A Maritimes AdvEVenture Part 5

The last leg of our trip was spending two days in Halifax. 

Fishermen's Cove Dartmouth

Fishermen’s Cove is an adorable little spot near the mouth of the Halifax Harbour, a beautifully restored fishing village. Unfortunately MacGyver and I did not communicate properly and he took us there first thing on Sunday morning when they weren’t open until noon (autumn hours). He is Mr. Efficient when it comes to planning a route, which I totally appreciate, because I am the same. However, checking business hours for shopping is not high up on his list of priorities. Still, there was a silver lining to my disappointment at not finding something unique and handmade to take home: the lack of people meant that I got a couple of pretty sweet photos of a quilt that’s going into Make Modern next spring!

A Maritimes AdvEVenture Part 4

From Ingonish we headed on to Chéticamp on the Cabot Trail, hoping to do the world famous Skyline Trail that day, but if not, then the following morning. The parking lot fills up fast, and when it does, they close the trail, and the fines are very substantial if you park on the road and walk in. Once 30 or so vehicles depart, then they will reopen the lot. However, this first window for us happened to be a pretty cool day (high of 13-15) within a cluster of gorgeous warm (low 20s) days, so when we arrived at around 11:30, there was plenty of parking to be had! Before we arrived we made a few stops.

Green Cove

Colour and texture, bracing wind and powerful pulsing surf, a mesmerizing cocktail.

A Maritimes AdvEVenture Part 3

When planning the Cape Breton section of our Maritimes trip, MacGyver confessed he was a little anxious about the charging infrastructure as it's pretty remote. Never did we think we'd be more concerned with the charging of the human body infrastructure!

Now if a human could live on the non-stop feast that was before our eyes over the past two and a half days, then we'd each have been stuffed to the gills. My heart was aching almost 24/7 with the utter splendour.

Ocean view at the top of the 23-storey high Freshwater Lake Look-off Hike

A Maritimes AdvEVenture Part 2

We love to go a bit off the beaten track, so to speak, when we travel, opting for secondary highways as opposed to major ones. This gets us more in touch with the real landscape as opposed to the manicured, everything-looks-the-same landscape of highways/motorways/interstates. These lower speed limits are where EVs really shine. Because we are going at speeds around 80-90 kph as opposed to 110 on the major highway, the car goes through less energy. It’s also in the automatic mode where it’s learning the driving habits so it maximizes energy use in that way too. Remember in one of my W-EVnesday posts where I wrote that my husband said it’s basically a smart phone on wheels? A great analogy. 

The colours of fall continue to mesmerize me

This is Highway 6 in Nova Scotia, a little bit west of Pictou. 

A Maritimes AdvEVnture

Other than my Gratitude and Glimmers posts, I haven’t really mused much of late. I never wanted this blog to be only about quilting, but have it be a place to share bits of my life and thoughts in my brain. I started this blog 12 years ago this month so it seems fitting I should post a little bit about goings-on which, as you can see by the title, is currently a trip.

Yes, that is Three Pines, and yes, that is Knowlton, hometown of Louise Penny, and yes, we stayed the first night just outside of Knowlton in Lac Brôme Hotel (highly recommend).

Three Pines is really a state of mind. It’s where we live when we choose to be kind.”

W-EVdnesday #7 - Power Grids

First of all, I have made a tab at the top of my blog which, if you click it, takes to to a page where you can find links to all of my W-EVdnesday posts.

Last week Alberta issued an Emergency Alert:

Screenshot courtesy of our daughter Brianne. 

My first thought was well, I guess I can see that; I mean earlier Brianne had sent us a couple of screenshots of unbelievably cold actual temperatures and insane windchills:

But my nano-second close second thought was wait, 'delay charging electric vehicles?' That is what they are purporting to be one of the significant drains on the grid? 'Berta gonna 'Berta as they say these days...

However, it’s not just Alberta; this narrative is all too common. 

“Our power grid won't be able to handle all these EVs coming online.”

So MacGyver and I had a little chat, and he told me about Tim Weiss, @TimWeissAB a professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Alberta (yay, my alma mater) who he follows who had this to say about that very thing.

W-EVdnesday #6 Travelling

My apologies for not posting last Wednesday or yesterday; blame it on the holiday brain fog.

Since we’ve just returned from another 2000 km round-trip, I thought I'd write a bit about this fairly major stumbling block a lot of people have when it comes to considering the purchase of an EV. Although long trips are slightly different, especially in these early days of EVs, they shouldn't be a factor that deters you from buying an EV. We've now got four long trips under our belt since we purchased our Ioniq 5 just about two years ago. This most recent one was to Dayna's in Spring Hill, Tennessee, a distance of just short of 1000 km, thanks to having to go off I-75 to get to a fast charging station.

