Switch EV Project Blog

Free work based charging posts for Switch EV trial candidates!

Thanks to the team at Charge Your Car, organisations wanting to join the Switch EV trial can get a charging post installed at your work premisis for free - which is yours to keep. 

 

The "host of the post" would be responsible for 50% of the cost of the connection of the post (approx £300), and would have to provide a dedicated EV parking bay until the end of the project (2013) but the post, the ground work, and the installation would all be free.

 

Through the trial we can also install a domestic charging unit - a Pod Point - in people's homes for the duration of the trial, again free of charge, to ensure convenient recharging solutions.

 

To find out more, or join the trial, just get in touch!  

LEAF in Winter

Winter is here.   That should not really be a surprise should it?   We opened the curtains this morning to a couple of inches of snow and so begins the ritual of clearing the drive.     

Now herein lies a problem.   As you can see from the picture, we have a very steep drive.   You will also note from the picture a snowy Nissan Leaf sitting at the bottom of the hill.    It is true that I didn’t expect to get it up the drive...our other cars struggle too.   In fact, it is only our four wheel drive that can make it.   So it is unfair to judge an otherwise excellent vehicle on this little episode.   However, it does raise a very good point.

 

Snow is not unexpected around here, although we have to admit to being caught out this morning.   We fully expect our drive to be rendered inaccessible for up to eight weeks every year when it snows or is icy.   The rest of the road network is much better protected and ability to drive safely is maintained by the local county council pretty much all round the year.   We are prepared and when snow is forecast, we move our cars to the top of the drive and park them in a layby adjacent to our boundary by the road.   We could have done this for the electric car too and continued to use the car as long as road conditions were favourable.   However, this is where the electric car system hits a fundamental flaw.    If the car is at the top of the drive, the charge cable is not long enough.   The 5m cable attached to the Podpoint is ridiculously short and inflexible for general usage, and utterly useless in these circumstances.   I have been advised that a longer cable would be a “special” and incur additional cost, and unlikely to be ready before the end of our trial.   The portable charge system supplied with the car has the same length of cable and the extensive car instructions advise against the use of extension cables when charging the vehicle.

 

As a result we could potentially have a car available for our use, but no means of charging it.   We are now faced with the silly situation of waiting for the snow to melt so we can continue to use the car.

 

Whilst we really like the Nissan Leaf, who would buy a car you can only use for ten months of the year?    A well thought out car is being let down by poorly thought out infrastructure.

 

AVID CUE-V proving popular

Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue have had an AVID CUE-V for several weeks now, and are enjoying the experience....

 

"The trial is going great! It has been working out of Newcastle and is due to come into HQ and be used by our training department in the next week or so."

 

 

 

 

LEAF Driver Update

Swaisland Harris have now had the Leaf for just over a month and we are continuing to find it to be an excellent town car.  It is performing well and to some extent we forget that it is an electric vehicle.  We are experiencing some difficulties with the mileage range indicator which seems to generate numbers on a random basis as you can be driving along one minute with 80 miles on, have a bit of a spurt and put the air conditioning on and end up with 50 miles.  We only once got down to single figure range and thankfully we were close to a charging point.  We had a trip into the country to the Battlesteads Restaurant at Wark and with four adults on board the car performed well despite being driven along the A69 at 70 miles an hour.  The charge we got at the Battlesteads did reassure some of the passengers that we would get home.

 

We have done over 700 miles in the first month and it is proving to be good, the only problem has been getting to grips with the heating system, the frost that we had caused some de-icing problems and it was a cold drive to work.

 

 

Nissan LEAF drivers

Swaisland Harris have now  had the car for just over a week and it is proving to be an excellent city car for our business. The range does not cause us any problems as most of our work is local.  We find the performance and handling both excellent. The acceleration  is surprisingly good and is more than adequate. It has changed my driving style as my wife says l drive more smoothly but she is worried by the attention I pay the dash board, trying to build Trees!

Changing is not proving a problem yet as there are always a vacant space near the office and we have now got the hang of the lights on the posts. Home changing is also now easier as I have reread the instructions. I would be pleased to join a focus group as you mentioned that they were to be held.

 

First thoughts in the LEAF

My initial findings are very positive, and as the days progress I am becoming much more confident in the cars abilities particularly regarding range.

 

The first journey home - a distance of 37 miles - saw the range diminish very quickly at motorway speeds, but my worries were unfounded as I reached more urban roads and was able to generate my own fuel!

 

I have very quickly changed my driving style and have improved the remaining range by 25 miles over the same journey already!  

 

I have still to try travelling to and from work without a top-up charge, but will try before too long.

 

The car is generating a lot of interest wherever it goes and the ability to use it for my long(-ish) commute is certainly surprising a lot of people.

