Who needs to wait for Sunday??
Not anyone on the internet: 2020 Mustang Mach-E seems like someone posted the preorder pages before they were supposed to ! LOL
Well I’ll still watch the reveal anyway…
You knew it was coming..
If you’ve been reading this blog for any amount of time (well ok at least a year) you knew what was coming: another darn winter weather post lol!
Well yup, and I haven’t even mentioned that Ford will be revealing its long awaited EV SUV on 11/18 (or is it 11/17–I’ve seen both dates published).
Nonetheless Southeastern Michigan (and a whole lot of other areas in the midwest) got an early present from Mother Nature this week. In our case that involved over 6″ of snow and some decidedly January like temperatures.
Of course that happened to fall on a day where we had a place to be across town with a set time to be there. No problem the Bolt can handle it–even when the driver decides to take a wrong turn and gets stuck (a little rocking and we’re out).
The thing with EV’s and snow/ice is that since EV’s don’t generate the heat like a conventionally powered car does the accumulations of snow/ice around the car stick and don’t go away (especially with the packed stuff in the wheel well). No matter, an overnight in the garage melts most of that stuff (I still get some grumbling when turning the wheel all the way one way or the other–must be hard to melt off the stuff really packed back in there). Note that preconditioning the car only heats up the cabin and melts some of it off the windows.
I’ve long since switched the charge routine back to “winter charging” (turn on hill top reserve and charge every night vs charge to full every 3 or 4 days). This routine ensures there is enough charge for anything needed during a winter day (it yields around 150+ miles of range in the cold).
So friends, bundle up as it looks like this winter will be a long one.
Ford dropping hype
For a few weeks now Ford has been dropping “EV” hype on social media. From the F-150 EV stunt, some myth busted videos, to this on Twitter:
(Interestingly, when Ford drops these on Facebook they get more “laugh” reactions than anything else LOL!)
All this for a vehicle that we won’t see until late 2020–over a year away?? (it is late 2019 as I post this) Unless they have something coming sooner? (a BEV Escape, perhaps??) We’re approaching auto show season? Hmm
A different take
Here is a different take on a PHEV commercial (yeah I’ve been posting a bit about commercials lately: hey the EV/PHEV vehicles need to be sold just like any other car and a good marketing campaign is the way to do that), from Volvo:
The others addressed myths about EVs (range, performance, etc.) this one, however, tackles the future and safety (expected for Volvo). I would imagine that this hits the bulls-eye for the typical Volvo customer (probably as designed).
Keep ’em coming, more EVs, more commercials…more!
Whats this? An EV RV?
Wow, check this out:
This comes courtesy of Inside EV’s. Cool an electric powered RV. I’ve been following this on and off since earlier in the year but this one has a bigger battery (108kWh) giving it almost 250 miles of range. Now 250 miles isn’t really that great for an RV (our motorhome will easily go 350+ on a tank) but it is getting up there.
With the larger packs like that charging also becomes an issue–in the video they mention 2 hours on a quick charger, but I’m not sure about their multiple day figure for campsite charging. We can do some math: The ClipperCreek EVSE I use at campgrounds charges at ~3.8kW; we’ll assume 4kW to make the math easier: 108kWh/4kW = 27 hours so just over a complete day. If it is equipped with a CCS plug in the US, Electrify America has some 350kW charge stations. Now we’re talking 108/350 = ~20 minutes (of course this is neglecting the power ramp up and down the charger will do but still you could stop, go have dinner somewhere, and come back to the RV with at least 80% or so). This could work (of course the 350kW stations aren’t everywhere so you’d still be limited).
This is interesting, it is a start of getting EV power in more places than just cars. Of course, its in Europe and not here but still someone has to start…
(Yeah ok I didn’t mention the price $200,000! That is why I didn’t mention it LOL. Early EV’s were really expensive too–its just a matter of time before the price comes down.)
Road trippin with a Bolt
Now here is an interesting article (courtesy of PlugShare’s twitter feed) about several people taking long road trips in their Bolt:
Five Inspiring Chevy Bolt EV Road Trips
I’m sure there are many more Bolt owners who have taken a “longer than a tank” drive with their cars. (I’ve mentioned before that I’d be willing but I don’t think the family is up for such a road trip in our Bolt–they’d much rather tow it and bring the RV.) For a long drive it is a bit of a small car to cram a bunch of adults in comfortably but it is doable.
When it rains
Wow even more “electrified” news from Ford: They announced an Escape Hybrid.
On top of that Ford Europe posted another EV video:
Wait “All cars”? (yeah right..oh wait in Europe?)
Still a plug-in hybrid Escape will be cool (see linked article above) although only 30 miles electric only range–I’d hope to see 50 miles these days (yeah always want more).
