YSPH Sustainability Coffee Hour - "Electric Vehicles: Taking Charge of Vehicle Choices"

Transcript

• 00:03- We're all set.
• 00:05- Okay so, thanks Heidi.
• 00:07So, I'm Robert Dubrow, for those of you who don't know me.
• 00:11I'm co-chair of the School of Public Health
• 00:14Sustainability Committee that I co-chair
• 00:16that committee with Heidi.
• 00:18And this is a very informal gathering
• 00:22to provide the community with information
• 00:24about electric vehicles.
• 00:28So, just real briefly, and most of you
• 00:30probably know this already, but electric vehicles
• 00:35have very important environmental and climate advantages.
• 00:39First of all in use they are zero emissions,
• 00:45but secondly, if they're charged with electricity
• 00:48that's generated from renewable energy
• 00:52then they're truly zero emissions,
• 00:56whereby they're not generating greenhouse gas emissions
• 01:00in any way.
• 01:04And in fact, most of you have probably heard
• 01:06that the state of California now has a policy
• 01:11that starting in 2035, it will be illegal
• 01:16to sell an internal combustion engine
• 01:21vehicle in California.
• 01:23So, they all will have to be electric vehicles.
• 01:26Sorry, those are new vehicles.
• 01:27Used vehicles will still be permitted.
• 01:31So, today we have panelists who own electric vehicles.
• 01:38The panelists are me, Paul Cleary, Denise Meyer,
• 01:49Dean Stanvermund and I'm looking
• 01:52to see if Cassidy made it.
• 01:54Cassidy said she wasn't feeling well this morning
• 01:56so she may not have made it.
• 01:58Okay, so I guess there are, we have four panelists.
• 02:01And so, some of the issues you probably
• 02:05wanna hear about are things like,
• 02:08what's it like to drive?
• 02:10Is it different?
• 02:10How convenient is it?
• 02:12What's the cost compared to a conventional
• 02:15gasoline powered vehicle?
• 02:18How about maintenance?
• 02:20Issues like that, and so I thought we could start
• 02:23just by going around to the panelists
• 02:26and having you just comment on whatever
• 02:28you think you'd like to say
• 02:31about your experience of driving an electric vehicle.
• 02:35So maybe we could start with Paul Cleary.
• 02:41- Okay, those are good, first of all,
• 02:44thanks for organizing this.
• 02:45Those are good topics.
• 02:47I would say the question I get asked most often
• 02:52is the convenience.
• 02:54I own a Tesla and so, the performance
• 02:57is as good or better than any car
• 02:59I've ever owned.
• 03:01So that's not an issue.
• 03:02But the question comes up, is it a hassle?
• 03:05How convenient it is?
• 03:06My car has about a 270 mile range
• 03:13and I've learned that you have
• 03:14to think about it a little,
• 03:15but less and less as charging stations become available.
• 03:19Tesla has supercharging stations
• 03:21and then there's stations really all over.
• 03:25For example, when I take my car
• 03:28there's a charging station at the airport
• 03:30which they charge for free.
• 03:32If I go on the train there's a charging station
• 03:36in the New Haven train station.
• 03:38There's one at my grocery store, which is Bishop's.
• 03:41There's one at the garden center.
• 03:43There's even one at the local brewery in Bradford.
• 03:47And increasingly there are charging stations
• 03:52throughout the country.
• 03:54So, Tesla is every, almost every month
• 03:57expanding the number of stations
• 04:00and for example, I just checked on my phone
• 04:03before we started, I have like four different apps,
• 04:07the car washes list where the charging stations are.
• 04:10There's an app called Flex Share, Charge Hub
• 04:16and Connect, all of them if you click on them
• 04:19they'll tell you where charging stations
• 04:21with different capacity and so on are.
• 04:24And I would say I've never had to do much more
• 04:29than just be aware of it except a couple years ago
• 04:33whenever I was skiing in New Hampshire
• 04:34I got sort of on the end of my charge
• 04:36and had a little bit difficulty.
• 04:37But they're adding charge stations in those areas.
• 04:41My neighbor, Erol Frickrick, has driven
• 04:44to the DC area and back without any issues.
• 04:46So, it's really quite convenient.
• 04:50Because of the way the cars are run
• 04:55there's almost no maintenance in my car.
