An Electric Vehicle Sojourn and Convergence
Editor’s prologue – Interstate 84 wasn’t exactly choked with electric vehicles leaving Portland for John Day to take part in the SolWest Fair and the John Day or Bust EV convergence that took place the last weekend in July. However, there were three hardy souls and two EVs that did strike out on Thursday, July 28, thereby keeping this event alive for another year.
John Christian, Chair of the Oregon Electric Vehicle Association, drove his brand new Nissan Leaf and Ray Blackburn, OEVA Treasurer, was, for the second year, at the wheel of his converted Toyota Yaris. Riding shotgun was Phil Hochstetler, another member of the OEVA.
Many folks think the Leaf should not be pushed beyond its limits and should not be used for long trips like this but here is what the John Day or Bust trip accomplished more than anything. It opened up the eyes of the Port of Cascade Locks, The City of The Dalles and The Dalles Chamber of Commerce, the Dufur Chamber of Commerce, and the Condon Chamber of Commerce. All of them were confronted with charging EVs recently. Now they are contemplating the tourist impact and how it might be beneficial to be “charge friendly” for their respective cities.
The more EVs that go through these towns the better for EVs and the infrastructure that supports them. Plus more money is coming to these towns from EV drivers that are captivated until charging is finished. I am sure many of the entities above have heard EVs are coming, but we let them know they are here and the occupants and cars have needs right now, not sometime in the future.
A special thanks to Jennifer and Lance Barker, Gary Munkhoff, and Ernest Hagel who played a part for us to get charging points along the way, and the people who allowed us to charge. The trip was made possible by folks such as Kristi Bengtson at Port of Cascade Locks, Nissan of The Dalles, (though Sid in the service department could not confirm the chargers were operating but believed they were), Ron, at the city park in Dufur and Vernon Grey of Grey & Sun Condon Wind. Solar store in Condon (but be aware of the .50 cents charge per KW there). The rock-solid Kendall Derby at the Juniper Sawmill and Kiln who allowed us to arrive anytime day or night and camp in Fossil and charge. In Dayville, it was Brian Smith the electrician that let us charge, and in John Day, Jennifer and Lance Barker allowed us to charge at the John Day Fair Grounds.
Some interesting points, problems, and fun things along the way. At The Dalles Nissan, we could not get both cars to charge off one charger, so we called the number on the charger but it was not much help unless we needed a tow. After a few hours of trying to get the charger to cooperate, I left Phil and John in The Dalles and headed for Dufur where I knew there was a 14-50p, 50 amp outlet that would charge my Yaris. As luck would have it there was also cell phone coverage so I could call John and Phil and let them know I was charging on 240V. When John and Phil were fully charged I was only at 91%. Since I am very familiar with my car and had made the trip before, I figured this was enough to make it to our next charge point in Condon Oregon.
We arrived at Condon around 8 pm. The Leaf was put on the 240V and the poor baby Yaris was stuck with 120 volts The Yaris does not utilize 120V well at all for charging. We walked all through the town and could not find one restaurant open, and by this time “starvation anxiety” was setting in.
Finally, we decided we would tell the Elks Club our predicament as they were the only ones still open, and see if they would allow us to eat. A man there by the name of Kay sponsored us and it was goulash all around. In hindsight, I should have ordered a hamburger, but ate all my goulash anyway. By now it was late and time to push on to Fossil, just 21 miles away, where we would all spend the night. However, since my car doesn’t charge well on 120 volts, by the time we did arrive in Fossil my batteries had only a 4% charge remaining. This was the lowest state of charge for the Yaris for the whole trip. ,
We left Fossil the next morning with both cars fully charged. I was bored the last 100 miles and having made the trip before I knew the Yaris was home free as far as making it the rest of the way to John Day. Phil and John were taking it easy on the Leaf, not having made the trip before, so for fun, I would pass the Leaf at about 70 mph and keep pouring on the coal until I was well out of sight. and then I would slow down and look for a place to hide. After a while, the unsuspecting Leaf would go by and I would pull out, tail them a while and then blow by them again in the same manner, then find some bushes to hide behind and repeat.
One eventful thing we discovered on the way back from John Day. In Condon, Vernon Grey told us some motorcycles ran into range anxiety because they reached Condon at 8 pm and the gas station was closed. The motorcyclists were forced to spend the night in Condon until the gas station opened in the morning.
John brought back a placard for Best Green Manufactured Vehicle at the SolWest Fair. To be honest, there was no other competition in this category as he was the only Leaf to fall in John Day this year.
When General Motors unveiled the Chevrolet Volt, the media was caught off balance and failed to fully appreciate what the engineers at GM had come up with. Is it an electric car? Is it a hybrid? Is it an extended-range electric car? The debate went on and on. Does it really matter and who cares anyway? So while the auto techno-experts argued over where exactly to put the Volt, people were quietly buying them and putting them in their garages. Best of all, Motor Trend magazine got it right and called the Volt “Car Of The Year”.
One of the new Volt owners was Jeff Parmet, who purchased his in December 2010, left the dealership with a full tank of gas and a fully charged battery, drove the car 2,500 miles over a six-month period, and only then did he have to buy eight gallons of gas to refill the gas tank. Do the math and the debate over the Volt’s label becomes irrelevant. Any car that gets over 300 miles per gallon deserves the “Car
Of The Year” title. There are numerous websites and blogs dedicated to Volt owners where you can read more stories. Here is the official Chevrolet website: http://www.chevroletvoltage.com
