Jim Motavalli, the Plug In America study found that 126 Roadster owners still retained 80-85% of their original battery capacity after 100,000 miles, driving an average of 16,000 miles annually.

Far exceeding Tesla’s initial expectations of 70% capacity after 50,000 miles, the Roadster results point to strong battery life at least for Tesla vehicles. The company currently offers a battery warranty on Model S for 8 years and 125,000 miles, so it clearly thinks the majority will last at least that long.

To reiterate, though, battery longevity can differ significantly from vehicle to vehicle even within the same model and year. Another question to pose is this: if your battery falls to 80% of its initial capacity, is it really “dead?” Maybe if it’s a LEAF, but certainly not Model S or a range-extended Volt.

We won’t really know how long most EV batteries will last until near 2020 when they begin to decline in significant numbers, but the results will be interesting to compare.

http://www.torquenews.com/2250/how-long-will-electric-vehicle-batteries-last-tesla-s-roadster-could-be-guide

One of the most important questions to the electric vehicle industry does not have a clear-cut answer. However, certain factors such as temperature and charging habits are known to have a great effect and the Tesla Roadster provides intriguing real world data.

18/04/2014

Top 11 reasons why a woman wants to drive a Tesla Model S
Apr 16th 2014

Our good friend Laurie Orloski is giving us 11 good reasons why any woman would want to own a Models S. We were wondering what you think about them.

11. Nice soun
The sound system of the Tesla Model S is so high fidelity it fills every inch of the cabin with your favorite jamming tunes (with a top volume of 11, true story), simultaneously drowning out any screaming/fighting/complaining/nagging/whining/etc. children who may be co-passengers.

10. The Tesla privacy facto
The Tesla Model S is so long that any screaming/fighting/complaining/nagging/whining/etc. children traveling in the optional rear-facing kids seats are way, way muffled, making for a far quieter and Zen-like ride than is possible in any other car, even for an already tranquil electric vehicle (EV)

9. Retractable door handle means kids get in without fuss
Shiny retractable door handles of the Tesla Model S are an automatic kid magnet, promoting an unrelenting willingness to actually get into the car voluntarily without any fuss or battle. Yes, ladies, kids will actually be quite willing to open their own door and hop right in. Shocking, we know.

8. The tunnel of personal affair
The Tesla Model S is so wide with an open area between the two front seats, providing an excellent spot for storing your belongings, purse, and other collection, even matching spare shoes.

7. Big trunk equals big fu
The Tesla Model S has so much cargo space, it even rivals the largest SUV, allowing for shopping galore!! The best part is it doesn’t have the inconvenience of having to risk damaging your heels by hopping up into an overpriced, over raised truck, huh, I mean SUV.

6. Big trunk, fun frun
With the lack of an engine taking up precious room, you get a bonus front trunk (aka frunk) which is way cooler than a circa-2012 trunk; having a frunk makes it socially acceptable to stick your nose in the air, you earned it

5. Tesla tech-galore makes for friend and friend-emie
If you are in need of some criticism and drama to spice up your life, you can very easily make friend-emies or plain old enemies online. It truly takes little to no effort to push the buttons of guys who are secretly so jealous that you, a woman for goodness sake, is driving the car that they have been drooling all over. Bonus tip: be sure to sound knowledgeable about your car, that really ticks men off and gets the drama raging.

4. Less gas money, means more spendin
The Tesla Model S will save you thousands of dollars a year in gas savings, which can certainly be put to good use during your next trip to the mall.

3. Tesla screened call
If you are in need of romance, the Tesla Model S provides the opportunity to meet and screen numerous men on any given day; all you have to do is go somewhere, anywhere really, and you will evoke an automatic flies on fly paper/swarming bees effect. Love it!

2. Less gas stops, means more time to look your best
Another unintended benefit of an electric car like the Model S is that with no need to ever stop at another gas station, ever, it will give you back those precious extra minutes that can be redirected to last-minute primping of your hair, makeup, and/or nails. Think about the stunning results when you walk out of the car…

1. Manicured hands should never touch gas pumps
I don’t know about you, but by driving a Tesla Model S, those carefully manicured hands should never have to touch an icky, smelly, dirty, and heavy gas pump hose again; or, if you are not a routine gas pumper, you will not have to waste any precious breath asking a man to do it for you.

