Low-Hanging Eco-Friendly Fruit 5: Getting Around (Plus Climate Change!)

[Without getting too political, this issue, more and more, is in OUR hands. If it's going to happen in the US, it will be we, the people, who make it happen.]

A few weeks ago, about 9 pm on a Wednesday night I was walking up the sidewalk to my house (in the dark) and decided to check on the tomato plants that had just exploded in the last few months. It was very dark outside, but I was comfortably wearing a short-sleeved shirt. I shined my relatively-smartphone-flashlight on the plants and found several new green tomatoes.

Green Tomatoes (in the dark)

So I headed to the porch and saw a tiny, newborn gecko scurry across my path. To recap - mid-November, short sleeves, new tomatoes, newborn tiny reptile. I realize that I live in a place known for crazy weather, but steadily warmer has become the new norm. And the new norm is happening a lot faster than most climate scientists had predicted. The climate is changing quickly and we are responsible for making it happen.

Temperature Rise Graph - thanks, Nova!

We are throwing more and more carbon into our atmosphere and we are taking away the natural buffers that have protected us in the past. It's a bad, bad combo.

So, what's a Mesquite Hugger to do?

1. Find ways to stop releasing more carbon (by reducing our consumption of gasoline, diesel, coal, and natural gas.)
2. Strongly encourage others to find ways to stop releasing more carbon. Stat!
3. Pursue ways to restore some natural buffers (like composting and restoring native plant life to barren areas

So, let's look at getting around.

Here at Mesquite Hugger, we love tiptoeing around on the smallest carbon footprint possible. Lubbock, however, is a place that does not always make it easy. So, I am a big fan of walking, of biking, of e-biking, and electric cars. I am also fond of Citibus - our local public transportation.

[OK, I'm back. My brain just daydreamed off to a place where my tiny garage had a nice pair of hiking boots, a commuter bike, an electric cargo bike, and a Citicar parked happily together.]

From this Treehugger article

So, dear reader, here is what I will ask of you:

• Please analyze each trip you are about to take and choose the least harmful mode of travel available.
• Please analyze all of your trips collectively. See which ones are unnecessary. See which ones can be combined or changed.
• See if it's time to find more efficient methods of travel.

Riding the Bike

I write a lot about bicycles. I write too much about bicycles, but there's a big reason for it - bicycles (and electric bicycles) are some of the least damaging vehicles on the planet for short trips. And most of us take a lot of very short trips. Add in the fun factor, the super low cost, and the health benefits, and the bike becomes a bit of a miracle machine.

Taking the Bus

A bus traveling by itself is not a very efficient vehicle. It's large, heavy, and cumbersome, but the math changes when you put people inside the bus. The more people you haul, the more efficient the bus becomes in terms of carbon released per person, especially when compared with the carbon release of that many people riding solo in cars. If you'd like to try it out in Lubbock and fight hunger, this week is the week to do it:

Learn more about Lubbock's Citibus here

Carpooling

Not many things are sadder for the eco-conscious than the number of single-occupant cars on the road. But here, that single occupant vehicle is deeply ingrained in the culture. The next time you are near a busy intersection, do a little survey - how many cars around you have only one person in them? (We won't even jump into how inefficient each of those vehicles is.) If you have co-workers or neighbors who can share a ride, you can divide your carbon footprint by the number of people in the car. As much as I am not a fan of big SUVs, I have to admit that four people riding in an SUV is more efficient than four people riding in four sedans. (But four people in one sedan makes even less pollution.)

Electric Cars (and Plug-in Hybrids)

I spend too much time talking about electric cars too, but for a culture so deeply addicted to the car, they make a lot of sense (and cents). The advantages can be huge. Imagine cutting your fuel costs by about 75% and cutting your maintenance costs by about 75% too. Imagine not having to go to the gas station and not being worried about the cost of gas going up. Imagine driving in a vehicle that does not promote asthma, lung disease, or cancer. Imagine a vehicle fueled by locally produced energy. No, a fully electric car won't cover each driver's needs, but it will cover most drivers' needs. And a plug-in-hybrid will cover most of the rest. (And it's not hard at all to find a late-model, low-mileage electric for around $10,000.) They make an excellent second car.