You can see that it is estimated to take not quite nine hours which doesn't account for stops or traffic issues. Dayna and Tyler usually do it in a little over 9 hours with one stop for gas, food and bathroom. Again, this depends on traffic; going down we ran into major congestion and delays in Louisville which added an hour to our travel time; coming home, out of order charging stations did the same.

W-EVdnesday #5 Precious Metals

Culture changes usually take a long time; people tend to like the status quo. So it is normal to be unsure and skeptical about new ways of doing things; in fact it is good to think critically, something that is lost on a frighteningly large number of people in today's world. When computers first became the norm for research, back in the early 2000s, as opposed to going to encyclopedias and non-fiction sections of our libraries, we, as teachers, had to first learn and then teach critical thinking skills wrt sources. We taught kids to verify the accuracy of a source, look into credentials, and we drilled into them the fact that anyone, anyone, can make a webpage, and claim 'facts' and relate 'actual incidents' that might be seen as true. We sent them to sites like snopes.com and factcheck.com. Little did we know that in less than two decades formerly respectable news sources would print lies and untruth and unreality in order to garner 'clicks' which were unheard of back then, really, in order to get as much revenue as possible. 

Follow the money is a truism. If you follow the money back to many of the myths circulating about EVs, you will find that oil companies are very skilled at promoting misinformation. One of them is that EVs require mining for lithium for their batteries that is worse for the environment than drilling for oil is.

W-EVdnesday #4 Maintenance

This is an area that will probably blow your mind when it comes to EVs, because there is virtually no maintenance. Electric motors are less complex than internal combustion engines (ICE) because they don't require multiple moving parts.

EVs do not require tuneups. EVs do not require oil changes, whereas ICE vehicles require regular tuneups and oil changes. That's right; there is no oil to change! Think of how many oil changes you do per year with your ICE vehicle, and do the math as to how much that costs. This is also an advantage that EVs have over hybrids because hybrids have two systems, the ICE system and the battery system.

A look at our 'frunk' which is where an engine for ICE vehicles would be. The pink and blue jugs are windshield washer fluid and the coolant reservoir for the battery.

The first major maintenance checkup is at 200 000 kilometres. Obviously you will still have to rotate tires and fill up windshield washer fluid and change the HEPA filter just as with an ICE vehicle. 

W-EVdnesday #3 - Range

I'm so happy to hear that these posts are helpful! Thank you for your comments and observations and questions. Today I'll talk about range. Many people believe that you can't go very far in an EV. While it is true that we now stop more often when we are travelling, I do not mind this. We've found we're not as exhausted when we arrive at our destination as before when we didn't take breaks.

Stopping for Pup Cups at Starbucks is never a bad idea!

Our car has a range of 500 km. Just as with ICE (Internal Combustion Engine) vehicles, range is dependent on a few factors: wind, speed, what systems you're using (AC, heat) and ambient temperature. Where EVs differ from ICE vehicles is that they get less mileage on the highway and better mileage in the city. We've found with our car if we're tootling around in the city we see a 560 km range; on the highway on long hauls, it is around 430 km, depending on the above factors. Note that that's cruising at 120 kph.

W-EVdnesday #2 Charging Stations

Today's post is about charging. Probably the biggest reason people tell me why they aren't getting an EV is that, "We aren't there yet," when it comes to the infrastructure needed to charge electric cars. However, what you have to wrap your head around is that unless you are going on a trip, or your apartment or condo does not have charging stations, rarely if ever will you need to go to a public charging station. 

It's true that if you get off the main highways here in Ontario, your chances of finding a fast charger take a nosedive. However, along the major ones, for example the 401, they are plentiful and fast, at every OnRoute rest area. The other thing to consider is that major highways go through or very near major cities, and not far into a major city you will find fast chargers. We look for Canadian Tire stores (these are hardware, outdoor, home and garden major department stores) where Electrify Canada (our preference) and Flo chargers are.

 

One of our several free charges we’ve had over the past  1.75 years. I posted it on Instagram with a thank you any tag to Electrify Canada and they responded☺️

Not all Canadian Tire stores have EV chargers, but many do. Last year when we travelled to the Catskills, we found that Walmart had several Electrify America chargers in their parking lots. This makes such sense to have chargers at shopping centres! You plug in, head into the store, hit the washroom, grab something to eat or drink, and by the time you get back to your vehicle, it's probably about ready to take off again.

W-EVdnesday

Here we go for the first EV post! We’ve been happy owners of a 2022 Hyundai Ioniq 5 for 1.5 years, that is since February 4, 2022.

Expensive

One of the first things people say to me is how they couldn't afford a $100K vehicle. Our Ioniq 5 cost $50K, which included some extras like tinted windows, and $2400 in admin fees🙄.  The $50k price includes a $5k rebate from the federal government. I've had it said to my face, "Oh, my daughter/son/I couldn't afford that." I'm not sure if those people have checked into the price of a new vehicle these days but there aren't too many crossovers much less than that.