So what’s holding you up ladies? According to many statistics, you command more than 60% of the automotive purchases. Who wouldn’t want a car like that? Tell us why you love, or not a Tesla Model S.

http://www.teslarati.com/top-11-reasons-woman-wants-drive-tesla-model-s/

11 reaons why women love a Tesla Model S

18/04/2014

A Tesla Model S is driving to all 4 corners of the US — you can follow it!
Apr 15th 2014

A team from Recargo, PlugShare, and Pluginsights is in the middle of an “Epic Electric American Roadtrip.” To be specific, Recargo Managing Director of Research Norman Hajjar is driving a Tesla Model S approximately 12,000 miles around the United States within about 20 days. The point is simply to show how viable electric driving now is and “the possibilities of America’s electric vehicle charging network.”

To bring the story to as many people as possible, the team has set up a website where people can track stats (regarding charging, miles driven, trip time, speed, power output, etc), see pictures and videos, and enjoy the team’s tweets.

As I type this, Norman and the Model S seem to be resting in South Carolina. Yesterday and today, they charged up at 3 stations in Florida — Port Orange, Port St Lucie, and St Augustine — and in Savannah, Georgia. They’ve spent a total of 90 hours charging since they left the Pacific Northwest. They started in the Northwest and then drove across the US to the Northeast, going all the way up into Maine. They then made their way down to Southwest Florida and are now on their way back up to Maryland, from which they will turn west and head over to the US Southwest. So far, they have directly used renewable energy 24.6% of the time.

At many Tesla Supercharger stations, solar panels power the charging and then also send excess electricity back to the grid. That’s about as clean as it gets. But even the rest of the time, electric cars are a few times more efficient than gasmobiles, so the environmental benefits of driving on electricity instead of gas are considerable. A representative of the Epic Electric American Roadtrip crew noted in an email to TreeHugger: “A gas car making the same journey (getting 25MPG) would burn around 480 gallons of gas at a cost of about $2,000.”

The team is officially attempting a Guinness World Record, and it seems that achieving that won’t be a problem. "The record setting route will touch 28 states and all four corners of the United States: Washington, Maine, Florida and Southern California," the roadtrip page notes.

For more, there’s a stream of wonderful pictures over on the Epic Electric American Roadtrip’s flickr page, you can follow the car via GPS on the main roadtrip page, and you can also follow tweets from the road there.

Also, if you want to go on your own electric vehicle roadtrip, you can use Recargo's free PlugShare app to find charging stations for the route. It includes 25,000+ charging stations in the US and Canada and is available on the iPhone, iPad, Android, and the web.

Since many people still aren't very informed about electric cars, I think it's also important to note that some electric vehicle owners never find the need to charge up at a public charging station. In a PlugInsights study conducted last year, 17% of electric car owners have never used public charging. 51% of those people said the reason was because all driving was within range of home, and another 14% weren't electric car owners long enough to need it. 37% said it was because there weren't enough public charging stations nearby. Of course, the results have surely changed somewhat since then, since the number of electric car owners has increased a good deal in recent months, as have the number of public charging stations.

CHART

Lastly, for more cross-country electric driving fun, here's a behind-the-scenes video from a recent cross-country trip taken by a Tesla Motors team:

VIDEO

http://www.treehugger.com/cars/tesla-model-s-circling-us-you-can-follow-it.html

Attempting a Guinness World Record, Norman Hajjar is more than halfway through an all-electric drive circling the United States

18/04/2014

Tesla Model S is cheaper than a Honda Odyssey minivan in the long-run
Apr 14th 2014

Can the $85,000 Tesla Model S be cheaper than a Honda Odyssey minivan? One now-Tesla fanatic ran the numbers and found the Model S costs less than a Honda Odyssey when you factor in depreciation, fuel, and maintenance. The Tesla gets clobbered on depreciation, but wins handily on fuel and maintenance costs over eight years. The calculated net present value of a Tesla beat the Odyssey by $11,000 to $16,000.