• 04:58You don't have any fluids.
• 04:59You don't have, except for brakes,
• 05:01a lot of the mechanical issues are obviated.
• 05:05So, I've had a couple little things
• 05:08to take care of, like the door sticking and so on.
• 05:11But, there're many fewer maintenance issues
• 05:15and the cost, to be honest, I haven't gone
• 05:20into the sharp pencil part of it.
• 05:23People claim that it is cheaper than electricity.
• 05:28When I lived in Bradford I put in solar panels,
• 05:30so it was, basically I was charging my car
• 05:33from the sun, so I wasn't using
• 05:36the non-renewable resources that have to use,
• 05:42that are used to run power plants.
• 05:44So I would say on those issues that you raised,
• 05:47the cost is less.
• 05:48The convenience is, I have to think about it a little bit,
• 05:53but I would say it's become almost seamless.
• 05:55I plug in the car every night,
• 05:56I get up and I go and I've never,
• 05:58with maybe one or two exceptions
• 06:00a couple years ago on long trips,
• 06:03I've never had any issues
• 06:04with getting charged.
• 06:06Tesla has this thing called super chargers.
• 06:09So well, I can go to Hartford Airport and back
• 06:14without charging, but if I'm going
• 06:16to go somewhere in New York and it's
• 06:20a little bit longer and at super charger station
• 06:23I can charge 80% of the car in 20 minutes.
• 06:25So, I stop, get a cup of coffee or get
• 06:27something to eat, come back out
• 06:30and the car's charged and ready to go.
• 06:31So I'm just absolutely ecstatic about it and pleased
• 06:36and I think it's very functional.
• 06:37I'll stop to see if anyone has any questions.
• 06:46- [Questioner] Yeah Brian, I have a question.
• 06:48Do you ever find that these charging stations are filled up
• 06:52with other people trying to charge up
• 06:54and you don't have access to one of 'em?
• 06:57- I would say, I would say a year ago
• 07:00I would say that has never happened.
• 07:02As people get interested in it, it has.
• 07:05So for example, it used to be you'd go
• 07:07to the train station and you get free charging.
• 07:10The charging station was down on the ground floor,
• 07:14which was the closest spot and there
• 07:15was never anyone there.
• 07:18Once or twice or three times recently
• 07:20when I've gone to the train station it's been full,
• 07:23which to me is a good thing.
• 07:26On the other hand, the apps will tell you
• 07:30whether or not there're spots available or not.
• 07:32So, it used to be go to a Tesla station
• 07:35and there'd be no cars.
• 07:36Now you go and I would say once or twice
• 07:40I haven't been able to get in and I had
• 07:42to go get a cup of coffee and wait or something.
• 07:44But it's being compensated for by the proliferation
• 07:49of charging stations.
• 07:53- I have one quick question.
• 07:54- Go ahead Brian.
• 07:56- I'm just wondering if like I have always heard this
• 07:59about electric cars, and other batteries as well,
• 08:04like over time does the capacity diminish?
• 08:08Like your 270 miles, a year ago was it 290
• 08:13and then a year from now, will it be 250,
• 08:15or does that not so much happen any more?
• 08:19- The answer is certainly yes,
• 08:22with the caveat that we don't really know.
• 08:24And what I mean by that, one thing I didn't mention is
• 08:28the capacity goes down dramatically in cold weather.
• 08:32So, of the times I've had the trouble,
• 08:33as I said, I went to New Hampshire skiing
• 08:35and it was nighttime, it was cold,
• 08:37the heater was on and the batteries
• 08:39just don't perform as well.
• 08:41So, that's one factor.
• 08:43My car has gone down, you know, it used to be,
• 08:45when I got it it was like 274.
• 08:48Now it's like 268 or something.
• 08:51My car is like four or five years old.
• 08:52But, I don't think we really know how fast
• 08:58or how far the Tesla batteries deteriorate,
• 09:02but any battery does.
• 09:04That's almost certainly going to happen,
• 09:06but I don't think we have, others may have
• 09:08different experiences, but I'm at like 268 or something.
• 09:13You can start to see it ebb away, but we don't know,
• 09:18if I keep the car 10 years,
• 09:19we don't know yet, I don't think.
• 09:23Others may have different experiences.
• 09:26- I'd like to chime in, can you hear me?
