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.

Pre-Heat: An Unsung Electric Car Luxury

It's really cool sharing an office with two electric car owners.

Matt has the Leaf and JG has the Fusion Energi. So I get to hear some of their comparison stories. As winter gets near, one simple difference between electric-powered and gas-powered gets more and more appealing.

[Sidebar - quick auto heater lesson: gasoline-powered cars depend on heat from their motors to warm up the passenger compartment. The motor has to warm itself up which heats up the antifreeze which flows through a little radiator under the dash. That's why you see so many people who start their cars in the morning and let them idle for quite a while before they jump in and drive them. If you are trying to cut back on fossil fuels and make life better for all earthlings, this is VERY counterproductive. Electric-powered cars, on the other hand, have electric heaters which heat up almost instantly.]

On Matt's Leaf, there is a heater timer button down by the driver's knee. So, If you jump in your Leaf at 7:30 every morning, you can set the timer to heat the car up at 7:25 every morning while the car is still sitting on the charger. You get to your car at 7:30 and find that it is 100% charged and already warm and toasty inside. That's the option for the organized people.  But that's not the only option. There are several.

For you less organized and more impromptu people, JG just logs into her Ford Electric App and turns the heater on in her car. So, let's say it's a cold day and she's working late. A few minutes before she shuts down her computer, she can heat up her car and defrost the windows. (This is all hypothetical since JG's husband loves the car and won't ever let her drive it.)

Would you like to learn more about this absolutely rocking feature? Check out this hot article from Transport Evolved:

How To: Preheat Your EV This Winter

 

May your tootsies be toasty as you drive past your ice-scraping neighbors this winter!

Personal Carbon Reduction: Electric Car Very Basic Orientation

I rode to work in a diesel hybrid this morning. And it was a pretty luxurious ride (in comparison with the bicycle I rode Monday-Wednesday). At this point, you are probably thinking to yourself Where did the Mesquite Hugger come up with a diesel hybrid? Well, it's not mine. It belongs to Citibus. And it's a beast! But hey, how many of you can say you rode in a diesel hybrid lately? Or any kind of hybrid lately? How much does the average person even know about hybrids or other big-battery assisted cars? Let's talk about these cars.

This morning's chariot

 

(If you know all about this stuff, just move along. I just meet a lot of people who have not yet learned the differences and express surprise when you mention the difference between a Volt and a Leaf.)

Let's start with the simplest - the battery-electric vehicle.

 

The BEV is the simple one here. If you crave simplicity, this is the car for you. These cars require extremely low maintenance because there are so few moving parts. They are also the greenest and most efficient of the bunch. They also keep you out of gas stations - you can fill up at home.

 

Many detractors make noise about getting power from dirty coal-powered utility companies (which is a legitimate complaint to a very small degree) but two things make this option much greener than most anything else. First, the pollution from extracting, transporting, and burning coal is still less than the same process for extracting, transporting, distributing, and dispensing of petroleum products like gas and diesel. Second, we are seeing impressive growth in the amount of renewable energy being offered by utility companies. As the electric power being offered gets cleaner, so does the environmental friendliness of your vehicle.

 

If that's not good enough for you, however, there is another option that can make your BEV extremely clean - go solar at home. If you combine home solar power with an electric car, you will have an extremely low carbon footprint (and a much better return on both investments.)

 

The weakness of the BEV comes in two parts: range and charge time. You need to do a little math and answer a few questions before you commit to a BEV. How many miles do you plan to drive per day? How often do you take road trips? BEV's are especially good for two-car families. A friend and his wife just traded in an SUV on a Nissan Leaf. They have found an overall savings of $600 per month when they factor in fuel, payments, and insurance; and his wife has found the Leaf to be a much more enjoyable drive. Do the math and see how it works out for you.

 

By the way, battery life (and replacement cost) has been a big worry for early BEV buyers, but that is turning out to be much less of an issue than was feared.

 

Common and (somewhat) readily available BEVs are the Nissan Leaf, the Kia Soul EV, the BMW i3, all Teslas, and the Mitsubishi MiEV.

 

Others that are less readily available include the Fiat 500e, the Ford Focus EV, and the Chevrolet Spark EV. These cars have only been offered in restricted numbers and places and are often referred to as compliance cars.

 

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Next, the Hybrid. Environmentally speaking, the hybrid is a big step up from conventional gas-motored cars. And the same is true for their efficiency. Many hybrid models consistently maintain average fuel economy in the mid-40's (mpg). The Toyota Prius regularly delivers averages in the 50's.