Trains, we don't have no stinking passenger trains around here.

Gasoline/Diesel Cars and Trucks

These are by far the most dominant form of local transportation, and the most damaging. If you do find yourself stuck in these, please do what you can to limit your pollution:

• Keep your vehicle in good tune and keep the tires at maximum inflation.
• Do your best to stop idling. Skip the drive-thru and go in.
• Carpool.
• Plan efficient routes for your travels.
• For multi-car households, drive the most efficient car in your driveway as much as possible.
• Slow down.

All of these things collectively can lighten your eco-load.

Regardless of what you drive, strive to be courteous to others, There's enough stress and frustration out there - please don't add to it with the way you get around. And please, watch out for that dorky blogger on the bike!

May you tread lightly and may we all be better for it.

National Drive Electric Week: 2 Skinny Wheels - Thinking Smaller

So, what's National Drive Electric Week all about? Is it to get everyone into an electric car? Or is it to get people out of gas-burning cars? For me, it's the latter. It is an opportunity to make a concerted effort to promote ways to help us all stop extracting, buying, and burning fossil fuels so that we can do less damage to the environment in which we live.

To celebrate National Drive Electric Week, I took Electric Bridget out for a ride on Saturday. And, no, Bridget is not an electric car -  she is an electric bicycle. Electric Bridget came to me as an old Bridgestone mountain bike that sat out in the weather for a while and was generally just neglected over the years. When I decided to build a low-dollar e-bike workhorse, EB got a new lease on life.

To be honest, I have ridden EB very little. Since EB does not (yet) have a pedelec controller, miles ridden on EB do not qualify for the National Bike Challenge. (But there are only 15 more days of that.)

So, I had kind of forgotten what it's like to ride an e-bike. It's awesome! I did a quick 8 miles. It was windy. I went up all of the slight inclines that feel like big hills on a non-electric bike. I still arrived home breathing hard and sweating, but I did eight miles in about the same time (and exertion) as I normally do four. I did not check, but I doubt that I ever exceeded 17 mph.

But it sure keeps me thinking...

One of my favorite blogs to read is Bike 5. The premise of that blog (Go read it already!) is pretty simple, For trips of 5 miles or less, a bicycle is best. (Health, budget, breathing, saving the planet, etc.) (Ironically, my office is 4.9 miles from my home.)

With the electric bike, it seems you could easily go to a bigger radius. (With apologies to Bob, who writes and lives Bike5.) One could easily create a blog for e-bikes called E-Bike15. For trips of 15 miles or less, the e-bike is best. From all of my DIY days, I have learned that having the right tool for the job makes almost everything better. I have lots of days where the bike (with me powering it) is not up to the job, but the 4,000 pound Dodge in my driveway is definitely overkill. At those times, the e-bike is the best tool for the job. It's hyper-efficient, fairly low-cost, and amazingly inexpensive to maintain and operate.

Learn more (and see this larger) here

And then there's that whole commute with a smile idea. Some people refer to it as the "EV Grin". When I ride a bike I smile a lot more than when I drive a car. (E-Bikes are funner than cars, y'all!)

Honestly, not everyone needs an electric car in order to make a positive impact. With that in mind, consider the advantages of an electric bike: they are easier to park - you can even park one in your tiny house. Try that with a Nissan Leaf! You don't have to buy a big fancy charger or have your house rewired. And there are lots of different options for different needs, different budgets, and different physical abilities.

From this...

 

...to this,

there's an e-bike for everyone.

