Blog
Behind the scenes of the Pooping Cars movie
Very good news - last week’s One Planet Summit in Paris included the announcement of a new international alliance aimed at decarbonizing transportation globally.
“The attention that transport received and the commitments for climate action in transport that were made during the One Planet Summit are unprecedented. After the One Planet Summit, the transport sector is better positioned in climate change mitigation and adaptation than ever before.”
Paris is really not at its best in the summer. It's hot, the Parisians are either on vacation or wishing they were on vacation, and the lines for every tourist attraction are insane. Plus it was grittier than I'd remembered. Truth be told, Elliot wasn't a total fan - but there were a few things he really liked. First, the metro:
Elliot really loved the Paris Metro.
He particularly loved the double-decker RER trains.
We were also smitten with the ignognito but - once you figure out what to look for - totally ubiquitous "autolib" electric city cars. Located at curbside stations all over the city, every 100 meters or so. Silent, clean wheels when you want them. So cool.
Autolib - all-electric city carshare, all over Paris. Elliot approved.
There were also some random cool things to see:
Elliot spotted this Twingo, complete with wheelchair on the back
And one day, we borrowed some bikes and took off for La Villette.
Bike lanes! In Paris! It was awesome.
Bike paths the whole way - and the light was incredible.
At La Villette (the largest science museum in Europe) we visited a bunch of exhibits - including this one, about transportation. It was like instant animation for Worse Than Poop! - you walked up, took your photo, and a machine magically pasted your head onto a transportation device, which then floated by 30 seconds later on a series of screens. All they were missing was the CO2-poop.
Elliot watches as my head floats by on a double-decker London bus.
Last year, our family made the switch to driving electric - partly due to Elliot's constant nagging, partly due to the environmental benefits of driving electric, but also partly due to the cost savings. Driving an EV, it turns out, can often save you money. We figured this out by developing a spreadsheet. People keep asking me to share it, so here it is!
Click on the spreadsheet or the link below to download this spreadsheet in CSV, Numbers, and XLSX formats. Enter your information in the BLUE cells. GREEN cells will automatically populate.
Elliot with FrankE, our all-electric Fiat 500e.
One of the biggest savings, we realized, was on maintenance. We've had our Fiat 500e for a little over a year, and our total maintenance cost has been... zero. We had to take it into the dealership once, for a software upgrade, and they rotated the tires while we were there (all at no cost). We would normally have had to change the wiper blades, but (unfortunately) there hasn't been any rain here in California. We'll eventually have to change the tires - but probably not before the end of our 3-year lease.
The biggest reason, IMHO, that the car companies and dealerships aren't keen on having us all switch to EVs is that their business model is built on the profit they make from parts and service. Remember, with EVs there are no spark plugs to replace, no oil filters or air filters or fuel injectors or radiators or fan belts or the zillion other things you just have to replace on a regular basis in a gas car.
And did I mention that EVs are WAY more fun to drive?
People also ask us how much it costs to charge the car. We mostly plug in at home, using just a 110v plug, so we incurred no EVSE (aka charging station) installation charges. The additional electricity cost is roughly equivalent to the cost of plugging in an additional fridge.
A few things you need to know to complete the spreadsheet:
* State rebates vary - a lot - by state. California's current rebate is $2500. Our dealer did the paperwork for us, and we received our rebate within a couple of months. (I've heard that there have been backlogs in CA, but we didn't experience one.) Check out this awesome map to find out what rebates your state has available.
* The Federal government offers a $7500 rebate for most EVs, but this is only available for car sales. (For leasing, the dealer gets the federal rebate and usually rolls that into the cost of the lease.) State rebates are only available for 3-year leases (at least in California). But again - the monthly cost of a two-year lease is often lower because it includes the state rebate.
* I entered $20/month into the spreadsheet as the cost of public charging - which is approximately what we pay, using public chargers for maybe 20% of our charging needs. Your costs may vary. You can find more information on charging rates at Chargepoint and NRG-eVgo and BLiNK. You can find a map of the many charging stations now available at PlugShare.
* I included a section for car-sharing. We share an old Prius with two other families, in order to have access to a long-range gas car - or a second car - on the rare occasions when we need one. (Our lease with Fiat also includes 12 free days of car rentals per year.) We regularly drive our EV from Palo Alto to San Francisco and Berkeley. (I've also driven it as far as Monterey and Sonoma.) We have only needed a gas car about a dozen times over the past year - usually because we just needed two cars on the same day (a problem that would be solved with better public transit).
Questions? Comments? Please let me know what you think!
Our family went shopping for an electric vehicle last weekend. Elliot was thrilled - he even passed up a play date with his best friend so he could join us.
First, we tested a Ford Focus EV. It belongs to our optometrist, who wants to sell it so he can get the new Rav4 EV.
At first I wasn't too keen on it - the styling feels dowdy to me, though Elliot & his dad thought it looked "sleek". But inside it was pretty sweet - the good doctor got leather seats, and the Focus driver seat comes with an electric adjustment nob that rivals a La-Z-Boy for comfort & adjustability. Upside: a 6.6kWh charger means it fills up on a level 2 charger in 3-4 hours. Downside: no DC fast charger.
