News & Articles on Electric Vehicles

We’ve made great strides in moving the electricity sector toward renewable energy. However, transportation remains a major source of air pollution and global warming gases. If we are to make a transition to renewable energy, we will need to electrify as much of the economy as we can, including transportation. Electrified rail is one means, electric vehicles (EVs) are another. The focus here is mostly on our experience driving EVs. We’ve been driving electric since the fall of 2014.

My unlucky electric car journey

By

Gavin Shoebridge

In this episode: the electric car gets a ‘major service’, I drive to Vienna in Austria, I learn that most charging system providers really suck, I almost run out of electricity, and I put on a suit to complain.

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Good Neighbors Make Plugshare Work

By

Paul Gipe

We’ve been contacted by EV drivers a few times about charging at our home here in Bakersfield, but none have showed up. That is, until John Rowell from Exeter called.

How to Use the PlugShare EV Charging Station Tool

By

Brad Berman

PlugShare is a powerful mobile application and online tool that allows electric car owners to locate and optimize the use of EV charging stations.

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EV Trip Report: Bakersfield to Grover Beach Revisited & Summary

By

Paul Gipe

As we’ve become more experienced, we’ve become bolder. On this trip we used our new Jesla EVSE—a portable charge cable—to charge quicker, and we took some shortcuts we avoided on the first trip. We also used more quick chargers than before—and they all worked as advertised.

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EV Trip Report: Bakersfield to Visalia

By

Paul Gipe

We planned another excursion in our 2015 Nisssan Leaf, an Electric Vehicle (EV). This time we planned to join friends for dinner in Visalia to the north of Bakersfield in the heart to the San Joaquin Valley.

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Grapevine (I-5) Summary of Actual Consumption in kWh of a Nissan Leaf

By

Paul Gipe

We’ve now made four trips from Bakersfield over the Tejon Pass via the Grapevine and back. This is enough trips …