Added to the stable!

PinkieT · Nov 30, 2016

My wife only drives about 6,000 miles a year. Her commute is 14 miles round trip. We have been looking at electric cars for over a year and just pulled the trigger on a 2013 Ford Focus E plug-in electric with only 780 miles on it! Looks like it was a Ford pool car in Michigan for the last three years. Got a heck of a deal. The Ford Synch information system, plus the conversion to an electric car, freaked my wife out for about two days but she is loving it now. We had already signed up for a solar panel system to be installed on the house, so just upped the number of panels to cover the expected car electricity as well as our regular electricity usage.

It is Pearl white, two tone grey cloth interior, full Monty navigation and infotainment system. Ford was screwy - in 2012 you could get the Homelink in the sun visor to program three garage door openers internally instead of clipping the remote to the visor, but I found I can install one from a 2012 with just a screwdriver.

Don't worry, she still loves her Mustang!

ttocs · Nov 30, 2016

if you have solar cells I think that is one of the few times I endorse electric cars. Any other time its more then likely being fueled by a coal powered power plant, or nuclear so to say they are zero waste is bad info in most cases.

96blak54 · Dec 1, 2016

Not to mention the atrocious energy involved making the batteries! And then disposal or recycling of them. Disposal is a dangerous situation due to environmental destruction......im just not seeing green here. Perhaps more green in your wallet, saving gas. No green to the earth.

Ill be honest though...lol....im peeking into electric commuter myself.

Burninriverdiver · Dec 1, 2016

An electric car and a solar panel sounds like a pretty good idea! Now the sun just needs to come out here in Northeast Ohio lol

DropTopPony · Dec 1, 2016

Pics?

PinkieT · Dec 1, 2016

96blak54 said:
Not to mention the atrocious energy involved making the batteries! And then disposal or recycling of them. Disposal is a dangerous situation due to environmental destruction......im just not seeing green here. Perhaps more green in your wallet, saving gas. No green to the earth.

Ill be honest though...lol....im peeking into electric commuter myself.

I did some research. Yes, the mining of the materials for the batteries has some environmental impact. I can't find anything on the power required to make them. 98% of all lead-acid car batteries are recycled for their materials. The newer batteries for electric vehicles, such as those made of lithium-ion, include even more valuable and recyclable metals. My wife and I usually have a curbside recycling bin three times as full as our neighbors who put everything in the trash.

PinkieT · Dec 1, 2016

ttocs said:
if you have solar cells I think that is one of the few times I endorse electric cars. Any other time its more then likely being fueled by a coal powered power plant, or nuclear so to say they are zero waste is bad info in most cases.

Researched your comment. Yes, east of the Mississippi where coal plants are more common that has been true. The rule of thumb is that an electric car charged by a coal fired plant pollutes as much as a gasoline car. Since the cost of natural gas has dropped so much, the power companies are converting over when they can. One charged by a natural gas plant has the emission equivalent as a high efficiency hybrid. Our solar panel system is sized so that we feed into the grid when making excess electricity and taking it out at night, so our net electricity from power plants will be zero.

PinkieT · Dec 1, 2016

DropTopPony said:
Pics?

Coming this weekend!

PinkieT · Dec 1, 2016

Burninriverdiver said:
An electric car and a solar panel sounds like a pretty good idea! Now the sun just needs to come out here in Northeast Ohio lol

I ordered a crapload of sunlamps LOL.