Good News: VERY Affordable Electric Cars

Okay, so you're wanting to make the move to electric, but you're not quite there on the money. I hear you! But there's more hope than most people know. With government and state EV incentives for new EVs, a public that's still pretty hesitant on going electric, and a lot of electric cars coming off of two and three year leases, there are lots of really good deals on used electric cars!

This Leaf is from Ebay too!

Before we go there, though, let's talk about the state of electric cars here in the states. Americans know very little about electric cars, their availability, and how far they've come in the last seven years or so. But don't take my word for it, check out this article from Car and Driver. The good news about these articles (for you) is that the lack of electric car awareness contributes to a lack of demand for electric cars, which also keeps the price down. So, there are bargains to be had.

I know, Talk is cheap, Mesquite Hugger. Put up or shut up!

Well, here they are - a sampling of inexpensive, late-model, and (mostly) low-mileage fully-electric cars on Ebay this week. Since this is a Lubbock-based blog, I did a few of the searches based on location. You may find some better deals closer to your locale.

All four are less than 400 miles from Lubbock!

The consistently best deals to be found are the Fiat 500e's and the Nissan Leafs. Me, I'd prefer the Leaf based on the longer history, the larger number of dealers with EV experience, and the vastly greater cargo and passenger space. But I have to admit, the little Fiats are pretty tempting if you're in the market for cuter than a bug on a rug.

Less than 350 miles from Lubbock

Keep in mind when you're looking at electric car ownership that maintenance costs and fuel costs on EV's are a great deal lower than on fossil-fuel cars. A low-priced car that is extremely inexpensive to operate - now that is truly a bargain and can do very nice things for your personal budget.

Still close to Lubbock - and cheap!

Most of the cars in this post have at least 80 miles of range, which is a lot more than most of us drive per day. For multi-car families they make a great deal of sense. And they're really great if you are interested in doing less damage to the planet. (But not as great as a bike or an electric bike.)

The least expensive electric BMW on Ebay

The BMW i3 is a very impressive car - BMW put a great deal of thought and engineering into building a car extremely well-suited to electric power.

The least expensive Ford Focus Electric on Ebay

It's not rare to find the electric Focus considerably cheaper on the Austin and Dallas Cragslist ads. They generally stay in line with Leaf prices.

The only Mitsubishi MiEV on Ebay

By most accounts, the MiEV is not the greatest of electric cars, but there's something about the funky little machine that keeps me curious. (But not at $8,600)

Smart Leaf Smart

The least expensive Tesla on Ebay.

So, there you have it. a random sampling of electric cars on Ebay this week. All of these are fully electric. If you've been leaning more toward Plug-in hybrids, they are out there too, but they tend to be a little more expensive. Search for the Ford C-Max Energi and Fusion Energi, the Chevy Volt, and Toyota Prius if you are curious.

May you find planet-friendly solutions much more accessible than you ever dreamed, and may you drive (or pedal) cleanly.

PS. If you want to know a little more about all-electric, hybrid, and plug-in hybrids, be sure to check out this Mesquite Hugger post from 2015.

Earth Day Suggestions: #1 Burn some electrons!

One of my favorite holiday-ish days is this Friday (April 22). This is Earth Day #46. If I were a more ambitious blogger, I'd work on 46 suggestions. Being me and not being ready to quit my day job and all of that, I am shooting for 4.6 suggestions.

Number one is actually fun, and you won't get dirt under your fingernails, and it takes very little commitment on your part, and no money is needed.

Go test drive an electric car.

A Leaf and Charger at McGavock (Love the blue)

Why? Because you are human. Because the best way to learn about something is to experience it with multiple senses. A few weeks back I had the opportunity to take people for rides in an electric car. It was great to see how surprised they were. I am not sure what they expected, but the car far exceeded everyone's expectations. You should test drive one so that you know what it is, so that you can see whether or not an electric car makes sense for you or anyone around you. You may be surprised too.