• 09:30So, we've had a 2000.
• 09:35- I can barely hear you, Stan.
• 09:36- Oh, I'm sorry.
• 09:47Is that better.
• 09:48- No, can't hear you at all.
• 09:52No, when you had the headphones on
• 09:54we could at least hear you.
• 10:02- Is that working?
• 10:08- We can barely hear you.
• 10:16- It's not working.
• 10:20It's not working.
• 10:28- No.
• 10:31It's getting a little better.
• 10:33- Okay, if you can hear me I'll just speak up.
• 10:36Can you hear me okay now?
• 10:39- Yes, much better.
• 10:40- Okay, I'm sorry about that.
• 10:41I am still trying to figure out
• 10:46this new headphones.
• 10:47But, we had a 2002 Prius and nobody knew
• 10:58how long the batteries were going to last
• 11:02and I gave that car away this year
• 11:06mostly because it needed a catalytic converter
• 11:11and a bunch of other, needed about $1800
• 11:15worth of non-battery related upgrades
• 11:18and I just, I wanted to buy an electric car,
• 11:20so I gave it to a friend who's an amateur
• 11:24car repair guy.
• 11:27So, we had predictions that the most it would last,
• 11:35this battery would be 100,000 miles
• 11:37and when I gave it away it was 130,000 miles.
• 11:41There was a slight diminishing
• 11:44in performance in the car,
• 11:49not so much that I could really notice it,
• 11:52but the folks at the Toyota dealership told me.
• 11:56And I do believe that it's unknown,
• 12:00just as Paul said, the extent to which these new era
• 12:05batteries in electric cars, as opposed to hybrid cars,
• 12:10will last, but I have to say, I'm terribly optimistic
• 12:14because all of the predictions of prior era
• 12:19technology since 2002 is a long time ago
• 12:23in the battery field.
• 12:25All of the dire predictions that they would
• 12:27only last five, 10 years were completely wrong.
• 12:30And so, I'm pretty optimistic that this
• 12:33new technology are going to be long acting batteries,
• 12:41shall we say, the EverReady Bunny.
• 12:46- I have one comment I think is pertinent to this
• 12:49and then I'd like to turn it over to Denise.
• 12:53So, we decided, we bought our,
• 12:57we got our electric vehicle, which is
• 12:59a Chevy Bolt, at the beginning of 2020
• 13:03and we decided to do a three year lease
• 13:08because the reason is that I'm predicting
• 13:12that battery technology has been improving
• 13:15and I think it's gonna keep improving.
• 13:17So I didn't wanna kind of lock in for the longer term.
• 13:23And so, that's kind of one approach to this.
• 13:27For one thing, in three years I don't think
• 13:31deterioration of the battery performance
• 13:34is gonna be an issue over just three years.
• 13:36And secondly, my guess, my prediction is that the range
• 13:40is gonna keep improving so that if two or three
• 13:46years from now, the range, the typical range
• 13:49might be 350 miles instead of 250, let's say.
• 13:56So anyway, that was one comment.
• 13:58So now, let me turn it over to Denise
• 14:00and you can talk about it.
• 14:01Why don't you say what kind of car you own
• 14:03and talk about your experience?
• 14:06- So, I came in on more of a budget plan.
• 14:10I have a 2016 C-Max which was put out by Ford.
• 14:15I think they've discontinued the model.
• 14:17It is a plug-in hybrid.
• 14:19So, it's plug-in electric and gas engine.
• 14:23So it's much smaller battery capacity,
• 14:26but I can go without stops and starts,
• 14:30I can go 23, 24 miles on pure battery.
• 14:34If I am doing errands around town
• 14:37and stopping and starting the car
• 14:38I'll get more like 18 'cause that's
• 14:40a bigger pull on the battery.
• 14:42What I discovered is 90% of my driving
• 14:46is very local and so my gas costs went way down
• 14:50and I did the math about three years ago,
• 14:55I'm not entirely sure that I did it right,
• 14:58but my calculations was it was like 60 cents
• 15:02at that point to charge for 24 miles
• 15:08as opposed to, at that time, $3 for a gallon of gas.
• 15:13So, I also discovered that 90% of my driving
• 15:18is very local, so I buy very little gas.
• 15:24My charging experiences have not been as rosy as Paul's.