The calculations include two Teslas and nine new and used cars ranging from a Toyota RAV4 EV up through a Mercedes-Benz E350. Only three proved cheaper to run than the Tesla Model S85 and five more were cheaper than the performance-minded Tesla P85. Surprisingly, the only car costlier than the Odyssey to run over eight years was a new Mercedes.

Who in their right mind compares a Tesla and Odyssey?
Paul, the Tesla buyer, writes in his blog that he wanted a new car and made a comparison among cars that caught his eye, some for low cost and utility, others for status. They included the RAV4 EV he just bought, the newest version of the Honda Odyssey he’d owned earlier, and some gas and diesel Mercedes-Benzes and BMWs, Subaru Foresters, and Outbacks for all-wheel-drive and reliability, and a Volvo V60 for common sense. By list price alone, the Teslas were the costliest: $92,800 for the S85, $107,301 for the even sportier loaded Model S P85. Those were the kinds of cars he’d buy, even if marketing and brand managers would freak at the idea of a Forester (the best small SUV in our opinion) being cross-shopped with a Tesla. He notes for the size of his family, the Tesla has enough room; the Odyssey has too much room (although a minivan makes you popular when it comes time to carpool).

Paul may be your typical Tesla buyer, but he’s not your typical car buyer: MBA from Harvard, undergrad years at Stanford, a stint at McKinsey & Co., and currently a tech company exec in Silicon Valley, a place where Tesla Supercharger stations are as common as Starbucks. So, he built a spreadsheet tossing in most of the important factors, figured fuel, repairs, and depreciation over eight years, and for each of the nine candidates calculated the net present values — effectively, the cost today of the investment looking eight years down the road.

He notes that some of the outcome depends a lot on the assumptions, particularly the depreciation rate for a new car that’s an EV.

The winners: RAV4 EV, two Subarus, BMW diesel, Tesla
The NPV of the eight ranged from $22,324 for the Toyata RAV4 EV through $58,285 for a Mercedes-Benz E350. Nothing came close to the RAV4 EV on his calculations. The Subaru Outback and Forester were in the $32,000 range and the BMW 328d was just under $40,000. The cheaper Tesla Model S was fifth at $40,154 while the Model S P85 at $50,426 still beat out the used 2011 E-Class, the Odyssey Touring Elite, and the new E-Class. Details are on his blog.

The spreadsheet is worth a look for what it includes and doesn’t. The tax credits of up to $10,000 for EVs are figured in but no hassle factor. The electric RAV4 can’t be your only car unless you commute around town. The Model S P85 will go 250 miles on sunny days but it’s not a true long distance tourer unless you plan stops carefully. In winter, as I found, the range of the best Tesla may be down around 200 miles.

When an automaker says buyers of EVs don’t have range anxiety, they actually do. It’s always on your mind unless you never do more than commute around town and only then if your spouse or partner remembers to plug it in at night. Paul says most of his trips are within the Tesla’s range and there’s free charging at his office (this is high tech country). If this were my model, I would have included four weeks a year when I rented something big, an Odyssey perhaps, for long vacation trips with a lot of cargo. The NPV and other calculations are missing minus signs — not that it affected the results since it was figured in the formulas — but fit and finish glitches sometimes make you wonder if something else got missed. But, hey, this is a Harvard MBA.

The bottom line is this: An expensive EV with cutting-edge technology, great safety, and very good passenger comfort that costs twice as much as a top-of-the-line Honda minivan, winds up being cheaper in the long haul. If this sounds unbelievable, it isn’t the first time conventional wisdom is set on its ear. It 2008, the Times of London showed how a BMW beats a Prius on fuel economy when highway driving is included. In a race from London to Geneva via the tunnel, with highway and city driving, a BMW 520 diesel edged the Prius.

As Paul writes, “The Model S carries about $25-30K more in depreciation vs. an Ody ($55K vs. $25-30K). But you save $20-25K on gas and $5-10K on maintenance. In today’s dollars, the Model S is less expensive than nearly any other luxury car, and more affordable than even the Ody.”