What does test driving a new car have to do with Earth Day? If you are like most West Texans, you are a car addict. (I know I am.) That means we are all addicted to burning fossil fuels, which also means we are directly responsible for creating a type of pollution that damages the air, damages our lungs, damages our water, and damages our soil. Electric cars offer us a way to maintain our car-based lifestyles without doing nearly so much damage. (And there's a good chance that you will save a lot of money in the process.)

Original Poster from 1970 Earth Day

A few things to keep in mind before you go:

• If you buy a new (completely) electric car, you are eligible for a $7500 income tax break next April. (Whoohoo!)
• Your fuel costs will be about one-fourth of what you are currently spending.
• Electric cars are a phenomenal choice for multi-car families.
• There's a good chance that your salesman will know less than you do about the car.
• There's also a good chance that your salesman will try to steer you away to a gas-powered car.
• There's a good chance that you will experience the EV grin. Electric Vehicles have that effect on people.

There may be others, but I know that there are currently two new electric cars for sale in the LBK. McGavock Nissan (6312 Milwaukee Avenue) has a dark blue Nissan Leaf and Reagor Dykes Mitsubishi (6540 82nd Street) has a pearl white Mitsubishi MiEV.

Mitsubishi at Reagor Dykes

If you go drive either, please do me two favors: tell them the Mesquite Hugger sent you, and please send me a pic (mesquitehugger@gmail.com).

May you be pleasantly surprised and may we all be one step closer to breathing easier.

PS. If you're not quite so hardcore but want to make strides, Gene Messer Ford has a black Ford Fusion Energi (plug-in hybrid) and Gene Messer Chevrolet has a silver 2015 Chevy Volt (plug-in hybrid).

Find many more Mesquite Hugger electric car posts here.

Fossil Free Friday Exclusive: The Egg Arrived (Really Late)

[Exclusive because I am the only dork in town who will be excited about this.]

"I'm sure it's a very rare car. You're probably the first man on earth who ever wanted to own one."

(This cartoon has hung on our fridge for years.)

It's a bittersweet thing. Being the South Plains Electric Eco Dork (SPEED) that I am, I have waited for this moment for five years. That is how long I have wanted to see a Mitsubishi MiEV at the Lubbock Mitsubishi dealer. It's fairly well documented on this blog. Egg car this and egg car the other and more and more about the egg car until the final egg car post (Dec 2015) where I gave up completely because Mitsubishi had discontinued the ill-fated egg of my miniscule electric dreams.

I really do think it's Roswell-invader cute!

Until that point, I had rubber necked each time I passed any Mitsubishi dealer. I spotted one several years ago in Waco, but I was in too big of a hurry to truly check it out.

So, I moved on. I now dream of used Leafs and dust-covered Citicars just waiting to be resurrected.

So there I was cruising past Reagor/Dykes Mitsubishi today - it's in a part of town that I seldom visit. I noticed a Viper and a couple of Mitsubishi Mirages and a....HOLY TOFU, BATMAN! It's a MiEV!

Holy Tofu, indeed!

So, I swung the junky Dodge pickup into a tire-squalling u-turn and slid right into RDM. There it was - gloriously radiant in pearl white (and just as ugly on the outside as my wife thinks they are.) A 2016 Mitsubishi MiEV. I thought of a rare sighting of a doomed species on Animal Planet. This was like that.

A young salesman walked over, asked if he could show me any cars, making a sweeping gesture at all the gas-powered cars on the lot. I said I was there there to see the little white beast hunkering by the door. He asked, "So, you're into the smart cars, are you?"

I gave him a quick education about the car, its capabilities, the stunningness of seeing it there, the $7500 tax break. (I felt great empathy for a 7-year-old I know who loves to educate people on locks, oblivious to the fact that most of us have absolutely no interest in locks.)

He offered to let me drive it. I told him I would love to but that I was not actually in the market. He did not say anything else about driving it, but he was kind, let me sit in it, let me open all of the doors and such. He let me read all the info on the window (including the staggeringly high window sticker of $26,000).