• 15:29Yeah lots, there are very few charging stations.
• 15:33When I was carpooling I could get one way
• 15:38on battery, but I couldn't get back,
• 15:41very few charging stations in New Haven.
• 15:44Guildford Train Station does not have one.
• 15:46Milford has one, or has two, but one
• 15:49is usually broken and they're not
• 15:52real good about maintaining them.
• 15:55There's really only a couple in Guildford,
• 15:57so when I'm home and it's in the garage
• 16:03it's great, but it takes a little more planning
• 16:05I think, depending on where you are
• 16:08and what you're doing.
• 16:09The Ford doesn't have that super charge,
• 16:12but again, the technology is changing so fast
• 16:16that I probably, my next car, which hopefully
• 16:19won't be for another five or six years,
• 16:21will probably be all electric
• 16:23and I'm hoping that infrastructure is better.
• 16:25But, as a point of entry into a technology,
• 16:29I love the C-Max.
• 16:32As Paul said, without the combustion engine,
• 16:35the maintenance costs are much lower.
• 16:40There's just, you don't have to have
• 16:42all those oil changes and all those
• 16:44other routine things.
• 16:46So, and it's a really nice plus,
• 16:50it's a quiet car when it's on battery.
• 16:53It's a quiet ride.
• 16:57- I have a question about charging at home.
• 17:01Home charging.
• 17:03That's available I know for Tesla.
• 17:04I'm not sure for others, but you do have
• 17:07to get a special device to charge it from your home, no?
• 17:11- On my Ford I didn't have a 220 outlet,
• 17:14so I just go into a regular 120.
• 17:17I've just put in a 220, so I can buy
• 17:20a new adapter and do that if I want.
• 17:22But, it takes six hours on a 120
• 17:25to charge for that 20 miles.
• 17:27So, it's you know.
• 17:29- When you do that do your lights dim in your house?
• 17:32- Nope.
• 17:33- Good.
• 17:34Thanks.
• 17:36- Paul, did you wanna say something?
• 17:38- I was just gonna comment on a couple things Denise said.
• 17:41First of all, since I'm purely electric
• 17:45I would find it impractical to do the 115.
• 17:48It would just take a day or two to charge it up.
• 17:51So, we put in 220, but I think as Daniel just noted
• 17:55it's not a big deal.
• 17:58You just run a 220, you probably have it on your dryer
• 18:00or appliance, you just put, I just put a plug
• 18:03in the garage and charged it.
• 18:06But, to Denise's first point, what her typical
• 18:09driving is, when I was buying my car
• 18:11I was going, well, what if do this
• 18:12and what if I go to Washington
• 18:14and what if I do this?
• 18:15And he says look, why don't you tell me
• 18:18what you do in a typical week or month.
• 18:21And when I did that it was quite instructive
• 18:24'cause the reality is well, I go to work every day,
• 18:28so I didn't need to, I don't need to charge at work.
• 18:31I charge at home.
• 18:33I go to the airport, used to go to the airport
• 18:34three, four times a month, but I could go there and back.
• 18:38And it's instructive.
• 18:41I think anyone on the call should just write down
• 18:42what you do with a vehicle in the course of a month.
• 18:46My guess is, it's like Denise, it's much more local
• 18:50than one worries about when you're saying,
• 18:54what's the boundary condition of the car.
• 18:57Your typical use is usually much lower.
• 19:00I never used actually the charge at the local grocer
• 19:08or the garden center and stuff, 'cause I just
• 19:10go out and do the things I do, go to work,
• 19:13come back, I don't go to work anymore,
• 19:15but used to go to the office and come back,
• 19:17just charge it at home.
• 19:19And the only time I really would charge
• 19:21it in the train station mainly 'cause it was free
• 19:24and it was kinda cool.
• 19:25I'd go to New York for the day
• 19:26and come back with a charged car.
• 19:27But, most of the things you can do
• 19:30in very limited radius as Denise indicated.
• 19:34- Yeah, just to build on that.
• 19:35As I said, we've owned the car since
• 19:39the beginning of 2020 and of course,
• 19:41it's been special circumstances, but we've never
• 19:45used an outside charger.
• 19:46We've only charged at home.
• 19:48And the range is about 240 miles on the Chevy Bolt.
