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, Thu, 19 Dec 2013 14:58:23
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The car is rated at 105 MPGe, and has an official range of 89 miles. Obviously that number is a variable and will go down with higher speeds, a lead foot, and use of more accessories and will go up with lower steady speeds and fewer accessories. What I've read is that it's never a struggle to hit that 89 miles doing "normal" driving, and that with attention to driving habits and mild weather (no heat or AC), another 10 or 20 miles isn't a problem. I suspect that +20 miles comes from totally optimal driving conditions - probably 45mph in no traffic in 75 degree weather. ;)
As I mentioned above, Day 1 we did 60 miles with 39% of the battery remaining. Half those miles were mid day with nothing but the radio on, the other half were at night with radio, headlights and the heater on. It seems that we'd definitely have hit that 89 miles, possibly more.
Really brief experimentation shows that the difference between 70mph, headlights, and heater is pretty substantial vs 45mph and nothing on. We've also learned that, when possible, the seat heaters are a better option than the main heater. ;) It's both annoying and incredibly refreshing to have immediate, tangible results of how small actions affect your economy in this world.
We also learned that we able to to add 35% battery capacity over about eight hours at 120v, so on a normal day for her - 40 miles, and 13 hours between getting home and leaving again - the 120v charger would be fine. I'm still going to install a 240v charger - I don't want a battery crunch and obviously minimizing time on pay-for chargers is desirable. Plus, now's the time to do it before the 30% tax credit for these installs disappears. I just ordered a Siemens Vesicharge from homedepot.com. ;)
For her application, where a ton of gasoline was being burned driving 40 miles on surface streets and stop and go traffic, the electric car shines. Based on what I know at this early stage, I wouldn't chance 75 miles at 75mph unless there was a charger in the middle. Running the climate control and headlights and getting stuck for one accident or something might result in needing a tow. For us together, the Fiat is going to reduce the costs AND the parking hassles of our tendencies to spend weekends downtown, so there's a lot of win bundled up here. As a sole mode of transportation I don't think this would work out, but for *most* transportation I think it's going to be awesome, and we of course have plenty of conventional cars to fall back on for the times it isn't an optimal solution.
posted by 12.195.130...
, Wed, 18 Dec 2013 23:42:46
, Mon, 30 Dec 2013 09:21:16
, Sun, 22 Dec 2013 03:07:42, Mon, 23 Dec 2013 12:51:55, Thu, 19 Dec 2013 14:58:23, Thu, 19 Dec 2013 13:23:29, Thu, 19 Dec 2013 07:38:35
, Thu, 19 Dec 2013 05:54:08, Thu, 19 Dec 2013 13:03:17, Thu, 19 Dec 2013 15:05:20, Thu, 19 Dec 2013 16:13:18, Fri, 20 Dec 2013 10:34:43
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