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Originally Posted by Isaac Zackary
Yes, you have a good point. Spreading the word would be helpful. I know there's at least one other EV owner in town. Maybe if I got to know her we could gang up on businesses with our ideas.
On the other hand I see one problem. Gunnison is so small it's not likely that having chargers within town would be that advantageous. If I charge up at home I can and have driven from end to end of town several times over in my Leaf, even with the heater on full blast. I guess I can foresee a time that I've gone a ways out of town, came back, need to go to the store, and then head back out again. In an occasion like that having a charging station at the store would be nice.
Right now there's one public level 2 charger in the middle of town near most of the restaurants, the post office and a grocery store. So far it hasn't been an asset, except for being free. If I'm charged up at home, by the time I get to the public charging station I might have lost 2% or 3% of my charge. Let me take that back! The other day I did some things around town and then went out of town quite a ways. When I got back I had 23% left. Then I went to a grocery store and then went home to charge (I reached 21% by the time I got home). After an hour lunch I was back on the road. But! Had I been thinking I could have charged at the charging station and could have walked across the street to the grocery store. That way I wouldn't have needed to go home to charge!
But still, it would be most helpful if there were charging stations along the roads going out of town. And along those roads there aren't very many places where I could promote placing car chargers. Like from here to Buena Vista. A level 2 charger at Sargents would be nice so that I could make sure I have enough charge to make it up Monarch Pass. (I'm also hoping the 11,000ft above sea level helps reduce air drag.) But those guys that run that gas station there are hard to deal with!
But if I could extend the range of my Leaf, not only could I go places I'd like to go, but also spend less overall time charging along the way. Imagine if I had to charge only once between here and Denver instead of three times.
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Charge there as much as you can, how more people see an EV charging how more it becomes normal to have an EV.
Even in a small town as a business a charger can be a great advantage. If you were to visit a town and had two similar hotels to choose from, and one offered charging, which would you choose?
Don't forget that in 5 years or something a significant portion of the cars will be EV's, you gotta prepare the infrastructure for that!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Isaac Zackary
Looking at low rolling resistance tires, I found a low rolling resistance snow tire?!
Michelin*X-Ice Xi3
I'm not sure exactly what type of tires I have on it now. But some low rolling resistance all-season tires for summer and a set of low rolling resistance winter tires for winter would be ideal in my case. |
Might ask at the Leaf owners forum what the best tires are for range.