• 19:55And so, actually we never have taken a trip,
• 19:59that round trip has been more than 240 miles,
• 20:03except for one time.
• 20:05We traveled to Burlington, Vermont
• 20:07and in that case we decided the easiest thing,
• 20:11simplest, which is about 275 miles one way
• 20:15and we decided the easiest thing to do
• 20:17would be to rent the car, conventional car.
• 20:19So, that's what we did.
• 20:22I think a disadvantage of the Bold compared to Tesla
• 20:26is that, Paul, correct me if I'm wrong,
• 20:31but I believe those super charger charging stations
• 20:34are Tesla specific.
• 20:36Do you know if that's the case?
• 20:37- Yeah, that's correct.
• 20:38They are, I don't know, they operate
• 20:40at something like 450 volts or something.
• 20:42Yeah, they're Tesla specific.
• 20:45- Yeah, the Bolt doesn't charge,
• 20:49have a charging station that charges that fast.
• 20:52So, that's what made it more kind of inconvenient
• 20:55to take a trip to Burlington because I believe
• 21:00the fastest, it's called a level three
• 21:03charging station, for the Bolt only does
• 21:07about 20 miles, only puts on about 20 miles an hour.
• 21:13So obviously, to fully charge it you'd have
• 21:16to do it overnight.
• 21:17So anyway, that is a disadvantage.
• 21:21But we actually decided up front
• 21:23that, and we did that calculation,
• 21:25like how often do we really travel very far.
• 21:29And the answer was we don't.
• 21:30And we decided we'd just rent a car
• 21:32when we needed to and we still save
• 21:35a lot of money I think.
• 21:38- I should add, when I got my car
• 21:40the super chargers were free.
• 21:42So, if I'm going to New York I stop in Milford,
• 21:45plug it in, get a cup of coffee
• 21:47or if I go to the train station it's free.
• 21:51They now charge and to be honest,
• 21:54I don't know what the charge is.
• 21:54So, if you buy a Tesla tomorrow morning
• 21:57there's a charge for using the super charger.
• 22:01It almost had to happen.
• 22:02I couldn't see how it was sustainable
• 22:04to have free charging to some people.
• 22:08They'll go just charge their car only
• 22:10at the super charger if they're near one.
• 22:12- They may give you a year of free charging, Paul.
• 22:18- Okay.
• 22:21- I wanna make one other comment and then see
• 22:23if Stan wants to talk specifically
• 22:26about your experiences.
• 22:28It was about up front cost.
• 22:29We haven't dealt with that yet.
• 22:32So I could just, I could talk about the Bolt,
• 22:35which I can say runs great.
• 22:38I love it's really quiet, as Denise
• 22:40was talking about.
• 22:42I love the quiet ride and it has really good pick up.
• 22:46I'd say it performs better than any gasoline
• 22:51powered car I've ever owned.
• 22:53But so, the cost, a new Bolt costs,
• 22:56well it depends on the features,
• 22:58but the average Bolt is roughly $38,000 to $40,000,
• 23:04and we got a deal kind of, we bought new 2019
• 23:11in early 2020, so they gave us a good deal.
• 23:14And so, for the lease, for the three year lease
• 23:17the total amount that we're paying over the three years
• 23:20is about $11,000.
• 23:23That's pretty good for three years.
• 23:27And so, I think some are more affordable than others,
• 23:31but EVs are becoming more and more affordable.
• 23:35So Stan, do you wanna talk a little bit
• 23:37about your experience?
• 23:39- My experience mimics Paul's almost exactly.
• 23:45In fact, Paul was an inspiration for our thinking
• 23:48about the electric vehicle 'cause we had owned
• 23:52exclusively owned, hybrid vehicles since 2002,
• 23:56all of our cars were hybrids.
• 23:58Out two sons, my wife and myself.
• 24:01And we really thought that wasn't enough
• 24:04given the circumstance of global warming
• 24:08and we looked at the plug-in hybrids
• 24:13and Denise did a great job reviewing
• 24:16the pluses there.
• 24:20You can do all of your local travel.
• 24:23Maybe you're commuting, all electric.
• 24:25And then, if you have to go to Burlington, Vermont
• 24:27you're in a hybrid.
• 24:29So, it's kinda the best of both worlds.
