EV Trip Reports
As the title suggests, this section is devoted to our experience driving an electric vehicle (EV). In late 2014, we leased a Nissan Leaf, a mass-market EV with an official range of 84 miles. In late 2016 we bought a 2017 Chevy Volt. When the lease expired on the Nissan Leaf in the fall of 2017 we leased a 2017 Chevy Bolt EV. We sold the Volt in the spring of 2018 when we downsized to one vehicle. We now drive electric only. In the fall of 2020 we returned the Bolt to GM at the end of the lease and bought a 2020 Bolt.
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.
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.
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 …
Ventura to Grover Beach Summary of Actual Consumption in kWh
By
Paul Gipe
We’ve now made several trips from Bakersfield over Tejon Pass and two trips to the coast and back. There’s now …
EV Trip Report: Kernville Revisited
By
Paul Gipe
Our friends had organized a morning visit to the Ardis Walker house and museum of western history in Kernville. Walker was a prominent and colorful local figure in Kern County from the 1960s until his death in the 1990s. He was instrumental in establishing the Golden Trout Wilderness north of Kernville.
EV Trip Report: Bakersfield to Ridgecrest via Mountain Mesa
By
Paul Gipe
We wanted to drive our 2015 Nissan Leaf to Ridgecrest and have dinner with our niece before her assignment at the Naval base was completed.
