Is your car paying you back for the purchase price in 5 yrs.?

Electric cars start to pay for themselves right away by saving about $4,000 a year in gasoline*, about $500/yr. in tags (they are exempt), $170/yr. in oil changes, $25/yr. in emissions tests, and about $100/yr. on avg. on brakes, since electric and hybrid cars’ brakes last 5 times that of others due to regenerative braking. So, you save about $5,000/yr. for the first five yrs. over a gas car, which means at the $25,000 price, it will pay you back for the purchase price of the car in just 5 years.

However, after the first five years or so, electric cars really start to get cheap to own and use, when compared to a gas car. Repairs on older used gas cars are often as much as $5,000/yr. With electrics you'll avoid most all of that, and, you’re still saving the original $5,000, as well. So older used electric cars will save as much as $10,000/yr. over gas cars. That's more than enough savings to buy a new battery pack with someday. (current estimates are that they will last about 500,000miles)

…’here's just a few things that can (and do) go wrong with gas cars after they’re a few years old (but not on electrics, since they have over 300 less moving parts). These typically cost a minimum of couple hundred dollars each for the repair of any one of them:

Engine

• Coolant Leak Diagnosis

• Coolant Reservoir Replacement

• Engine Oil Light Diagnosis

• Engine Overheating Diagnosis

• Fuel Injector Replacement

• Fuel Pump Replacement

• Head Gasket(s) Replacement

• Intake Manifold Gasket Replacement

• No Start Diagnosis

• Oil Leak Diagnosis

• Oil Pan Reseal - Engine

• Oil Pressure Sensor Replacement

• Oil Pump Replacement

• PCV Valve Replacement

• Radiator Fan Assembly Replacement

• Radiator Fan Motor Replacement

• Radiator Hose Replacement

• Radiator Replacement

• Rear Main Seal Replacement

• Spark Plug Replacement

• Thermostat Replacement

• Valve Cover Gasket(s) Replacement

• Water Pump Replacement

Maintenance

• Air Filter Replacement

• Automatic Transmission Fluid Change

• Automatic Transmission Fluid/Filter Change

• Brake Fluid Replacement/Flush

• Coolant Replacement/Flush

• Differential Fluid Replacement - Front

• Drive Belt(s) Replacement

• Fuel Filter Change

• Oil and Filter Change

• Valve Adjustment

Brakes

• ABS System Diagnosis

• ABS Wheel Speed Sensor Replacement

• Brake Booster Replacement

• Brake Caliper Replacement - Front

• Brake Caliper Replacement - Rear

• Brake Master Cylinder Replacement

• Brake Pad and Rotor Replacement

• Brake Pad Replacement, Resurface Rotors

• Brake Pad(s) Replacement

• Brake Shoe and Drum Replacement

• Brake Shoe Replacement, Resurface Drums

• Brake Shoe(s) Replacement

Brake Wheel Cylinder Replacement

Drive Train

• Automatic Transmission Diagnosis

• Axle/Half Shaft Replacement - Front

Diagnosis

• ABS System Diagnosis

• Air Conditioning Diagnosis

• Automatic Transmission Diagnosis

• Charging System Diagnosis

• Check Engine Light Diagnosis

• Coolant Leak Diagnosis

• Engine Oil Light Diagnosis

• Engine Overheating Diagnosis

• No Start Diagnosis

• Oil Leak Diagnosis

Exhaust & Emissions

• Camshaft Position Sensor Replacement

• Canister Purge Valve Replacement

• Catalytic Converter Replacement

• Muffler replacement

• Crankshaft Position Sensor Replacement

• EGR Valve Replacement

• Engine Coolant Temperature Sensor Replacement

• Knock Sensor Replacement

• MAP Sensor Replacement

Oxygen Sensor Replacement

* - When you get an electric, you tend to use it as much as possible, planning your errands, taking turns, sharing it among all the drivers in the household, and leaving the gas car(s) at home much more. You’ll do this because A: It’s free (if charged with solar) or cheap if charged on the grid. And B: It’s really fun, and easier to drive than a gas car.

So, the typical electric will drive about 20,000 miles/yr. (and, of course, that is the goal, - to replace as many miles driven as possible with electrics, to help reduce oil depletion and green house gasses) So if gas is $4/gallon, and your gas car gets 20 mpg, then you would’ve spent $4,000/yr. for gas. If you charge by solar, you’ll save the whole $4,000. If you charge on the grid, like most people will, at the night time off-peak price of about 3 cents/kwhr, you’ll be spending about $200/yr. for “fuel”, and be getting about 400 mpg equivalency.