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/180443-tesla-model-s-might-be-cheaper-than-a-honda-odyssey-minivan

The Model S costs twice as much as an Odyssey and has worse depreciation, but it's outweighed by low maintenance and energy costs. Who would've have thought?

18/04/2014

“Quick Tesla” Portal App for the Tesla Model S Web Browser
Apr 11th 2014

The Tesla Model S 17″ center touchscreen display / command center is the iPhone of today’s automotive infotainment systems. It’s eye-catching, has mind-blowing coolness and it’s something that’s never been done before in the automotive world. But being the first of its kind inherently means that you’re learning on-the-go while iterating towards success. This however doesn’t come without its shortcomings. Case in point is the Tesla Model S web browser.

The Tesla Model S web browser is known to be, let’s say, a bit on the sluggish side when it comes to loading web pages that contains any sort of dynamic element (via JavaScript) to it. This unfortunately represents nearly every web page in the world these days. Performance can be 5x slower than surfing on your mobile device and up to 10x slower when compared against your desktop browser (assuming the same bandwidth). Recognizing the need for a fast all-in-one web portal that would allow Model S owners to access frequently used services, Model S owner and Android developer at Lua Technologies, Jared Banyard, took it upon himself to develop “Quick Tesla“.

Quick Tesla App
(Load http://qtes.la or http://quicktesla.com from Tesla Model S Web Browser)

FEATURES
Weather - Current Weather, 8-Day Forecast, & Local Severe Weather Alerts using automatic Geo-location
Radar/Wind - Animated Gifs from Weather.gov & WeatherUnderground.com
News - Top Stories mixed with Tesla News
Charging
- http://tesla.plugshare.com (inside US & Canada)
- http://lemnet.org/map/ (outside US & Canada)
Stock - Real-Time stock quote
Valet - Valet instructions with multi-language translation support

The main screen displays a basic clock that’s fast, interactive and, simply, gets the job done. Clicking on the Tesla logo towards the bottom right will swap out the clock for a full screen view of the Tesla T. It looks absolutely stunning to see the trademark Tesla red splashed across the gigantic 17″ touchscreen display, however we found it far too distracting to drive with it on. It’s better suited when displaying your car at a club gathering or EV meet up.

The 8 day forecast is a great way to keep up to date on the weather and best of all it’s geo-based so you’ll always have the latest local weather info regardless of where you are.
Firmware 5.9 introduced the ability for the Tesla Model S web browser to detect your location.

The ‘Charging’ tab was one of our favorite. Displayed on the screen is PlugShare’s Tesla specific charging map which highlights all of the various chargers (not just Superchargers) around your proximity. We found this to be especially useful when traveling in more remote areas where a Tesla Supercharger is not available.

The basic layout and speed in which pages load on Quick Tesla is what makes this app really worth favoriting and using day after day. There’s even an additional “Valet” screen that outlines steps on how to operate the Model S.

Quick Tesla has made itself onto the home screen of our very own P85 and we can’t wait to see what else Jared has in store for it. It’s an open source project that anyone can contribute to, but just be sure to keep everything fast!

Open Source Code Repository GitHub: https://github.com/JaredBanyard/qTes.la

http://www.teslarati.com/quick-tesla-portal-app-tesla-model-s-web-browser/

The Tesla Model S 17″ center touchscreen display …

18/04/2014

Does Tesla Motors Inc. Have Anything Left to Give Toyota?
Apr 05th 2014

Tesla Motors has been working with Toyota for a number of years now, but the bread and butter of their relationship is being discontinued. Shareholders have little to worry about, though, because Tesla is covering its bases.

Toyota got Tesla on its feet
In May of 2010, Tesla and Toyota began to cooperate on the development of electric vehicles. At that time, Tesla received substantial support from the Japanese carmaker in the form of parts sourcing and production and engineering expertise for the Model S. During that same time frame, Tesla entered into a joint venture with Toyota and Motors Liquidation Company in order to purchase what is now the Tesla Factory.

You scratch my back...
By the time July of that year rolled around, the companies agreed to have Tesla develop the power train for Toyota's RAV4 EV. They took their relationship to the next level in October 2010, when the companies entered into a contract services agreement in which Tesla agreed to develop a validated power train system, which included the battery, power electronics module, motor, gearbox, and associated software. All of this was completed in the first quarter of 2012. Basically, the RAV4 EV is a Tesla dressed up in Toyota's robes.