In case you are wondering, this is not a Don't buy an electric car post. I love electric cars and see them as one great tool for cutting our dependence on carbon, but not everyone is in a place to own one. (I'm not.) If you're like me, the e-bike might be the next best thing. You might even come to realize that an e-bike is the best thing for you.

May you find the best thing for you and may it be a better thing for us all!

National Drive Electric Week Begins: 2 Local Used Electric Vehicles for Sale

[Yep, it's a minipost]

Both ends of the spectrum here:

a 2014 Tesla Model S and...

an "as is" electric bike.

The Tesla is on Amarillo Craigslist and there is no price listed. It's the first Tesla I've seen for sale locally. The Ezip bicycle is on Lubbock Craigslist and says "as is". If it just needs batteries, the $100 price is not bad for a very basic entry level e-bike. (If it needs a rear wheel, I just happen to have one for it.)

Be sure and tell 'em the Mesquite Hugger sent you!

So there you go. I will keep looking to see if anything somewhere between these pops up.

May you find green transport that fits your budget and your needs while making the world a little healthier for us all.

Electric Vehicle Sightings in Lubbock and a Super-Fast Electric Beetle!

[Since National Drive Electric Week starts in two days, I thought I'd write about EV's in the LBK this week.]

Yesterday morning, I left the house (in the pickup, snagit all to Midland!) around 6am. I pulled up to the bicycle lane on Flint and noticed a high-powered LED bike light coming toward me. He was moving pretty quickly. I was thinking that he must be pedaling hard, then I noticed he was hardly pedaling. Then I noticed a big honking hub motor in the rear wheel and a battery pack hanging under the rear rack. It's a rare thing, but I saw an electric bike in the wilds of Lubbock traffic. Woohoo!

Most of the EV sightings this week have been (battery only) Nissan Leafs: a silver, two blues, a white, and a black one. I also saw the white BMW i3 humming down Marsha Sharp yesterday - it's such a cool car with all that carbon fiber and such. The two semi oddballs for this post were both PHEVs (plug-in hybrids).

I saw the Ford Fusion Energi yesterday afternoon. I often wonder how many of these I see without noticing since they look just like the standard models and the hybrid models.

And I parked near this last-generation Chevy Volt this morning. I like that the first Volts were a distinctive model that looked different enough to be noticed. The new generation Volt blends in much more.

When talking about EVs and Chevy, I have to mention the Bolt somewhere, so check out the next link. I have seen questions like this about the Volt a few lately: Does the Chevy Bolt EV make the Chevrolet Volt irrelevant? Is that a problem? (EV fans - Read more John Voelcker!)

And here's a link to a Gas2 (by way of Inside EVs) article that tells about EV sales AND has a list of all the EVs that are selling in the States: Electric Car sales Up Strongly in August. Be sure to check out the top 6, and (sadly) the last car on the list. (Toyota, what's up? Still waiting for the perfect storm for hydrogen?)

Saving the good stuff for last: Black Current did it Again: All-Electric Black  Current III sets 1/4 Mile Record 8.28 Seconds (Inside EVs again). Be sure to watch the video! Dang, that thing is fast!

National Drive Electric Week starts in two days - go test drive an electric car already! See what you're missing!

May you not miss pumping gasoline, or burning gasoline, or smelling like gasoline, or paying for gasoline.

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!



 

 

 



National Drive Electric Week: Final Post

It's that simple. We are doing unprecedented damage to the ecosystem that allows us to live, breathe, and thrive. It's not really about driving electric - it's about not driving gas (or diesel).

So, any step you take away from extracting or burning fossil fuels is a step in the right direction. To jump on a cliche' - if you're not part of the solution...

May each of us choose to be a part of the solution.

Nat. Drive Electric Week: Buying vs. Building plus more Leaf Temptation

[I apologize - this one is a bit of a rambler.]