A banner at the ill-fated bike store

That's it. That's the whole story. I left there, went to the bike store and bought a 70% off tire for my cobbled together electric bike.

May you get to live your dreams while they are still dreams.

(If you go by to check it out {yes, I know the chances of that - you don't have to make those rude noises} talk to Gage - he seemed like a genuinely nice guy.)

If I could afford a Tesla Model S... (Electric Car Dreaming)

Spotted in a CVS parking lot!!

 

In the past few weeks I have seen 5 Teslas out on the road. And they are phenomenally cool cars. Actually, they may be too cool for a middle-aged, middle-classed, ordinary, average guy like me. I can't see myself owning one or spending that much on a single vehicle. I do love what the car represents, which is a big ol' nose tweeking to GM, Ford, Nissan, KIA, VW, etc. to show all the whiners that a realistic gasless car can be done and done successfully. I am very thankful for Tesla and look forward to the day when they introduce an electric car for the common man, woman, or person of whatever gender. (Come on, Model 3!) Until that day...

For my lovely bride!

 

...I'd buy my wife a Ford Fusion Energi (the PHEV model - Roughly $25,000 after incentives for a new one.) The freedom to use it as a plug-in electric car or a long-range hybrid road tripper, well it's hard to beat that for the primary family car. And, she's that person whose phone goes dead often. She has an impressive number of virtues and charms, but keeping a battery charged - not so much.

Awesome commercial!

 

If a tadpole had wheels...(MiEV)

I'd buy myself a used Nissan Leaf (even though I still have a strange affinity for a Mitsubishi MiEV.)
I keep running across used Leafs for $9000-$10,000 and used MiEVs for $6500-$9000) and I'd put a new(er) engine in my little truck Lucy while dreaming that someone will build me a little hybrid or electric truck. It's hard to live without a little truck around, especially when your brain gets all Mesquite Huggery and needs barrels, pallets, etc. (Oh, the hypocritical irony.)

Leaf Pickup?!!!

 

 

 

Then I would pay off the Fabulous Young Lady's undergraduate education...

 

ElectroPigeon 2 and Spencer!

...and I'd order ElectroPigeon #2 some bad mamajama electric running gear.

A place unlike Lubbock, Texas

 

And I'd take Fabulous Wife Lady on a long-deserved trip to someplace very unlike our home town.

Or I might chuck the whole plan and go buy us a tiny smaller home, then sell our house and see how much closer that gets us to something that looks like retirement. (Curse you, practical side of the brain!)

Lucy!

 

Until I reach that point, however, I will pour another quart of oil in Lucy and do my best to limit my driving. I have a virtue or two as well, but bringing home the excess bacon - not so much.

May you find yourself with a better solution than what currently gets you around and may it be within your budget.

Electric Transport Minipost: Bike and Car Links

Two helpful electric vehicle stories that appeared this week:

Mo-Tobi, I missed you this morning!

I rode the ebike on Monday. I rode the regular bike this morning. This morning I sure wished I had taken the ebike.
Treehugger gives us an ebike primer (with a short-term link to a free ebike ebook)

Green Car Reports gives us an Electric Car Price Guide
And the list starts with the Mitsubishi MiEV, Snagit!

May your EV dreams come true!

PS for Lubbockites: I noticed a used Chevy Volt on the Pollard used lot this week. Used EV cars are quite the rarity around here!

The Frustrating Mitsubishi MiEV

 

[This post was prompted by seeing this article on Green Car Reports yesterday: 2016 Mitsubishi i-MiEV Electric Minicar To Start Deliveries Next Month]

[A disclaimer - if you are interested in electric cars because you want fast (Tesla) and elegant (Tesla) and upwardly mobile (Tesla), you might as well just move on. The MiEV is a basic car that would satisfy the needs of most drivers most of the time. If your drive keeps you in or near town and you want basic functions like a heater/air-conditioner/smartphone-friendly-stereo/cheap-to-buy/cheap-to-feed/cheap-to-maintain/enviro-friendly, this could be a great option for you and I invite you to keep reading.]