Adios RAV4 EV
As of the end of 2013, Tesla shipped more than 1,600 full-electric power train systems for Toyota's RAV4 EV. The electric-car maker expects to complete shipment of its electric power trains for the current RAV4 EV by the end of 2014, at which point, the model will be discontinued. Toyota has never been a big fan of non-hybrid EVs, but in order to earn California Air Resources Board -- Zero Emission Vehicle, or CARB-ZEV, credits, it has to sell 2,600 zero-emission vehicles by year's end.

According to the site Insideevs.com, if Toyota produces all 2,600 RAV4 EVs, then its program cost will be around $98.8 million. It doesn't make a lot of sense for Toyota to continue to drop so much cash into a car it doesn't believe in, especially when the company could just purchase the CARB-ZEV credits outright in order to sell its gas-powered vehicles in California. It looks like Toyota has chosen to move away from purely electric vehicles altogether; it has unveiled a hydrogen counterpart, scheduled to make its way onto California streets by year's end.

A little goes a long way
The Tesla-Toyota relationship has allowed the electric-car maker to gain a great deal of credibility by making a name for itself as an EV supplier to such a large manufacturer. And this is despite the fact that Tesla's development services revenue, the amount the company makes from providing EV components to other manufacturers, has been shrinking in the past few years; but shareholders have little to worry about.

CHART

It's possible that Tesla won't pay too much mind to its development services division, especially if it classifies its Gigafactory as its own operating segment once it comes on line. The company has many more prospects to focus on as it moves forward into China, Europe, and into its new stationary power product lines.

What now?
So what's next for these long-standing friends? Well, with just less than 3 million shares of Tesla's common stock, Toyota isn't going to leave Tesla alone anytime soon. The discontinuation of Toyota's RAV4 EV shouldn't worry investors, especially considering the negligible contribution that development services made to Tesla's revenue last year.

With the Gigafactory in the works, and Tesla's history of supplying quality EV components to Toyota, it looks like the electric-car maker will be making even more of a name for itself both as a supplier -- and competitor -- to some of the world's biggest automakers. Shareholders shouldn't worry about the downward trend of Tesla's development services revenue in recent years. The company chose wisely to concentrate its efforts on production and delivery of its most vital product line -- its cars.

Did you miss the boat on Tesla?
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http://www.fool.com/investing/general/2014/04/05/does-tesla-motors-inc-have-anything-left-to-give-t.aspx

Tesla and Toyota have been working together since May 2010, but is their relationship nearing an end? - Leah Niu - Industrials

15/04/2014

Is 120 miles just about perfect for EV range?
Apr 14th 2014

When it comes to battery-electric vehicles, our friend Brad Berman over at Plug In Cars says 40 miles makes all the difference in the world. That's the approximate difference in single-charge range between the battery-electric version of the Toyota RAV4 and the Nissan Leaf. It's also the difference between the appearance or disappearance of range anxiety.

The RAV4 EV possesses a 40-kilowatt-hour pack, compared to the 24-kWh pack in the Leaf. After factoring in differences in size, weight and other issues, that means the compact SUV gets about 120 miles on a single charge in realistic driving conditions, compared to about 80 miles in the Leaf. "The 50 percent increase in battery size from Leaf to RAV has zapped any lingering range anxiety," Berman writes.

His observations further feed the notion that drivers need substantial backup juice in order to feel comfortable driving EVs. Late last year, the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS), along with the Consumers Union estimated that about 42 percent of US households could drive plug-in vehicles with "little or no change" in their driving habits, and that almost 70 percent of US commuters drive fewer than 60 miles per weekday.

That would imply that a substantial swath of the country should be comfortable using a car like the Leaf as their daily driver - with first-quarter Leaf sales jumping 46 percent from a year before, more Americans certainly are. Still, the implication here is that EV sales will continue to be on the margins until an automaker steps up battery capabilities to 120 or so miles while keeping the price in the $30,000 range. Think that's a reasonable goal to shoot for?

http://green.autoblog.com/2014/04/14/is-120-miles-just-about-perfect-for-ev-range/

Toyta's RAV4 EV's 120-mile single-charge range eliminates the anxiety that was part of the Nissan Leaf experience.

