The Xebra has been on the island for 4 days now. It is a hit! One (conservative) Ketchikanite said, "Squish it before it gets in the woodwork!" Every kid that has seen it is a fan, and a lot of adults, too. I have challenged the district attorney, who operates a smart car, to see who has the better car (I'm going to lose in a race). He's a fan! My boss gave me carte blanche to plug in at work and was genuinely excited looking at the various models that are available, especially the Zap Alias, a 125mph prototype scheduled to go into production in 2010.
I put 25 miles on my Xebra yesterday and still made it home just fine. When it's fully charged it shows about 92 volts. Once the batteries get down around 70 volts, the battery light comes on when you floor it and a tiny warning horn sounds. This tells me I need to get nervous and start looking for an outlet. I don't know what I will do when/if I run out of juice. It can't be towed or jumped. I guess I'll try to not have that happen!
I really feel like I'm getting away with something by not using gas. On the other hand, charging the car is so cheap it's nearly free. It costs about a penny a mile. That means I can drive 100 miles for a dollar! Compare this with my Ford that goes 100 miles for about 26 dollars. Plus, there is almost no maintenance on the car except normal wear and tear, wash and wear, check the air in the tires and fill the washer fluid. Every time I have a chance to drive it I can't wait to get started. Is anything wrong with this picture? The electric car is the answer!
Tomorrow on Thanksgiving I will take it out the road when traffic is light and see how it fares on the highway. I know it won't do better than 35 in places but it might get close to 50 in others.
What a great addition to our family fleet. I hope someday my kids can learn to drive using an electric car.
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