More about this Leaf further down the page

One of my favorite on-line places to hang out is endless-sphere.com. It's (mostly) a forum for people who are involved with electric bicycles. A really common thread on E-S is a newbie who asks which new electric bike to buy - the question is normally answered by a chorus of Build Your Own Electric Bike for Half the Price - and End Up with a Better Bike in ten-part harmony. For those of us who have more mechanical skill and time than money, it's a very valid piece of advice (for electric bicycles.)

Love this place!

I feel pretty safe in saying that you cannot buy a decent quality electric bike for less than $1500, and it's quite possibe to build a very competent electric bike for somewhere around $800. Also, it can be done in very little time. One of the plusses (to me) is the amount of knowledge you gain by building (and repairing) your own. (I rode my electric bike smugly yesterday because I had just repaired the charging port and spent about $5 doing so.)

Back on the road!

Another online place I love to hang out is EVAlbum.com. It is mostly for electric cars, especially the DIY conversions, but it, like E-S, has a little bit of everything. I love seeing the motorcycles, scooters, and bikes there. Lots of labors of love appear on there, and lots of shop-time epiphanies show up there too. And it links to EV Tradin' Post - dangerous stuff!

Love this place too - lots of Citicars!

For many years, if you were an average joe or josie and wanted to drive electric, you had to build it yourself. That's no longer true.

I mentioned earlier this week that I would go drive a new Leaf for part of my own NDEW pursuits. So yesterday I jumped online and found that our local Nissan dealer does indeed have a new one in stock, a white 2015. And it is deeply discounted. And it is eligible for 0.0% finincing and a possible $5000 financing discount. And it's eligible for a $1500 Texas discount and a $7500 federal tax break. When all is said and done, the Mesquite Hugger household could have a new Leaf and a fast charger in the garage for less money than almost any new car on the market. And it could replace our primary driver that costs us $50-75 dollars per week in fuel plus lots of maintenance. (Like me, its age and mileage have made it much higher maintenance.) We could fairly easily put a huge check mark on our Personal Carbon Reduction checklist.

Oh the temptation! But then I step back. Times are tight. There are educations to pay for. We have done our best not to create new debt, and the jobs become steadily less secure. It's really not time for us to buy a new car, and like I keep telling myself, the best way to avoid temptation is to avoid temptation. I guess I had better not test drive a Leaf this week.

Maybe I could cancel the internet at home and give up the smart phone (upon which I am writing this post), cancel Netflix, and quit buying a $3 coffee each morning. I could also sell Lucy (sniff). All of that combined could help make Leaf payments.

The conclusion? Yes, it makes good sense to build your own electric bicycle, but it does not work out the same way for a car in most cases. Used (and even some new) electric cars have dropped into the range of attainability for the common person and are often much less expensive than building your own. (It's not hard these days to find a lightly used Leaf for $9000-$12000 - you will be hard pressed to build a quality electric for less than $12000.) As an added bonus, you can be driving your car during the two years you would've spent building your own. And it may even have a warranty still attached.

An electric pickup? Now that's another story. Until Nissan or Mitsubishi offers one up, you are probably better off building your own. Speaking of which, does anybody out there want a Mazda pickup that's halfway there? I may need some down payment money for a white Leaf...

May you avoid temptation unless it leads you to a better place, snagit!

PS. If you want a really cheap electric car, look at buying somebody else's conversion. These low gas prices may be hard on electric car sales, but they do wonders for electric car cheapskates. (I hope you are a good mechanic/electrician/plugger-inner.)

National Drive Electric Week: Popular Mechanics and Vintage DIY WeirdCoolness

I didn't know it, I was just a kid, but I grew up in a heyday of electric cars, and the charge was all documented and promoted in Popular Mechanics magazine. My grandfather kept a subscription, and I loved reading the magazine and checking out the ads in the back. For an 8-12 year-old, the electric vehicles were truly droolworthy stuff!

I wanted it then - I want it now!

 

A little before my time - an electric love child of a '58 T-Bird and a '57 Chevy - so uglycool!