Electric cars just make sense. Think about it...
No pistons, no valves, no oils, no salves.
No gas tank or transmission, no tail pipe, or Co2 emissions.
No belts, no alternator, starter or regulator.
No radiator or hoses, no muffler, and no noises!
No gas pump, oil pump, water pump, or crankcase sump.
No air filter, oil filter, fuel filter, or fuel injector.
No piston rings, spark plugs, ignition coils, or engine lugs,
No backfiring, or dieseling, running rough, or tune ups.
No more water in the fuel tank, or rusted manifold bolts,
No more timing chain yank, or big repair bill jolts!
No more stopping for gas, ...no more pain in the ass,
300 less moving parts, as dependable as a shopping cart!
Instead of going for emissions tests, I think the electric car is best.
Instead of spending 15 cents a mile for gas that’s causing wars,
it costs just 3 cent a mile for energy that can be made by the sun,
or the wind, wave power, hydro power, nuclear, or geothermal.
Sure, it only goes 100 miles, ‘till you need to find a wall,
but most days I go, just 99 miles, is all.
If I really need to cruise, like on over to L.A.,
I just go visit Hertz, and rent me a Chevrolet.
‘Hope ya’ll come around to my thinkin’, and stop spendin your days tinkerin’,
to try ‘n keep your gas car runnin’, ...just get an electric, and start funnin’.
We need to save the planet for our kids’ kids, so let’s just start with something of ease,
‘try a car that’s green and simple, I think you’ll find it’s a breeze!

see also:

"...range anxiety with an electric car..."

2011 xmas letter

December, 2011

Hello friends and family,

We hope you are well and enjoying the holidays. It’s a rough time for many people, so our hearts are with you if your family has suffered job losses or other difficulties.

It’s been a relatively quiet year for us. Wendy is still, luckily, employed fulltime at Pearson as a Digital Writer/Editor. Fred continues his small business, www.subsolutions.com. Regina is living with us now and just started a “real” job at Banner, after a long and discouraging job hunt. Ethan is a junior at School of Visual Arts in NYC, where he’s doing well with his major in film/editing.

Wendy’s brother Dennis and daughter Alison visited in March while Regina and Ethan were here for spring break. We hiked a little but mostly just hung around and enjoyed our (finally) completed renovation of our home. Mid-August, we very much enjoyed a brief visit of Wendy’s cousin Eleanor, together with her husband George and daughter Allyson.

Regina moved back “home” end of June, and wanted to keep her car, and Ethan wanted to visit for part of the summer as well, so we decided to turn it into a “road trip” vacation and flew to Boston. Then the three of us drove to New York, picked up Ethan, and all drove home starting with a stop at Niagara Falls. After enjoying the “Cave of the Winds” tour (which has no cave!?), we took turns driving and hurrying (due to Wendy’s limited days off), and saw the northern part of the country, including Chicago, Minnesota farmland, The Black Hills, and timed it so that we were in Estes Park, Colorado for July 4^th fireworks, which were the absolute best we’ve ever seen! The next day we toured the “haunted” Stanley Hotel, however, there didn’t happen to be any supernatural phenomena that day. Hmm. In the Badlands a buffalo walked right by our car, we stopped and ate at Wall Drug, and we toured “The Wind Cave”! (which had no wind?). With a surprising lack of arguing, the trip could have used a few more days, but it was still fun to see some parts of the country we’d never seen before, even if just through the car windows most of the time!

Having Regina “home” has been a delight. We love having her (even if she does spend the majority of time at her new boyfriend’s place!). In late July, we all went kayaking on the lower Salt river with Fred’s brother Tom and his wife Samantha. And although the RV was down for repairs, we hopped on our Vespa motorcycle one weekend and went up to the cool mountains, hiked a bit, and stayed at a nice little cabin in Christopher creek.

At Halloween, Fred helped put on another charity fund raising haunted house (his biggest, by far), and Regina helped by directing the actors. For Thanksgiving we visited Ethan, enjoyed the city, helped him decide whether to renew his lease, saw some old friends, and really lucked out with absolutely gorgeous weather!

The other major change for us this year is that we’ve stopped buying electricity and gasoline! We bought a solar panel system (and water heating panel) and a Nissan Leaf electric car. It will take 10 years to break even and pay for the solar, and then we’ll have really free power ‘till the system needs replacing. But the Leaf has already started to pay for itself. Wendy drives it every day about 44 miles to get to work and back; there’s plenty of charge left for running errands in the evenings. We plan our weekend errands as well, so that we hardly ever have to use the gas car anymore. In fact, in 3 months, we’ve put over 6,000 miles on the Leaf. We really love the smooth quiet ride, and Fred loves the linear torque that is double a regular car, and the zero-to-sixty-in-8-seconds acceleration. We estimate it will save us $4,000/year in gas alone. Not to mention greatly reduced repairs since it has over 300 less moving parts than a gas car!

We hope things start to improve in the world in 2012, although we fear it might take much longer… In the meantime, let’s all be grateful for what we have, not the least of which are caring, supportive friends and family.

