Electronautics

/i-'lek-trə-nôtks/ n.
1. the science or art of ascending and traveling on the roads in electron powered vehicles.
2. the technology or art of driving electric vehicles. — elecronaut*, n. — electronautic, eletronautical, adj.

*"A BMW ActiveE driver; one of 700 adventurers and explorers. A front runner of innovation, and an advocate for sustainability. A surveyor of the present, and a proponent of the future — the future of mobility."

ActiveE

ActiveE

Thursday, March 22, 2012

It's Elementary, my dear Wattson!

And when I say elementary, I really mean as in the joy of driving a car powered by those subatomic elementary particles called electrons!  Yes, Virginia there is a Santa Claus and Christmas this year came on a very warm mid-March day in New England.  The elves deep in their headquarters in Bavaria have been busy and the product of their effort is a pleasure to drive.  Now that I am officially an Electronaut, there is no going back... oh wait, yes there is... i.e. I need to go back and finish the upgrades on my VOLTSwagen, so that we can start using it more often and maybe even as a second full-time commuter car.  The whole experience of getting to today has reinvigorated my efforts there as well.   Lots to do, but that's a different blog...



Although Heisenberg stated that you can not know precisely the position and energy, after spending lots of energy not knowing when I would enter the adventure as an Electronaut, the stars aligned today as not only was I able to pick up my ActiveE, but my Level 2 charging equipment was also installed today.  Thank you, ChargePoint America!  The system is working fine, has allowed fast charging of my ActiveE at 6.4 kW via a J1772 and is ready again for the road tomorrow.  The ActiveE is next to my VOLTSwagen in the garage and they are getting along nicely.  It's cool having 2 all electric cars in the garage!

As far as first impressions, the car handles very nice and seems plenty peppy enough.  I didn't have a lot of time to learn the in-and-outs of the car, but that will come.  I do hope that BMW fixes the MyBMW Remote app, because the features like timed charging will be very important once I have Time-of-use metering installed and can charge at $0.057/kWh, a further savings over our normal $0.136/kWh from Sterling Light Company.  Stay tuned for more details as I get more into the car.  P.S. My wife doesn't like the car stickers very much, but my 4 year old daughter loves them and thinks the car is very cool!

Thursday, March 15, 2012

New blog for new experience...



I finally got around to starting this blog tonight.  I found out that I would become an Electronaut a few weeks ago.  Since then I have been waiting and researching (and selling our old car).


I hope to share my experience with my forthcoming BMW ActiveE.  I have had some experience with EVs after restoring and then converting my '67 VW Beetle into a VOLTSwagen, but I know my experience with be much different with my ActiveE.


My new car should be arriving at Wagner BMW tomorrow, March 16, and I hope to take the keys sometime early next week.

Also, on its way is my Coulomb Technologies CT503 EVSE wall unit so that I will be able to charge at 220V and 30Amps (4-5hrs for 0 to 100%).  I am participating in the ChargePoint America program where I was able to get the EVSE for free and only had to pay for installation.



Stay tuned...