{"id":28101,"date":"2018-11-28T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-11-28T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ashleydev.com\/2018\/11\/28\/shocking-expose-a-year-with-an-electric-car\/"},"modified":"2020-08-27T11:26:44","modified_gmt":"2020-08-27T15:26:44","slug":"shocking-expose-a-year-with-an-electric-car","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cna.ca\/fr\/2018\/11\/28\/shocking-expose-a-year-with-an-electric-car\/","title":{"rendered":"Shocking Expos\u00e9: A Year with an Electric Car"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Morgan Brown, Nuclear Engineer and Systems Analyst, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories<\/strong>
\nOriginally published in the North Renfrew Times, November 14, 2018<\/strong><\/p>\n

It began with a display by Ontario\u2019s Plug\u2019N Drive, a non-profit organization promoting electric vehicles (EVs).\u00a0 They brought their EV Roadshow to Chalk River Labs in the spring of 2017, along with a plug-in hybrid Chevrolet Volt.\u00a0 I was intrigued, and told Catharine all about it.\u00a0 Fine, she said, and booked a visit to a Kia dealer in Ottawa the following weekend.\u00a0 We went, we saw, they (the dealership) conquered; we purchased a 2017 all-electric Kia Soul, my post-mid-life-crisis car.<\/p>\n

I had long wanted an EV, and they appeared to have come of age.\u00a0 Normally I\u2019m on the trailing edge of technology, content with what I have and without a desire for new toys.\u00a0 But it was time to put money where my mouth was, especially with respect to reducing my impact on our one and only planet Earth (the one with no Plan B).\u00a0 Electric cars, in a place like Ontario with low-emission electricity, have significantly lower lifetime overall environmental damage compared with an internal-combustion engine (ICE) vehicle like our SUV.\u00a0 The reason I got into the nuclear business, some thirty years ago, was precisely because it has a relatively low impact on our world; it was now time to make a personal commitment.<\/p>\n

The Kia Soul EV is similar to the ICE version, in terms of the exterior look and interior fittings.\u00a0 There are a number of ICE versions in and around town \u2013 it\u2019s a funky-looking useful car with a hatchback and room for five (ok, a bit squishy).\u00a0 I have no problem transporting my bari sax, a not-inconsequential (foghornish?) music instrument.\u00a0 The Kia (not the bari) has an 81 hp electric motor driving a single-speed transmission to the front wheels.\u00a0 It can easily go over 100 km\/h, despite how I drive; the pickup is pretty peppy from a standing start, due to very high torque.<\/p>\n

The EV cost us $43,005 including all taxes, substantially more than the ICE version because of the expensive batteries. \u00a0We received an Ontario taxpayer subsidy (thank you!) of $14,000, bringing the price down to about that of the ICE Soul; frankly, the subsidy was a little rich and didn\u2019t seem to have any mechanism for decreasing as EVs became cheaper, but that\u2019s another story.\u00a0 Note that, because the EV is more than $10,000 more expensive than the ICE version, we paid over $1500 more tax.<\/p>\n

So what about the \u201clack of infrastructure\u201d that gets bandied about?\u00a0 That\u2019s a fallacy \u2013 the infrastructure is everywhere in the form of standard 120 V outlets.\u00a0 For the first few months we used only the Level 1 (120 V) charger with which the car was equipped.\u00a0 Yes, it takes a long time to fully charge (about 24 h for 30 kWh), but we never fully drain the battery and rarely fully charge it.\u00a0 Essentially the Level 1 charges at about 6 km per hour (a velocity?).\u00a0 Plugged in overnight at off-peak prices gives about 2 round trips from our Deep River home to the Chalk River Labs.\u00a0 Canadian Nuclear Laboratories has provided six EV Level 1 parking spots, which gives another nine hours charging when I drive the car pool; interestingly, the six spots are no longer enough for all the EV owners on site!<\/p>\n

The Level 2 charger is the next step up, charging the batteries at 240 V.\u00a0 We paid $1895 (including >$200 tax) to purchase and install such our Level 2 charger, but received a $747 taxpayer subsidy (again, thank you).\u00a0 This charger is about six times faster; frankly, plugging in the car when needed is similar to plugging in a cell phone \u2013 no big deal!<\/p>\n

We have used a fast charger once, namely the one at the Deep River Tim Horton\u2019s, just to see how it worked.\u00a0 While it charged the car to about 85% of full capacity (to avoid frying the battery) in under about one half hour, I estimated it cost 5 times the price we would pay at home!\u00a0 However, we are appreciative that such charge stations are available.<\/p>\n

So, how has the EV performed?\u00a0 Our main driving is around town or to the CNL plant site.\u00a0 Occasionally we take it to Pembroke or Petawawa, but leave the (rare) Ottawa trip for the SUV.\u00a0 The full-charge range (nominally 149 km) varies from about 120 km in winter to 180 km in summer \u2013 the winter decrease is primarily due to the batteries being cold, although the electric heating also takes a toll.\u00a0 It would be nice to have the ~10% greater range of the 2018 Kia Soul, and some claim the 2020 version may be as high as 350 km.\u00a0 Regardless, our EV does a fine job, and we\u2019ve moved on from \u201crange anxiety\u201d to \u201crange awareness\u201d.\u00a0 The average electricity consumption (Sep 2017 \u2013 Aug 2018) was 16.2 kWh\/100 km.\u00a0 Assuming a 15% loss due to charging, and an average $0.19\/kWh (our 2016 total electricity cost divided by total kWh), this works out to about $3.60 \/ 100 km.\u00a0 An equivalent ICE Kia Soul, at 7.6 l\/100 km (highway) and $1.20 per litre for gas, costs about $9.10 per 100 km.\u00a0 If I use a much more accurate \u201cincremental cost\u201d of electricity and charge overnight, the cost is less than $3\/100 km.<\/p>\n

Overall we\u2019re very pleased with the EV.\u00a0 If we lived in a city, we would ditch the SUV, keep the EV, and rent a vehicle for long trips.\u00a0 Sure, the EV lacks the range you might want, but things are improving.\u00a0 The initial cost is higher but it is much cheaper to operate (did I mention the lack of oil changes?).\u00a0 However, economics was not our prime motivator \u2013 it really does reduce our damage to the environment, and is fun to drive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Morgan Brown, Nuclear Engineer and Systems Analyst, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories Originally published in the North Renfrew Times, November 14, 2018 It began with a display by Ontario\u2019s Plug\u2019N Drive, a non-profit organization promoting electric vehicles (EVs).\u00a0 They brought their EV Roadshow to Chalk River Labs in the spring of 2017, along with a plug-in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[537],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-28101","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-talknuclear"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nShocking Expos\u00e9: A Year with an Electric Car - Association nucl\u00e9aire canadienne<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cna.ca\/fr\/2018\/11\/28\/shocking-expose-a-year-with-an-electric-car\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"fr_FR\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Shocking Expos\u00e9: A Year with an Electric Car - 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