Love and peace to all,

Wendy, Fred, Regina, and Ethan

"Don't you have "RANGE ANXIETY" with your electric car!?!?"

People ask me if I like my new Leaf. I usually say something like: “Do I like not buying gasoline? -Uhm,… yeah”. Do I like the idea of using less oil, reducing pollution, slowing climate change, driving the solution to domestic energy independence, eliminating wars over petroleum, and working toward world peace? -“Sure”. Do I like saving $4,000 a year on fuel, and the fact that I will rarely have repairs since there are 300 less moving parts than a gas car? -“Oh yeah.” Do I like never having to check the oil, coolant, tranny fluid, or air filter, or have the oil changed or get emission tested, or even have the brakes done very often, since due to regenerative braking the brakes last five times longer than my old car? “Yes!” So, if you wonder whether I like driving a beautifully silent, rocket of a car that has twice the torque of the average car, no shift points, and does zero to sixty in 8 seconds, while being powered by free energy from my rooftop solar panels, I’d have to say, “Well,…Yes, quite a bit”.

Then they ask if I ever have “range anxiety”. I say: “Yes, I do”. I have range anxiety every time I get in any car. In fact, gas cars run out of fuel more often than my electric car. Every few days we have to watch the gas gauge closely and plan our day carefully and determine when and where we can stop for re-fueling, where as my electric car always has a “full tank” every morning, as well as anytime it’s been parked at home a while. All I have to do is make sure my destination isn’t over 50 miles, which has only happened one time in the 3 months and 6,000 miles we have on our Leaf so far. And on that occasion we just took our gas car.

Electric cars work. They work now, and they work well. They’re cost-effective already, and will get even better in the future. For now, and the foresee-able future, they work best for two-car families. Keep one gas car and replace one with an electric. That way, if you ever have to go more than 100 miles you can just take the gas car. That’s what I call a “hybrid” car lifestyle. The beauty of a pure electric and it’s simplicity of so many fewer parts and low maintenance, combined with an older, gas powered, paid-for gas car, that we don’t drive as much. We prioritize the use of the electric since it’s so cheap to drive (free for anyone with solar, and 3 cents/mile, worst case, if you’re buying electricity at the high-retail, “on-peak” price of 11 cents per kilowatt-hour. Compared to 15 cents/mile for the average gas car), and only take the gas car when we have to. For shorter trips when the electric is already busy somewhere on a longer run. Or for extra long trips, like vacations and such.

It’s all about “replacing miles driven”. Once we have some pure electrics, we need to drive the crap out of them (and will want to because they’re so fun to drive) in order to give them the opportunity to make a powerful, positive difference in our lives. If you’re considering a new car, check one out. But if you’re not, don’t test drive one,… ‘cus you’ll fall in love, and end up shelling out 25k for one, which won’t save you money in the short term, if compared to just keeping a paid-for car!

see also: http://fredbellows.blogspot.com/2013/05/do-you-like-tesla-model-s-would-you_16.html

America: Let’s work on getting our political rhetoric honed down to actual discussions again.

In expressing our views of politics in America, we tend to judge our leaders on who we feel they are, instead of what they do. This is a terrible mistake, because even if they are liars, or bad people, or very different than us, they still may be capable of making the best decisions for the over-all good of the country. And that’s really all we should care about. The biggest mistake we make as citizens is when we criticize our presidents for being who they are, and any things we don’t like about them personally, instead sticking to the facts and actions they’ve taken that may have affected our country and the way it’s run.

Don’t hate bush for being a simpleton, just because a lot of people like that about him, -it’s not really his fault. Hate him for something like starting bogus wars that killed hundreds of thousands, for giving our budget surplus away to the rich, for his heinous environmental record, or for making America far more partisan than ever before, etc.

Don’t hate Reagan for being a movie star, just because a lot of people like that about him, -it’s not really his fault. Hate him for something like doubling the deficit, Iran-Contra, taking down the solar panels from the White house, or the fact that his policy of supporting Islamicist insurgents against the Soviet-backed government of Afganistan led to the rise of the Taliban and Al-Qaeda.

Don’t hate Clinton for being smart, just because a lot of people like that about him, -it’s not really his fault. Hate him for something like “wagging the dog” and blowing up the aspirin factory during monicagate, NAFTA, Telecom 96, or his horrifically anti-environmentalist timber policy.

Don’t hate Obama for being black, just because a lot of people like that about him, -it’s not really his fault. Hate him for something like bailing out the car makers, or for obamacare, or for trying to raise taxes on the rich, or something specific that he has done, or says he will do, if he can, that you disagree with because you think it will be bad for the country over-all. And then rant about that. Not about how you feel like he’s an elitist because he looks smug when he smiles. Fuck that.

It’s our job as citizens to dissent, but let’s argue policy, not politics.