Here's the 35 year EV History.
1985-1987:
The first generation (mid-80's) involved a Miata street bicycle, two Bosch 24V truck fan motors and a friction drive spindle. Two 12AH 12V AGM Lead Acid batteries were the power source and a switch that provided Off, 12V (parallel) or 24V (series) switching in combination with a semi-truck 24V high current relay. It would do 18 mph for around 8 miles. Batteries lasted about 25 cycles before dying.
No pictures have survived.
1988-89: Made contact with the second owner of a 1980 US Electricar 'Leopard' on a BBS. He had upgraded the controller and wiring at his shop in Centraila WA. It sold to a guy in Kansas City. I stayed in touch with the new owner as he tried to keep it on the road during mid-western winters. He finally gave up on being able it run it all year, put new batteries in it and sold it to me. It was my main commuter for 6-8 years over a 30 mile daily round trip. Had it for over 10 years. Only serious maintenance was a couple repairs to the charger, improvements to the battery mounts and monthly manual battery balancing (equalizing top charge point across the 16: 6V 220AH Lead Acid batteries, 20KWh total). This was a good demonstration. Good lead-acid batteries, when properly cared for and only discharged from 100% to around 40% can last a long long time. They were reportedly replaced in North Carolina ca.2006 by which time the usable range was around 20 miles.
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| Woo! Fancy Sunroof |
It was at a number of electric car show-and-tell outings over the years and was generally well received. Handling was less than ideal given the heavy batteries (1299 lbs.) in a light car. Top speed was almost 70, but grossly unsafe above 55.
Purchased for $5000. Sold for $5000. About 28K miles during 10 years, 8 on the road regularly. Having absorbed around $1000 in electricity that pencils out to around $0.06/mi. including insurance - etc. Was still running on the same battery pack 4 years later. (2006?) It was still on EVAlbum in 2024.
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| Based on the Renault 5 chassi |
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| BattV, MotorAmps, Controller/Motor Temps. |
2000:
Following all the pre-production and initial 'reveal' on the Honda Insight Hybrid, which was quite riveting from mid 1999 onward, they hit the dealers in December 1999, and there were months of order backlogs. Some dealers were getting $3-5K above the 25K list prices. As a basically hand built 'market test vehicle' with a max production of 5000/year world wide, well, waiting was hard.
But it paid off. Reading 10,000 forum posts to glean the early production/design errors, watching dealer stock and order levels, well yes, most people would be bored silly. However it became obvious in the fall of 2000 that all the early adopters had gotten theirs. They weren't flying off the lots anymore. There was talk of a promotion to move the inventory, $2000 off!!. Now we're talking.
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| Mine's the Kendall Honda one |
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| At an Oregon Electric Vehicle Association (OEVA) function Jan.2001 |
Sold Dec.2010 $8000. 10 years, 100K mi. 72+ mpg average.
Total cost including gas, maint, tires, Insurance & depreciation (of $1700/yr) so total: 0.168/mi
Acceleration wasn't all that strong, other than that it was a strange looking all aluminum sports car that just happened to get 70 mpg. Was at a couple car shows in the early going, including OMSI.
2006-2007:
A return to 'pure' electrics
We looked at several of the new wave of inexpensive electric commuter cars coming out of China. Moving and changed commuter habits (roads all at 45 mph or under) made this class of vehicle appealing to the inner EV freak.
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| The Red Menace out in traffic |
"The Red Menace" a Revolution Motors R1 didn't last long and was sold a couple months later. Kind of fun around town when it was running. Eventually sold at a loss when it turned out key repair parts simply weren't available.
Never did get it beyond 38 mph so it was a questionable commuter. Oddly enough it did better in dense traffic; slower but good acceleration made it fit in better. One of the few 3-phase AC powered cars from that period.
When that didn't work out we went looking for other options. Several dealers had sprung up selling the ZAP Xebra 3 wheeled electric 'car'. One had a compelling deal on a reworked 'new' one. Whee:
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| Yep, both in one parking spot. |
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| Fancy Interior! |
2010: The LEAF World Tour!
We've been following the LEAF gestation since day one. As it finally hits the prototype stage they announce a world tour with the 4 prototype cars being shipped around all over so the fans can have a look and maybe even sit in it. So Cool! We get up early and head up to OMSI where the Portland stop on the tour is being held. End up spending most of the day there answering questions that the Nissan employees can't. They give us free T Shirts for being 'booth babes.'