 

 

There are many models of hybrid out there. Be sure to do a little research before buying one - not all hybrids are created equal. Be sure to learn the difference between a serial hybrid and a parallel hybrid. (I am a bigger fan of the serial models.)  My wife really wants the Kia Optima Hybrid. I keep wishing that Toyota would create a small hybrid pickup or that Ford would send me a C-Max for Christmas.

 

Some of the more common hybrids out there include the Toyotas - three Priuses, the Camry, the Highlander, and the Avalon; the Hondas - Accords, Civics, CR-Z's, and Insights; the Ford Fusion and C-Max; the Kia Optima; and the Hyundai Sonata. BMW and Lexus also offer hybrid models.

 

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The PHEV: it's complicated, but probably worth it.

 

So you can't decide between the BEV and the hybrid? You should probably check this category out. Ideally I would like for our household to have a BEV and a PHEV.

 

 

Essentially, the PHEV acts as a BEV for a certain distance and then turns into a hybrid when you travel beyond the battery-only range. For instance, if your PHEV has a battery-only range of 40 miles but you take a trip of 60 miles, at the forty-mile mark your gas engine will kick on and keep you going until you reach your destination (or run out of gas).

 

There are lots of accounts out there of PHEV owners who end up driving their cars for months at a time without filling up. Your results may vary.

 

The most commonly seen PHEV in my part of the world is the Chevy Volt. The Volt has very high customer satisfaction and reliability ratings. It also offers much more impressive battery-only range than most competitors. There seems to be news of more PHEV's hitting the market all the time. After the Volt, Fords and Mitsubishis seem to be the more common ones. The BMW i3 can also become a PHEV if you order it with the optional range-extending engine. Porsche and BMW also offer some higher-end PHEV's.

 

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I hope this helps. Which one is right for you? Which one would you enjoy the most? What would your dream ride(s) be? May the answers come to you and be the right ones. As for me, I may have found my dream ride:

 

 

PS. Did anyone notice that I made it all the way through that article without mentioning my desire for a Citicar?

 

Living the dream!



 

 

 



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.

Lubbock Electric Vehicle Sightings this Week 7-29-15

Monday we saw a black Tesla Model S on Milwaukee Avenue. It is the first I have seen in town. (Yes, I know, we live in the sticks, all 250,000 of us.)

Speaking of living in the sticks, I went by Battery Joe's on 19th Street yesterday  and saw this little armbreaker for sale: (Skateboards and the Mesquite Hugger = lots of pain.)

36 Volts and 800 Watts. This thing should be pretty fast. $600. (Eek)

On Craigslist this week, a cheap Panterra Electric Scooter (needing work) popped up:

Oh, the temptation! Have I always dreamed of owning a Panterra Electric Scooter? No. Would I love to have a 750Watt 48 Volt complete running gear with lots of re-usable parts AND a brushless hubmotor for the next FrankenProject? Absolutely. All of that for $175! Alas, I have vowed to drastically limit spending and to stop bringing more projects junk home. So you other mad scientists can have at it, snagit!

Finally, the most tempting EV in town lately has been a Used Chevy Volt on a local car lot:

It is only the second used Volt I have seen in town. I would be more tempted by a Leaf, but I have never seen a used Leaf for sale around here.

So, there you have it - four EV sightings in one week! (You have to start somewhere.)

May your ride be joyous and non-polluting, and may you stay out of the emergency room!

Lubbock on a Bike: Happy Ride to Work Day 2015! (Getting over Leaf envy)

On the days I ride the bike to work, I often cross paths with a Nissan Leaf on Utica Avenue. Electric cars are pretty rare around here, so they still catch my attention. And I have no problem admitting that I am a little green with envy when I see someone cruising Lubbock streets in a BEV (battery-electric vehicle).

 The old red 'goose this morning

But this morning I looked at that guy silently cruising along, and I had no desire to trade places with him. This morning was a rough ride. The wind blew north. I rode south. It rained last night and there were lots of puddles. And every bit of it felt good. I have been riding enough lately that the tired feeling is not overwhelming. Riding to work on a bike is not a task. Riding to work on a bike is an accomplishment. I did not mindlessly drive in comfortably numb, distracted, and stress-filled boredom. I achieved a goal.

And my ride today was massively greener that Leaf guy's ride. The bike I am commuting on now is one that has been with me since before I had a cell phone or an internet connection. The ride did not require electricity. The wear and tear on the bike and the road was minimal. And there's a good chance that I am in better health now than I was when I left the house this morning. Very little (in comparison to the Nissan) went into building and transporting the bike to me. The bike does not cost money to register, insure, and operate like the car does.

Poor, neglected Leaf

 

Yes, I'd still love to have a Leaf (or one of many other BEV's available), but I would like to think that even if I did own one, it would spend lots of days in the garage while the bicycle was out enjoying the world.