 

And lots more cool plans! (My fave is the Boonie Bug)

 

The Oh So Cool Trimuter! (Plans here)

 

Another Trimuter on EVAlbum

 

When the world is all crazy for Leafs and Teslas and Volts and so forth and so on, you may be wondering why I chose the Popular Mechanics article for today. Well, Craigslist got me again. I went to see what motorcycles were lurking around the area and found this little three-point diamond:

 

This Trimuter popped up on Lubbock CL today!

 

And now my overactive brain is scheming and dreaming. At 72 volts, this could be a mean green machine, at least as mean as you'd want in a delta trike. Oh the possibilities. Someone please buy this beast, yank the VW motor out, and make the Leaf and Volt drivers green with envy at next year's Lubbock National Drive Electric Week! If you build it, I will host the event!

 

May your journey to green be anything but boring!

National Drive (Ride) Electric Week: A Moustache on an E-bike and some MH faves

found on pinterest

Generally speaking, NDEW events focus on electric cars, but there are other electric vehicles out there that make a lot of sense, especially to those of us who are hoping to save money while saving the earth - electric bicycles.

If you've spent much time around this blog, you know that the MH staff is pretty crazy about electric bicycles. And we love to list reasons why they make so much sense, but don't take our words for it.  A while back we re-posted a trying-out-an-ebike blog post from Mr. Money Moustache - a blog based on financial wellness and living a better life. Well, MMM has now posted a follow-up to that original post - and it sounds like the verdict is very favorable for electric bikes. Check it out:

http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2015/08/31/electric-bike-reviews/

 

 

Here are some of my favorite e-bikes in the less than and equal to $2000 category:

The Riide e-bike $2000

 

gneZe e101 Sport $1500

 

gneZe e102 Recreational Riser $1500

 

The Radwagon $1700 ($1400 if you act soon) (drool)

The Daymak Beast ($2000 for base model - yes, it's a stretch, but it has pedals. :-)

Do you want to learn more about factory-built e-bikes? Check out Electric Bike Report.

 Do you want to learn more about building your own e-bike(for a lot less money)? Check out the Endless-Sphere forum.

Do you want a low-carbon and inexpensive commuter that won't drench you in your own sweat? Check out an e-bike!

May you find yourself enjoying your commute, saving the earth, and treading lightly!

Bonus link from Mr. Money Moustache: Curing your Clown-like Car Habit (It may make you sputter and blush.)

National Drive Electric Week: I found my dream car! (Again!)

All roads lead to Johannesburg Anacortes, Washington. To start, JG, my work buddy, has an Aunt who lives there and drives a boring little brown four-door sedan, a Tesla Model S. Next, my buddy Chris (the Kanadian Kneivel) likes to take the ferry from Anacortes to the land where he grew up - Vancouver Island, BC. Knippa (who appears on these pages often) recently sent me a Craigslist ad for a mobile scooter rental shop for sale in Anacortes. Considering the fact that I live in dusty Lubbock, Texas, it's strange to me that Anacortes - a small town located on the very northwest corner of our country - should keep popping up like that.

 The Mesquite Hugger dream - right there near Seattle!

And this morning, Anacortes just popped up on my National Drive Electric Week radar in the form of a bright yellow citicar (the Mesquite Hugger unofficial representative of all electric cars) is for sale on Ebay. I think somebody is trying to tell me something...

American Electrons - my kind of patriot!

 

May you never stop dreaming AND may you find your own electric dream car!

National Drive Electric Week in OKC and Lubbock(?!!!)

Green Car Reports Article

I watched a video by a guy named John Gallagher this week. And I was excited by what he had to say.