• 24:35Currently just out of philosophy
• 24:40because we went solar in our house
• 24:45and so we thought if we went solar in our cars.
• 24:49(garbled audio)
• 24:54So, that was the biggest gift for him we could make
• 24:58and since at this stage in my life
• 25:02finances are not the biggest challenge.
• 25:04I have the resources to go somewhere in my house
• 25:08and to buy an electric car, I thought
• 25:12it would be a good thing to do.
• 25:14And the experience with the car is absolutely remarkable.
• 25:19It's almost like a sports car.
• 25:21It's so lively and so responsive.
• 25:25It has so little maintenance attached to it.
• 25:27It really seemed like we were making a leap
• 25:30into a whole new advanced technology
• 25:33that is unambiguously the wave of the future
• 25:37and we were just dazzled at how mature
• 25:40that technology was already.
• 25:43The first time that we took it on a trip
• 25:48I had forgotten to plug it in and it was winter
• 25:52and my wife had a 6 a.m. flight to Puerto Rico
• 25:55and we stayed at the airport just for her convenience.
• 25:58And then I was driving to work to have
• 26:00my meeting with Heidi and I ran out of energy.
• 26:05It was somewhere around Wallingford,
• 26:09my car told me I was done.
• 26:13And I found on the web the nearest
• 26:16charging station, which happened
• 26:18to be a Choate School, for those of you
• 26:20who know where Choate is.
• 26:22So, I plugged in there for an hour
• 26:24and got enough to limp my way
• 26:27to the university and it was not a super charger,
• 26:33it was just a conventional charging.
• 26:35I had to figure out how to sign up
• 26:37and sync my credit card and just some pretty basic stuff.
• 26:42And I had my meeting with Heidi as I was pacing
• 26:47the Choate parking lot 'cause I called her instead.
• 26:50So, there was a humorous element to it.
• 26:53And then on my way home I barely had enough,
• 26:58so I stopped at a local Greek diner
• 27:00that has a Tesla plug-in.
• 27:03So it was that one untoward experience
• 27:06the very first week that we owned the car
• 27:08where I didn't know what I was doing.
• 27:11Beyond that, it's been a year of smooth sailing
• 27:15and really no problems at all, easy to find charger.
• 27:20It's easy to charge them up, super charger,
• 27:23as Paul said, 20 minutes.
• 27:24Conventional chargers, you can plug it in for an hour.
• 27:37- Thanks, Stan.
• 27:39Daniel, did you wanna say anything?
• 27:40You've posted a few comments.
• 27:45- Yeah, so I mean, I've had a Bolt for about three years.
• 27:53I put in some of the, here I was just writing
• 27:56another comment, road trips you do have
• 27:59to do some work ahead of time,
• 28:02but it's usually something you can figure out.
• 28:05Here, I'll just type in that comment I was gonna send.
• 28:08Other thing, let me just type it up
• 28:11'cause it'll be easier to write than to say,
• 28:12but I think people should think
• 28:14about their energy plans that they're using.
• 28:19So, let me put in the chat about that.
• 28:23- Okay thanks.
• 28:26One thing I wanted to say is it's really great
• 28:29never having to go to a gas station.
• 28:32I can't imagine ever attending a gas station
• 28:36again in my life or ever owning a gasoline powered vehicle.
• 28:41I mean, the EVs are just so much more fun to drive
• 28:47and more convenient in so many ways
• 28:50except you know, for the ranges if you have
• 28:54to go on a longer trip, at least for me in the Bolt.
• 29:00So, are there any questions, comments, concerns?
• 29:05Feel free to raise anything, any kind of issues
• 29:08that you'd like.
• 29:09- Denise had her hand up.
• 29:11- Okay.
• 29:12- I did.
• 29:13One advantage of my kinda hybrid was of course,
• 29:17I could go on a trip.
• 29:18And last year I actually drove to the south,
• 29:22to Alabama, and I think if you're going to travel
• 29:26to that part of the country you probably
• 29:29are gonna have a lot more problems
• 29:30than you did in the northeast.
• 29:33I did not see one charging station south of Pennsylvania.
• 29:39- I have a friend with a new electric car
• 29:42and he went from Tennessee to California
• 29:47and he managed it well, but only because he
• 29:50planned very carefully,
• 29:53for exactly the reason that Denise outlined.