May you get off your butt already and join the National Bike Challenge! (Toni and Spencer, you two are my heroes this month!)

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!

I found my new dream electric vehicle - move over Tesla

See what a Razor MX650 motorcycle can (and should not) do!

Let's be realistic here - I am a middle-age/middle-class guy living in a middle-of-the-road town. I'd love to have a Tesla, a Leaf, a MiEV, an I3...but  the budget at the MH house just doesn't support that kind of dash. Even the Fido (still one of the coolest production vehicles we've seen) is a wee bit out of the budget for a guy paying for this middle-class life. So I am always on the lookout for electric vehicle companies that do fall in the budget.

One of the most successful electrical vehicles around is probably one you give little thought to - Razor. Yep, Razor - the people who put out thousands of little electric scooter and motorcycles into the hands of thousands of little people (and occasional overzealous adults - ask some time about my wife's adventures on a Razor Pocket Mod Scooter).

Well, today I saw a promo video for the Razor Crazy Cart XL. WOWSER!!!!! I want one! I signed up to be on the email list and I am shaking on the inside! Fester, Knippa, Grizz, Swartzy, Peaches, we have found our rides!

 

May we all have that much fun working in a warehouse!

Want to stop smoking? Buy a Leaf!

Okay, I read the title of this article on Greencarreports.com and my brain went into gear. How would driving an electric car encourage anyone to stop smoking?

• Would the driver think Well, my car does not smoke, so neither should I?
• Does the Leaf not have a cigarette lighter or ashtray installed?
• Do the Leaf owners start hanging out with a different group of people who shun smokers?
• Do electric motors emit some type of EMF signal that stifles the urge to smoke?
• Is it some subliminal thought that one should not smoke near a pile of leaves due to fire hazard?

Finally, I broke down and read the article. The solution is quite simple and practical. You will have to read it for yourself here:

How to Quit Smoking: Buy an Electric Car

May your vehicle foster better health habits!

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

Lubbock Electric Drivers - Get Together?

National Drive Electric Week is coming up - September 15-21. If you go to that first link and look at the map, you will notice a big honking gap in the map over West Texas and all of New Mexico. We are an EV wasteland.

Motorcycles:
I did ride the electric motorcycle to work this morning. I have never seen another street-legal, electric motorcycle in town, but I hear rumors that there is another Zero lurking about.

Bicycles:
Once in a great while, I see someone riding an electric bicycle, maybe two per month. (And I look closely for those.)

Cars:
I see more and more Leafs and Volts, but they are still rare enough for me to notice them. I occasionally see a Ford PHEV - the Fusion or the C-Max. There was a Wheego on Craigslist a little while back, but I never actually saw it. And there's the guy with the really cool electric Opel GT I saw cruising on Milwaukee Avenue once.

1973 Electric Opel GT

Overall, though, for a population center of more than 300,000 people, Lubbock has very few electric vehicles on the streets. And the only "public" charging station that I am aware of is at the local Nissan dealer.

So, when I read of electric vehicle get-togethers, I think, "How much gasoline would I have to burn to take my EV to an EV rally?" Hmm...It feels like some purpose is being defeated on that one.

So how about it?
Electric Riders/Drivers, does anyone want to get together in September to swap stories and admire clean green machines? Nissan, Ford, or Chevy dealers, would you like to invite us over for a cup of coffee and a no-pressure test drive? Or, more realistically, Keith, would you like to borrow your wife's electric bicycle and meet up for a cool beverage some evening?

May the EV revolution be lead by you, and may it be televised!

AutoblogGreen NDEV Story

Seriously - watch The IT Crowd already!

Lubbock Electric Car Spotting and Duelling EV Commercials (Funny Stuff)

Electric car spotting in Lubbock has been good lately. You may remember the recent post where I found the Ford C-Max Energi parked next to Lucy. On Tuesday I was headed home from work and noticed a silver-haired gentleman in a silver Nissan Leaf hanging out in my mirror. He changed lanes and sped around me. I found myself with a big ol' vicarious EV grin on my face. I see Chevy Volts almost daily now.

This morning I received some texted photos from a co-worker. (Thanks Ben!)

It is a Ford Fusion Energi he spotted on the streets of Lubbock this morning. Woohoo!!!! Let the revolution begin!!!

On a somewhat related note, Ford fired a volley (complete with manure - MANURE!) at GM yesterday by releasing a commercial that responds to the Cadillac ELR ad that aired during the super bowl.  Be sure to watch the Caddy commercial first. Here they are:

The Cadillac ELR

Ford C-Max Energi

May the manure fly and help us into better cars!

Bonus EV Commercial Links for the day:

Nissan Leaf #1

Nissan Leaf #2

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!