Harnessing Electricity

$6.00?... That was the increase in my monthly electricity bill during the month of August. Normally, I would not have paid any attention to my electricity bill, but in the month of August I drove Mitsubishi's all electric i-MiEV, so I was curious to see what sort of impact charging the car at home would have on my bill. Now, if I had been driving my BMW MINI, I would have used at least a tank of gas for the same mileage. A full tank is about $65 at the current price. $65 vs $6?...

I think back to where I drove the EV during that month. Many of the trips were around Aurora, Ontario where I live. I ran in-town errands and lots of back and forth between the GO train station and my house. For that distance, a gas powered car would hardly have had time to warm up, let alone drive efficiently. Some trips were for business in Markham and Richmond Hill. In some of the cases, I let other people test drive the car. Usually they all wanted to see how fast it would go and would stomp on the accelerator. I say "accelerator" because you can't really say "gas pedal" when talking about an electric car, but I didn't feel guilty slamming down on the pedal because I knew that all I had to do was go home, plug-in and wake-up in the morning to a "full tank" of electrons.

At $6.00 for the month, I felt a little smug driving the i-MiEV as if I had discovered the secret to cold fusion or downloaded my first song from the internet. And the best part of it was the feeling that I was the only one who knew. That kind of smug. It made me think that driving an EV is kind of like sailing. When I am on a sailboat, the wind gently heeling over me, moving the boat along, I cannot help think that I'm cheating. Here I am moving along and I don't need an expensive and noisy gas or diesel engine. I am harnessing a force of nature and am being whisked along to my destination leaving only a ripple in the water behind. That is how I feel driving an EV. I have harnessed a force of nature and am whisking silently along the road to my destination leaving only... well, I don't leave anything behind really except the other cars in my rear-view mirror. That kind of smug!

Ron Groves, Manager of Education and Outreach
Plug'n Drive

Driving an Electric Car - A Firsthand Account of Range Anxiety

So, when you are running an non-profit promoting electric driving you have to walk the talk, right? I decided to take that to heart and drive the Mitsubishi i-MiEV from Toronto to a place just outside Orangeville for the weekend. It was about a 75 km trip from our house and the range on a full charge is about 130 km, so I figured it should be no problem.

So, with an i-MiEV, kindly provided to Plug'n Drive by Mitsubishi, I brought the EV home the night before to charge up overnight. I have no garage but, yes, a 110V plug outside of the house can do it.
When I pulled up, I realized our basketball net meant that the cord couldn't quite reach, so I figured an extension cord would do the job and I left it to 'fill up' over night. When I went out in the morning I discovered that I hadn't charged the car at all. So, I made a few calls and found out that extension cords are a no no.

My husband and I moved the basketball net - no small feat - and then I was able to get close enough to plug in directly. Great! Except, it was 8 a.m. and I wanted to get going. So, we got packed up and inside the i-MiEV I managed to fit my son, our dog in a doggie crate, our bags and me (The i-MiEV is a lot bigger than it looks).

Ok, the car wasn't fully charged, but that's ok because I knew there was a quick charger at Mitsubishi's Headquarters at HWY 427 and Eglinton Ave., which wasn't too far out of my way. So, I decided not to wait and headed to Mitsubishi. I got there and the quick charger was available and easy to use. We charged and in 15 minutes it was done. Amazing! Except for one small detail - I forgot that it only gets you to 80% not 100%.

Hmmm - given where I am going that will be close. But I was on the way so I was going to try it. So I hopped on HWY 410 North. It was 35 degrees outside and I wanted to turn on the air conditioning. The problem is that the combination of a/c and highway driving is really bad on range, so we were going to have to go without a/c on one of the hottest days of the year. We get off the highway and use the eco-mode on the side roads and that bought us a bit more range.

I was getting nervous as the charge had dropped to the last bar and I was still 10 kms away. With my heart pounding we pulled into the driveway with the dash blinking at me crying, "Charge Me!". But, we made it.

Lesson learned, when driving electric you need to plan ahead :)

Cara Clairman
President and CEO

Plug'n Drive from Infancy to Adulthood

I have to be honest, this is my first blog post... EVER! I want to document some of the important and exciting developments around electric cars and our experiences in promoting them.

First things first. People are always asking me why I started Plug'nDrive. I had a great job as VP of Sustainable Development at Ontario Power Generation (OPG), Ontario's largest generator of electricity. It was in this job that I hit upon what I consider to be a classic sustainability winner: electric vehicles (EV) are good for the environment, society and the economy. 

If you plug your car in at night in Ontario (and most other Canadian provinces) you are plugging into surplus baseload electricity that is both low emitting and low cost. As our electricity supply gets greener, so does EV driving and of course, electricity is usually locally made whereas gas is often not.  On top of this, Ontario has smart meters, time of use pricing and a vibrant auto sector.  All good reasons why Ontario should be a leader in the deployment of EVs.  But we all know that making vehicles available is not enough.  People have 100 years of experience with gas cars - how can we convince them that EVs are worth a try?

This opportunity was so compelling to me that I pitched Tom Mitchell, CEO of OPG about turning Plugndrive - which at that time was a sustainability project internal to OPG - into an independent not for profit.  He gave the idea a ringing endorsement - and we were off to the races.  So, in June 2011 I set up the non-profit corporation with a top notch Board of Directors and set out to find some other like minded companies to help support the cause.  

Our first order of business was to raise awareness we know EVs are good for the environment and economy but how good are they? How do we let people know? How do we change behaviours?  How do we move people from "that's interesting" to "I want to drive one of those!"? 

And thus we began our EV Road Show, an educational campaign that is generously sponsored by TD Bank. In addition to this outreach program, Plug'nDrive showcases at events all over the province. We have also begun a program to assist consumers who are ready to embrace the technology but need some help in the 'how to" called Charge My Car. Consumers want to know things like: How do I get a home charger?  Which cars are available and where?  Where are the public chargers?  Answers to all your questions about EVs can be found there. 

And if the business case for EV's is not clear for you yet, please watch this video: This is Just the Beginning.   Convinced?  If not, invite me to come talk to your company or group in person and bring a car.  Be part of driving Canada's clean energy future.

Stay tuned as we begin on a journey to convince drivers that they can make the change to electric - reducing their CO2 footprint and helping the local economy at the same time. 

Cara Clairman
President and CEO