• 29:56And he told me he barely made his planned
• 30:00charging station in Arkansas.
• 30:02You know, just made it with a few miles to spare,
• 30:06so to speak.
• 30:08And he just mapped it out and he just decided
• 30:12this is where I recharge and have dinner.
• 30:14This is where I recharge, et cetera.
• 30:16So, Denise is right that we are well endowed
• 30:21in the northeast and people should feel
• 30:23very comfortable getting an electric car
• 30:25in terms of the logistics of being able to charge
• 30:27if they make a longer trip.
• 30:29But, most of us charge at home
• 30:32'cause we're not going more than 200 miles
• 30:34in a given day.
• 30:38- The problem with that is that it's a technology
• 30:41that's very suitable for suburban homeowners
• 30:44and very difficult for apartment dwellers.
• 30:46- That's true.
• 30:47That's one reason my son has not gotten
• 30:49an electric car 'cause he's in a townhouse
• 30:53and he's not controlling his parking garage
• 30:56and he has yet to negotiate
• 30:59that with the homeowners association,
• 31:04so you're absolutely right.
• 31:08- I have a question.
• 31:10- Yeah, go ahead.
• 31:12- I actually wanna, I actually had looked
• 31:14into gettin' a Tesla.
• 31:16I actually went and test drove it and I was
• 31:19kinda really impressed with how nice it drove.
• 31:22But, I'm actually have a 70 mile commute
• 31:25and I kind of was sort of put away
• 31:32from an electric car after we had
• 31:34that big power outage.
• 31:35And like I would not even have been able
• 31:36to get to work.
• 31:37How would I have charged my car?
• 31:39How would I have been able to go?
• 31:41So, that was kind of, I'm kind of worried about that,
• 31:45with the power outages we have.
• 31:48I mean, I was out of power for six days.
• 31:51So, how can you guys, were you guys able
• 31:53to charge at, I guess, I don't know how long
• 31:57you guys lost power.
• 31:59- That's actually, thanks for raising that point.
• 32:03That's really quite important that when we have
• 32:05these power outages you're always reminded
• 32:07how much you're dependent on power.
• 32:09When I used to live in Bradford and we had
• 32:13the big storm and we had power out
• 32:15for about a week or so I couldn't use the car.
• 32:19You're right, until the power was on.
• 32:21I have a generator where we are now
• 32:23'cause we lose power couple times a year.
• 32:27But that is a down side.
• 32:29If your power goes out and you don't have
• 32:30alternative power you can't drive after a while,
• 32:34with the exception, I guess, what I did one time
• 32:39was I went in, I parked going into work,
• 32:41I went into work, parked at the train station,
• 32:43plugged it in to park.
• 32:45I guess there, Denise can say, I'm not aware
• 32:48of all the Yale charging stations now.
• 32:52That's what I did.
• 32:53I went into the train station and plugged
• 32:54it in and it charged and did that
• 32:55for the remaining time after, while the power was out.
• 33:00And now I have a generator.
• 33:03That's a real consideration.
• 33:05- Yeah, Martina, I would think that a plug-in hybrid
• 33:09might be a really really great option for you
• 33:13because they do have plug-in hybrids now
• 33:16that have a much longer range.
• 33:19And I don't know it off the top of my head,
• 33:21but if you could find a plug-in hybrid
• 33:23that had 160 mile battery range
• 33:26and you would always have the gas engine as a backup.
• 33:33- One thing, this is gonna sound a little silly,
• 33:36but one thing I actually did for a while was
• 33:39Milford has super charging stations.
• 33:43Milford's not next door, but it's only
• 33:45an extra 10 or 15 minutes really, so I'd drive
• 33:48towards going to Milford, get something for breakfast
• 33:52or a cup of coffee.
• 33:53The car would be totally charged up.
• 33:55Go to work, go home and so, that's another way
• 33:57of doing it.
• 33:58At least with Tesla there are enough super
• 34:01charger stations around.
• 34:04Another trip I make regularly is going up to Boston.
• 34:06There's two or three places,
• 34:09well three or four places that I routinely use
• 34:11going up there to do round trips to Boston.
• 34:15You have to plan it, as others have said,
• 34:17but it's very very manageable if you just
• 34:20give it a little thought.