I spotted my first and last MiEV at the Mitsubishi dealer in Waco, Texas, about three years ago. And I wanted that thing, but it was still a very expensive vehicle at that point. I regret that I did not ask for a test drive. I had some wierd misconception that the opportunity would present itself again.

In December of 2013, Mitsubishi announced a massive price drop. The car dropped to $23k. Here where I live I could take advantage of the $7500 federal tax break and the $1500 state EV incentive, so a brand-new Mitsubishi electric car with a full factory warranty could be had for $14k. I became very excited! So I went to the Mitsubishi cars website. The MiEV had almost no place on their site. It was not even listed under the Models tab. You had to dig deeper into the site to see that they even had an electric offering in the states. I learned most of my MiEV info from greencarreports.com and green.autoblog.com. They would tell me about great lease deals and dealer incentives - for those who live in the Northeast or the West Coast. The nearest actual cars I could find were in the Dallas area - about 350 miles away. And I am a little leary of buying a car with a 70 mile range from a dealer five times that distance away.

[A Mesquite Hugger sidebar: I have purchased only one brand-new, factory-built, electric vehicle, and it left me a little cynical about buying such things. I purchased a 2011 Zero motorcycle. It was delivered to me with a defective battery pack. The motorcycle with an advertised 25 mile range really struggled to travel 10 miles per charge. It took a few trips to one of the nearest Zero service centers to truly determine the problem, and it took a lot of increasingly nasty phone calls and emails from me and from the dealer/service center to get Zero to do anything about fixing it. Also, the service center was 400 miles away. When I sold it, it had spent a lot more miles in the back of a pickup than it had being the efficient commuter I had bought it for. So, it proved to be a pretty miserable ownership experience. Had it performed anywhere near its advertised specs or had it been fixed promptly, I would have loved it. I really enjoyed the bike when it ran, but I learned never to buy an electric vehicle without a local service center.]

So, the Mistubishi MiEV might as well be a unicorn here in the middle of the country. I kept waiting to see when the car would be available here - you know, like the Nissan Leaf, the Chevy Volt, the Ford Energi series; there's even a BMW I3 in town now. But there are no MiEVs. Journalists (like John Voelcker in the article above) always make reference to how low the MiEV sales have been for Mitsubishi. For me there is a simple explanation - there are none to buy. Snagit, it's frustrating!

May green transportation be available, affordable, and non-frustrating!

For those of you still reading at this point - be sure to read the comments at the bottom of the John
Voelcker article - there are lots of detractors commenting, but the MiEV owners sing its praise - even when comparing it to Leafs and Teslas they have also owned. Even more frustration, snagit!

Two examples:

Willie McKemie  Jiminy • 6 hours ago

I have both a Model S and a 2014 imiev. I much more enjoy driving the imiev to the locations it will reach. Much easier to maneuver in tight places. Adequate performance. I'm 6'4" and the imiev has plenty of room and storage space. Were the imiev a 200 mile car, I probably wouldn't have the Tesla. Here in Texas, the Tesla is an $85k car with $7.5k in incentives. The imiev is a $26k car with $10k in incentives.

 

Jiminy • a day ago

I have a 2012 iMiEV and Nissan Leaf and I enjoy driving the Mitsubishi more. It is my daily driver. The average range is 60 miles, about the same as our three year old Leaf. (I did drive it 84 miles in one shot up to Austin, TX to lend it to a friend last summer.) We never need that much range so it is not an issue. The range remaining meter on the Mitsubishi is about 100x better than the Nissan. Also, there is not a car out there that is easier to drive in a tight metropolitan area than the iMiEV. It is narrower so it will fit in any parking spot and it's turning circle is the smallest of any car I have ever seen. The rear seats fold flat to make a surprisingly nice sized cargo compartment. I even put a new 60" tv in the back a few weeks ago. Several people joked that the tv was bigger than the car. I really cannot say enough good things about this car though. It just does everything I need it to so well. If you have a Mitsubishi dealer local to you that still has a 2014 then you should take an hour off and go drive one. It is really a great car!