When it comes out, guess what? Long delays -and- tooooo darn expensive.
2010:
So, we've been waiting and waiting for the Honda EV to arrive and it's gonna be 'Next Year (tm)' and next and next... What to do in the mean time. We need a car that can haul more than the Gen1 Insight. I know, a Gen2 Insight. We'll just need it until the Honda EV comes out. Better plan on 3 years. ;-(
...So maybe a lease.
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| Second generation Insight, mid 2010. Nice! |
$9K Lease total over 36 months. $1900 total in maint, gas and insurance. Works out to around $0.31/mi.
Not a bad ride. The paddle-shifters were fun. Could fit lots of construction materials inside, Averaged -just- below 50 mpg end to end.
Still kind of a failure, by the end time the fabled Honda EV unicorn still hadn't arrived.
Early 2013:
OK, Lease coming to an end, buy-out price is absurd. Hmmm, there's several kits out to convert the Toyota Prius to a plug-in EV/Hybrid. Especially the 3rd generation units. Drive around electrically for local trips, and only use gas for longer ones! I can get behind that. So we go looking for early 3rd gen Prii. Found a nice one in PDX for around $20K. Hey this thing is pretty nice.
We start looking at conversion kits and pricing it out and talking to people who have actually done it. Not a good story. wait a few months for improvements and...
2013: May
The Honda EV is out ...and... It's $38,000+ and a long wait and that's tooooo darn much.
Meanwhile the Mitsubishi iMiev has been introduced. We went down to look at the first one in the state when they showed up mid-2012. Not bad at all. Fits our 'use case' almost exactly. Still too much money.
But wait, as of mid 2013 they still have a bunch of 2012 inventory sitting at the dealers. Turns out you can't sell a smaller less capable car than the Leaf for the same amount of money. Huh.
Mitsubishi steps up with a $10K off offer, dealers write'em down a couple thousand and suddenly the $33K car is only $21K out the door. After federal tax incentive you're looking at $13.5K. I can do that.
So the Prius becomes the long haul car and the iMiev gets around 95% of the local trips. It's fine in a 20-25 mile radius. It doesn't have fast charging capability so longer trips are a pain unless there's charging (and a long stop) at the other end. It makes it to Eugene once and the coast a couple times. Mostly just local though. Details here Yep, you can fit 4 normal adults -and- 5 bags of groceries in there. Nice packaging design
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| At Work. iMiev row! |
The Prius ends up being our most expensive car ever. Two+ years, 16K mi, and it sells for $12.5K
Even with getting 51 mpg is still works out to $0.66/mi. (mostly depreciation)
Heck even the Porsche's I've had weren't nearly that bad. Oh well, when a plan doesn't work out... it doesn't work out.
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| On the way back from the coast |
2017:
Remember how iMiev's and Leaf's were too darn expensive, at least until there was waaaaay to much stock at the dealers? Yeah that just happened with the Leaf. [See Here] Since we're waiting for the whole Tesla thing to shake out, we got a 30 month lease on a 2017 Leaf. If the new State incentive comes through it will work out to around $0.14/mile.
Why not just keep the iMiev? We moved and the car needs to go twice as far -and- have fast charging. The iMiev is still a nice rig. Given that it's been all short hops on it it's not too surprising the per mile costs are around $0.29/mi. 95% of that is depreciation though. No other costs except electricity and insurance. A relative owns it. Still going strong in 2024.
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| Charging coming back from Seattle |
Tesla? That can wait until 2020's. Well see what the Model 3 looks like as used units start to show up. $15K is about my limit. It may work, it may not. The redesigned 2018 Leaf is looking Awfully Good.
If it follows Nissan's historical pattern, as the first units come off lease the used prices will plunge below $15K. We'll see what happens. The other side of history.
[Edit;] So the 2017 Leaf only lasted 23 months before we sold it. The used prices kept going up and it got to the point where the total of our initial down -plus- all the payments -plus- maint. -plus- insurance was still under $15K, and they were selling used for over $17K. So we sold and made over $200 on the car plus driving 'free' for many months. I've seen worse deals...
The amount we made plus the Oregon rebate covered much of the down on a new 2018 40KWh Leaf and we're just out the $203/mo. payment plus a little for electricity as most of our transportation expenses these days. See details in link. (Which now includes the 2021 Leaf as well)
And I suppose we should mention the remaining addition to the stable: Electric Bikes!
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