NDEW Website

 

You see, John Gallagher is organizing a National Drive Electric Week gathering in Oklahoma City. It shouldn’t be surprising that there will be such an event in OKC, but it is. OKC, like my own hometown, is just not that interested in such things. We are conservative and extravagant in our thinking. Why would we be interested in something thrifty and short range when our surroundings encourage us to seek comfort and rugged utility? Why drive a Leaf when I can have a well-appointed four-door Ford F150 for similar money? Why worry about the environment when I can worry about paying the bills and keeping myself distracted? Having the gathering in OKC is the first of three surprises (for me) in John’s video.

The second surprise in the video is that John does not own an electric car. He explains that he does not own one but he does understand that electric cars are the obvious and appealing next step in personal transportation. I always expect the organizer of such an event to fall into one of two camps – the old-school early adopter or the very enthusiastic newcomer to EVs. Just so you can visually follow my thinking – I expect the old-school guy to be driving a Ford Pinto he converted to electric in the 1980’s or maybe he stumbled upon an old and neglected Citicar and lovingly restored it. (Sigh) The newcomer, on the other hand, I picture driving a Tesla, wearing a Tesla hat (and possibly monogrammed Tesla underwear), and wearing a T-shirt that commands, “Question Internal Combustion!”

The third surprise in John’s video is learning that he drives an oil tanker truck for a living. Yep, he pulls up to a drilling site, fills his truck with crude oil, and delivers it to a pipeline to be pumped cross-country to a refinery. Lather. Rinse. Repeat. That’s how he pays the bills.
So, here’s where it gets a bit sticky for me. That guy is up in OKC organizing a Drive Electric Event, and there is no drive electric event happening in Lubbock, Texas. And that guy doesn’t blog all the time about electric vehicles. That guy doesn’t own an electric vehicle. I own several – a few of them even run! Hmmm…

Jerry Garcia quote

So, I’ve been asking around to see if anyone has any plans for National Drive Electric Week in Lubbock. The answers have been communicated more by puzzled looks and silence than actual answers.  So, let’s see. Nissan sells electric vehicles. Mitsubishi sells electric vehicles. Ford sells electric vehicles. Chevrolet sells electric vehicles. Kia sells electric vehicles. BMW sells electric vehicles. Cadillac sells electric vehicles. All of those companies have dealers here in town; however, very few of those actually sell electric cars here. I know that Nissan, Ford, and Chevrolet do. Cadillac maybe. [In case you are asking about Tesla at this point, just know that Texas lawmakers do not like Tesla and continue to aggressively work at keeping it illegal for Tesla to sell new cars here. Snagging lobbyists…]

 

 

When I search for public EV charging in Lubbock, I only find the Nissan dealership. [Last minute update: Googlemaps is now showing Rick's Tire Warehouse and Dave's Custom Carts as possible public charging stations, but I have not verified either.] [Another update: Rick's Tire Warehouse reported back that they do NOT have an electric car charging station.]

So, where would be a logical place for a Lubbock EV event? We can’t really gather around the one (or one of the three) charger(s) in town, can we? Should we ask a local battery retailer to sponsor an event? How about a local eating place? The Rust, Inc. crew gathers at Jumbo Joe’s. The guys with shiny old cars often gather at Sonic. Maybe we should gather at a local park.

Speaking of “we”, will this be just like junior high where I show up and wonder where everyone is? I am seeing more and more EV’s around town. Last week I spotted a black Tesla Model S in town. Yesterday I spotted a white BMW i3 - the second one in town. One of my co-workers just texted me a photo of a Tesla Roadster he spotted in Lamesa, Texas, a small town about an hour south of here. And I am seeing more and more Leafs. I did see a guy riding a Zero FX on Slide Road recently. It's not a revolution, but they are starting to show up. The real question is will they show up to an event? I am waiting for a Field of Dreams voice of inspiration, but it just has not happened yet.

And why should I bother? Is it because I would love to have an electric car to replace my beloved (but flawed) Lucy? No, what I’d really like is for a whole lot of us to find some form of non-polluting personal transport, and an electric car seems a great place to start.

May we reach our destination without destroying our home.