15/04/2014

#1 problem with owning an electric car?
Apr 14th 2014

Modern plug-in electric cars and plug-in hybrid electric cars are still quite new, and there are some things to work out. One common point that is brought up is that more public charging stations would be useful. Nonetheless, it’s important to remember that electric cars can charge from a standard electricity outlet (yep, just like your cell phone) and there are countless electricity outlets in countries around the world — there are far more of them than gas stations!

Most people who own a plug-in electric or plug-in hybrid electric car simply charge at home most of the time. In fact, I’ve heard many owners say that they anticipated charging their cars every night but have ended up charging them every other night. An owner survey in California has indeed found that charging every other night is the norm.

In other words, access to charging locations is not quite the issue it’s often made out to be, even if it is one of the key things that could be improved to advance the electric vehicle revolution. While it’s easier to find a gas station than a public charging station, I think the convenience of charging at home trumps that for most people who give it some thought or buy a plug-in car.

On the contrary, there is one thing I’ve heard countless plug-in car owners complain about. A member of the GM-Volt.com forum recently posted a good exposition of the issue, with the title of his post being “Who else is/was afflicted by this ailment?” He writes:

When I first purchased the Volt, I envisioned it being my daily driver to work. My roundtrip commute is 17 miles, so I was thinking I would just about never use any gas! A little while after purchase I sat down with the wife, it was agreed she’d take the Volt on M/W/F since she had to shuttle the kids to preschool those days and would drive up to 40 miles. I would drive the Volt to work Tu/Th. That made the most sense as it would minimize gas usage. The other person would take the ICE’er the other days (GMC Terrain).

Then a few weeks later she came to me and said “I don’t like the way the Terrain drives! It doesn’t have any power and the engine sound is annoying. And I don’t like switching cars every other day! I’m taking the Volt M-F!”. It was at that time I was afflicted with“Thewifestolemyvolt” disease.

Time after time, I’ve heard plug-in car owners “complain” about such a thing happening. In many cases, these wives* have been driving luxury cars but can no longer stand the lower drive quality of their Lexus, BMW, etc. and prefer to drive the much cheaper Chevy Volt or Nissan LEAF.

VIDEO

Of course, despite actually missing the fun and smooth drive of an electric motor, the early adopters are also happy to see their spouses enjoying these cars, and the solution is rather simple for many of them. From the case above:

I (mostly) cured myself by getting her to agree to swap the GMC for a Cmax Energi (2nd car needed to have 5 seats, decent storage, and 20+ mile range, and the Cmax winded up the winner). Now we both have EVs that will cover the bulk of our normal driving without having to burn any gas!

Granted, I haven’t seen any scientific studies on this matter, but from covering plug-in cars for the past several years, this is very likely the most frequent complaint I’ve seen from owners. The need for more public charging stations would be the other one, but that issue seems to be massively overhyped by the media and ignores the fact that most people have “charging stations” in the exterior walls of their homes.

The number of plug-in cars on the roads has been more than doubling each year over the past 4 years or so. US LEAF sales jumped up over 300% last year after the price dropped (thanks to manufacturing beginning in the US). The percentage of car sales that are plug-in car sales is still small. However, many of us who have driven these cars believe that they will disrupt the current automobile market and replace gasmobiles rather quickly. One sign of disruptive technologies such as this is that early adopters don’t get as much play time with their new technology as they want because their friends and family want to use it so much.

*I hate to be sexist, but I have only heard men saying their wives took their electric car, not the other way around. It seems that men, in general, are more interested in exploring the new car models and new car tech, and that now includes plug-in cars. However, I'm sure it goes the other way from time to time.

http://www.treehugger.com/cars/problem-owning-electric-car.html

Can you guess the #1 problem with owning an electric car? I don't know if this is it, but it's the one that I seem to see the most. Put your thinking cap on, as it's not one that the mass media spends much time on.

Electric Mobility Services Ltd.

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