Later we test drove the Chevy Spark, and Elliot asked about that:
Our last test drive was in a 2013 Nissan Leaf, so new it was still covered in plastic! (And seriously off-gassing. I told Elliot to hold his breath until we could roll down the windows.)
Elliot - high on that 'new car smell'.
The 2013 Leaf also has a 6.6 charger, and a ChaDeMo DC quick charge port, and a "braking regen" drive mode that feels almost as fun as the BMW Active-E (and helps increase range).
While there was no clear winner, we felt that the combination of 3.3 kWh (read: slow) charger and current lack of fast-charging infrastructure for the Spark put it in last place. I liked the look of the Leaf (in silver, anyway), and the braking regen is a big draw. Plus the Leaf is a clear winner on trunk space. And most importantly, the speed of quick charging on the Leaf makes it a viable car for longer distances - and a better model for encouraging others to go EV.
But the cost of the Leaf (we were quoted $362/month for a three year lease) is almost double the cost of the Spark ($199) and significantly higher than the Ford ($225).
The upshot: we're going to wait until after we do our taxes to see how much we can afford - and hope that in the meantime the 2013 Leafs come down in price!
Vanessa and Elliot attended a screening on Friday of Chris Paine's epic film Revenge of the Electric Car. Elliot's goal now is to become like Gadget, and help his dad rebuild our 1995 Honda Civic as an all-electric car.
Elliot and his pal David Gershon at a recent screening of Revenge of the Electric Car
Elliot (aka Robin Hood) gets a ride on an electric tricycle.
On Sunday, we participated in EV Day at our church, to celebrate a new EV charger (and Halloween - a few days early). Elliot ditched his Robin Hood bow in order to catch a ride on an electric tricycle.
We also got to ride in a brand-new Fiat 500e (with eyelashes!)
Vanessa with Richard and his brand-new all-electric Fiat 500e (photo by Elliot)
Vanessa with Electronaut Muriel and her amazing BMW Active E Electric Vehicle.
Our family participated in a solar homes tour today, ending at Sven Thesen's beyond platinum LEED house. (This is where I filmed his neighbors two weeks ago, waxing poetic about his curbside EV charger.)
Today, to Elliot's delight, Sven had taken advantage of the house tour to create a mini EV rally. There were several EV drivers there - including my buddy Joe and his adorable Mitsubishi i-MiEV, and a real-life BMW "Electronaut" named Muriel, who let me drive her Active E. I didn't realize it at the time, but there are only 700 of these BMW concept cars in the US - and like the doomed EV1, they will be recalled after their 3-year leases are up, never to be sold. But unlike GM (which promptly crushed their EV1s back in the 90s), BMW plans to distribute the Active E's for study, and to release a revised version of the Active E - the i3, a 4-door hatchback - sometime in the next six months.
Joe and his Mitsubishi i-MiEV in front of Project Green Home
Driving the Active E was totally different than driving a gas car, or driving other EVs. It has a powerful regen function that feeds power to the battery and makes it kind of the car equivalent of riding a fixie: step on the accelerator and you go - let up, and you stop. As Muriel kept saying, it's totally controlled driving. Plus it gets a range of 80-90 miles (the i3 is supposed to get 100).
I want one.
And I don't even like cars.
So how much is this awesome driving machine? The i3 will sell for $40k, but when you take off the rebates, it's about $30k. Plus - oh yeah - you never have to buy gas again. And the planet is that much closer to having a chance at supporting human civilization.
But if you buy one you don't get to claim Electronaut status. That, evidently, is reserved just for those first 700 special people who leased the Active E.
Today, humans are creating more than 38 billion tons of carbon pollution every year - in fact, over 2 million pounds of it gets spewed into the air every second. This massive amount of pollution is now threatening the climate that all life depends on, and in the US, almost a third of that pollution comes from transportation. But the problem with CO2 is that you can’t see it, you can’t smell it, you can’t taste it - and that makes it hard for people to take it seriously. But what if you could see it? What if the 19 pounds of crap coming out of your car’s tailpipe was... crap?
Elliot Ingle, a bespectacled 8-year old wearing a necktie and lab coat, takes us on a short journey to imagine just such a reality. Using a combination of live action video and animation, “Worse than Poop” will illustrate basic scientific facts (why DOES a gallon of gas produce 19 pounds of CO2? How is that possible - and where does it go?). It will also work to undermine some outmoded cultural norms (what’s a better status symbol - a poo-spattered Lexus or a spiffy clean Tesla - or a fun shiny bike with a cool sidecar?). Featuring mom’s minivan (one pound of poo per mile!), the lumbering Suburban (19 pounds of poop in only 10 miles!), the Tesla S (faster than a speeding Captain Underpants!), the Nissan Leaf, the Mitsubishi i, and a flotilla of electric and people-powered bicycles and scooters, “Worse than Poop” will engage children ages 5-12 in the most important issue of our time: rejection of the fossil fuel lifestyle.
It’s bound to make a difference. I mean, what kid doesn’t love talking about poop?
Climate change facts, what is climate change, climate change definition.
Hanover Street, Palo Alto, CA 9306, USA
