Driver’s Memo #19: Green chickens or green eggs, beautiful numbers and more battery scans please

Flip The Fleet Driver’s Memo #19:  Green chickens or green eggs, beautiful numbers and more battery scans please

 

Kia ora koutou kātoa

February’s 1-click survey asked if whether buying an Electric vehicle (EV) or Plug-in Hybrid (PHEV) spurred you on to even more sustainability choices in your life.  Just over half of you (59%) agreed, while most of the others figured that it worked the other way round – building sustainable values and living in ways that go easier on the planet came first and were the main reason they bought the EV or PHEV.  So, it’s a “green chicken versus and green egg” debate.  As usual, we were blown away by your thoughtful comments – see https://flipthefleet.org/2018/1-click-survey-16/.   Amongst the many comments we especially liked this one: “The passion and knowledge of other EV owners rubs off on us all too.  Early adopters are an amazing group of sensible, knowledgeable and courageous people.  So we are now interacting with a whole lot of new and inspiring people, reading different stuff and thinking about what is important in life, and what makes people change or not.  There is no doubt that our lives are richer for having bought an EV in very social and community oriented ways … and here’s the thing  … in ways that bind us more together to work for a common, better and more sustainable future.” Amongst the many ways that you are acting sustainability are: installing solar panels and solar water heaters; insulating homes; charging at off-peak times; turning lights off; installing heat exchangers; harvesting water; reducing your water wish (one of you feeds their garden with their fish tank water!); reducing use of plastics; planting trees; growing your own vegetables; mulching and composting your green waste; using more public transport; getting e Bikes; driving your ICEs more efficiently; lending your ICE to others when they have a special need etc.  Many of you singled out reducing air travel as the really hard but very important next step.

 

We used the results to generate an Infographic (in progress currently) and circulate the Media Release at https://flipthefleet.org/2018/media-release-sustainability-journey/ We would really like your help to spread the word through the social media – please blog about the results from Flip the Fleet and join discussion where our group’s information helps understand an issue under debate. We think the moot in this month’s survey is important because it starts to challenge whether the upswing in EV and PHEV purchases will last once the predominantly green-oriented first adopters have bought their cars.

 

Data galore! 

We are very pleased about the way the data are gathering a critical mass to allow some serious science for the EV cause. So far:

• 632 vehicles have been signed-up to contribute data to Flip the Fleet
• 87% of these are single cars or vans owned by a family or small business, but data is also coming in from ten commercial or institutional fleets, nine small “family fleets” (multiple EVs owned by one family), and two “community fleets” (EV and PHEV owners from Waitati and Wanaka have agreed to share data amongst all those living in their town).
• 3,255 monthly data sets have been received (earliest from January 2012)
• 2,729 monthly records of monthly repairs and maintenance costs from 462 different EVs and PHEVs (repairs and maintenance costs are a current focus of statistical modelling).

You might think that we are drowning in data – far from it!  By the time you slice and dice the numbers by model, year, season and region etc., you quickly run out of statistical power.  Keep those numbers streaming in please.

 

Scan your batteries please: We are working hard to get a better handle on what causes changes in battery health.  Many of you are sending us a scan at the end of every month (LeafSpy for Leafs and eNV200s, ‘EVBatMon’ for Mitsubishi models), but we would love more from EVs and PHEVs of all ages and models.  Instructions for scanning Nissans are at https://flipthefleet.org/resources/nissan-owners-how-to-scan-your-battery/. If you are really keen to help, please send us lots of scans within each month as well as the ones from the end of the month, especially scans from just after you have charged the car. The easiest way to do this is to capture a screenshot of the front page of the LeafSpy report from your device and send it to us at data@flipthefleet.org.  It would help us if you included your Registration Plate number in the subject line of the email, along with a note on whether the last charge was a rapid or slow one and how long ago your charge finished before you performed the scan.  We really want to learn how hot your battery gets on those long trips where you might rapid charge lots of times in quick succession, but really any time still helps fill in the picture.

 

This month’s hint to get the most out of Flip the Fleet’s dashboard: You can send yourself a copy of any report on your screen by clicking the blue mail icon (just next to the big ‘Edit Graph’ at the top). If you prefer a table rather than a graph, select the ‘Table’ tab.  If you want to flip between the ‘Graph‘ and ‘Table‘ view, just select the other and hit ‘Refresh‘ … and voila … PowerStats is there to serve your every whim!

 

Keep on rolling!

Henrik, Morgan, Monica, Daniel and Dima

 

p.s. featured image source: https://organicdailypost.com/how-to-hatch-chicken-eggs/