A Tale of Two Electric Cars - Is the day of commercially available EV here?

 (First and foremost, John Santini, you and your creation rock! I am impressed with what you created and with the accomplishment of actually making it happen. Your car is infinitely cooler than the MiEV.)

For many years now, if you wanted a decent electric car with some real-world performance, you most likely would build it yourself. A few viable options have been available here and there, but very few. If you want to see lots of examples of these homebuilts and the ingenuity involved, follow the links at the bottom of this page. I visit one of those pages almost daily. In the last few days, John Santini's "the project" has caught my eye.

John's car can be found on evalbum.com.

If you have any interest in EVs or in fabricating your own car, you owe it to yourself to check out the photos and the text. This thing is impressive! He used great components and built a very capable machine.

Now, let's look at some down and dirty stats:

Money invested (so far): $23,000
Seating capacity: 2
Top speed: 75 mph
Range: 90 miles (at 50mph on flattish ground)
Time to build (so far): 3 years

Just for the sake of comparison, let's do a quick websearch for a Mitsubishi MiEV for sale. The first site that popped up for me was cargurus.com. (I picked the MiEV because I am interested in owning one, and I am cheap, and I have made no progress in finishing my own EV project. A Nissan Leaf might have been a better comparison.)

You can quickly determine that a lightly used 2012 Mitsubishi MiEV will bring somewhere around $12,000.
(Depending on where you live and what incentives are available, your cost for a new 2014 model should be somewhere between $12,000 and $17,000.)

Money invested: $12,000
Seating capacity: 4
Top speed: 81 mph
Range: 62 miles (most drivers report numbers closer to 72)
Time to build: not applicable - just jump through a few hoops and buy one.

Can the average Joe take three years and $23,000 to build an electric car?

Can the average Joe get a loan for $13,500 (taxes, delivery, etc.) to buy a late-model car?

Will the average Joe laugh as he cruises past the gas station and the oil-change place?

We keep rolling closer.

May you laugh as you cruise past stuff!

To see more cool homebuilts:
evalbum.com
diyelectriccar.com

Electric Car News: Eggs Are on the Way

I'd drive it happily!

The 2014 Mitsubishi MiEVs are shipping now. I don't think the MiEV is the coolest or most impressive electric car ever, but I do think it is a great car for 90% of us to do 98% of our daily driving on a very small amount of money while making very little negative impact on our world. That's a very wordy way of saying Snagit, I want one! Now, I just wish I could talk Mitsubishi (or Ford, Nissan, Chevy....) to make a small pickup with similar numbers...

If you want numbers to do the math for yourself, here is an article (Thanks, Knippa!!!) that lines it out for you: http://www.torquenews.com/1084/most-affordable-ev-america-mitsubishi-i-miev-arrives-spring

And don't forget the Texas incentive: http://www.afdc.energy.gov/laws/state_summary/TX

EV Grin!

May the numbers be in your favor and may your local Mitubishi dealers stock their shelves!

Petroleum-Free Transport: How willing are you to look like a dork? (With survey)

I love things with wheels. I love strange things with wheels. I love electric things with wheels. Ergo, I love strange electric things with wheels.

With one exception (Man, I want a Citicar!!!) all of the vehicles you see in this post can be bought new right now. A few may be hard to get your hands on, but all are available at this time. Please take a little time and ask yourself a simple question: Would I be seen in or on that thing? Then, please fill out the survey below. (Yes, I left the Tesla off on purpose. I also left off the plug-in hybrids and a host of other plug-in cars and scooters.) We'll look at electric bicycles and motorcycles in a later post.

Boxx

Govecs

EVT (Ignore the sticker)

Citicar

Nissan

Mitsubishi

Ford

Chevy

BMW

Click here for survey

May your answers surprise and reward you!