• 34:22- So, those charging station are usually working
• 34:25even during power outages?
• 34:27I was wondering about that because I go by
• 34:28the Milford Mall every day on the way
• 34:31in and on the way out.
• 34:35- It's a good question.
• 34:37I've never run into them not working,
• 34:40but I'm sure there's I don't know.
• 34:44They must go out.
• 34:45They do have big solar panels and battery arrangements,
• 34:48so I don't know if they'll operate
• 34:49when power goes out or not.
• 34:54- The reason it was not a consideration for me
• 34:57is I have favorable public transportation
• 35:00near my home.
• 35:02I have a bus
• 35:06and I have a train that's not so very far.
• 35:09So, I have backup.
• 35:12So I could take a chance on a one week power outage
• 35:16with an electric vehicle because of that.
• 35:21And actually, this is all false pretenses.
• 35:25The electric car is actually my wife's
• 35:27and I still have a, I have a 2005 Prius.
• 35:32But, I use her car when she's not
• 35:34gonna be using it on a given day.
• 35:36She's retired and doesn't travel,
• 35:38doesn't drive each and every day.
• 35:40So I try to use the electric car as much as possible.
• 35:43But, if we let's say the Prius was in the shop
• 35:47or we get rid of the Prius.
• 35:50(garbled audio)
• 35:57- Lauren asked if there were tax incentives.
• 35:59My guess is Rob or someone else knows this
• 36:02better than I do.
• 36:02When I bought my Tesla there were
• 36:05pretty substantial tax incentives,
• 36:07but I was under the impression they expired
• 36:09a few years ago, but maybe someone else knows.
• 36:13At the time there were both federal and state
• 36:15incentives and my impression was both of those expired
• 36:19not long after I bought my car.
• 36:21Rob, do you know how those work?
• 36:23- You know, I believe they're vehicle specific.
• 36:25So, once a certain number of cars have been sold
• 36:29of a particular type they expire.
• 36:31So for example, I couldn't get any kind
• 36:34of tax incentive for the Bolt because they had
• 36:36sold enough of them.
• 36:37But, I don't know the specifics really.
• 36:39I've lost track about what the amount is, et cetera.
• 36:43Does anyone know the answer to that?
• 36:46- I don't know currently, but when I bought mine
• 36:48in 2016 I got $9000 in incentives.
• 36:52So, it's worth looking at.
• 36:55- There's actually a web page where you can look it up.
• 37:04The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.
• 37:07It's called Cheaper and I think it gives you
• 37:10exactly, you can look up the models and everything
• 37:12and tells you if there's any incentive or not,
• 37:16if you get any rebates.
• 37:20- Several people have written comments
• 37:22about difficulty of charging at Yale
• 37:25and should Yale be encouraging it.
• 37:27I wonder if that's something the committee,
• 37:29I don't know if that's too heavy a lift,
• 37:33or is that something the committee could raise?
• 37:35My guess is it's not on a lotta people's radar screen.
• 37:39But, I think Tesla, if enough people petition,
• 37:44you know, they will respond and put charging stations
• 37:48in certain places.
• 37:49I don't know what their policy now is,
• 37:50but I wonder if Yale would do something
• 37:54about expanding the number of charging stations,
• 37:58not just for Tesla, but for wide.
• 38:01- I mean, that would be easy enough
• 38:03for us to raise that with the Yale Office of Sustainability
• 38:07and see if it's something they're already
• 38:09thinking about or not.
• 38:11I think that certainly makes a lot of sense to do that.
• 38:19All right, any other questions or comments?
• 38:29Okay, so if not I think we could wrap up.
• 38:35Let's see, here's something.
• 38:38Martina just posted the website.
• 38:41All right, well thanks everyone
• 38:46and I hope you found this to be
• 38:48a useful discussion and I'd encourage
• 38:50you all to go out and buy an electric vehicle.
• 38:54It's really fun.
• 38:56- It's the new version of Car Talk.
• 38:59- And let's get Yale to provide more charging stations.
• 39:03I think that's a very good project.
• 39:06- Yeah, I agree.
• 39:07Thanks everyone.
• 39:09- [Group] Thanks everyone.
• 39:10- Good talking to you.
• 39:12Sorry it's not in person, but always good to talk.
• 39:14- Yeah.
• 39:15- Thank you.