 

Simon, new LEAF driver

 

More LEAF Drivers

The 2nd cohort of Switch EV trial candidates collected their Nissan LEAF last week. The cars have been allocated to 5 families and 7 organisations from across the region. 

The drizzle couldn't keep the smile off the driver's faces as they took the cars out onto the public roads for the first time. We look forward to hearing how they get on over the next 6 months. 

"I have really enjoyed driving the LEAF for the last 2 days, and today have reluctantly handed the keys over to John for the weekend." Lois, Gateshead College.

"We got back OK - nervous on the first open road drive, but we had a few little runs around the Port in it as we try to learn all the functions but so far we are very impressed." James, Port of Tyne.

The companies included in this phase of the trial are: Integrated Office Systems, Cottam Brush, Middlesborough Council, GVA Grimley, Swaisland Harris, Gateshead College and the Port of Tyne. 

Phase 1 complete

All 44 Switch EV vehciles have now finished the first phase of the trial. A massive thank you to all of the pioneering trial candidates for taking the brave step of being the first in an EV and for all your feedback over the last 6 months. 

 

We have had excellent feedback from all of our drivers. As with all new things, there are some areas that we hope to improve on for subsequent phases, and some areas that we would like to investigate further. However, we know that the trial has resulted several EVs being purchased, and several people are facing a decision about their next car! 

 

We are now busy preparing and distributing the cars for the second phase, so the NE should see all 44 back on the roads very shortly! 

South Tyneside Council and the iOn

We have just received this comment from South Tyneside Council, towards the end of their trial with the iOn. 

 

"The iOn has been a fantastic asset to the department and has enabled massive carbon savings for the Council."

 

We are glad to hear it is popular and being used frequently! 

CE Electric with the Peugeot iOn

Hi There

I have had the good fortune to have the chance of driving a Peugeot iOn for a couple of weeks to see how the vehicle would perform being used by an engineer to carry out his duties. These duties related to multiple town visits from our base outside Newcastle at Shiremoor, for journeys into Newcastle City Centre and beyond i.e. Corbridge approximately 18 miles.

Having been loaned the vehicle I found the operation of the vehicle to be better than expected, although due to the weight of the vehicle the suspension was quite hard. The use of a direct drive motor and no gears gave the feeling of a very good constant rate of acceleration not achievable by most traditionally engined vehicles. Having said that it did take some time to get used to!

The only real difference was the concern over the length of miles available and after a couple of weeks of use I feel that this vehicle in its present layout would be best used as a town run around car. There are limitations in boot the area for storage.

Having a power usage meter instead of a rev counter was somewhat compelling because of the indicators 1) life left in the battery and 2) an indicator averaging out how many miles there may be left on the charge before you “ran out of juice”. However this became more of a tool for economic driving than a worry! The drive has always been great and has left a smile on my face due to the silence of the vehicle and the outstanding acceleration from a stationary start.

Charging is not an issue at the minute as most of the plentiful charging points dotted around Newcastle were basically empty, however as the cost of the vehicles reduce and the technology of the batteries and motors improves then the popularity of this type of transport will increase. In future there may not be enough charging points available. However, like our family’s second car which completes a yearly average of 3000 miles, often with multiple short journeys of 10 miles or less this vehicle could be run for a week on a single slow charge which would not require the possible battery life damaging super chargers that are to be fitted on long haul routes. However, I found it just as easy to “top up” each time which gave the full car range no problem. The maximum range indicated was 88 miles!

The vehicle itself is quite narrow but well laid out as with most modern cars. The seats were quite narrow but were comfortable enough for the journeys which I had to undertake. I took a journey with four large adults approximately 400Kilos with no detriment to the performance and comfort of the vehicle and all were impressed. Although the vehicle has all the creature comforts of air conditioning and automatic lights and windscreen wipers you always feel that to use it would sacrifice the mileage on a charge i.e. if you’re stationary and are not using the automatic air-con and fan but set both to “on” then the indicator averaging out how many miles there may be left chops an alarming 5~7 miles from the range however, being summer I generally drove around with the driver and passage windows vented this was usually enough to keep the iOn well ventilated and comfortable however, on the occasions with our great British summer i.e. very wet conditions this required the windows to be shut and the use of full air-con and the loss in miles proved to be no more than a slight concern.

To sum up this car with due consideration can complete 90% of my current office working requirements but due to operational requirements including access into the remote parts of Northumberland I would require a vehicle with a combustion engine. Without any hesitation I would consider a vehicle such as this as a second family vehicle but:

• Cost would be completely prohibitive.
• Costs have to be comparative to the size of vehicle class
• Range would be an issue.
• As a minimum a range between 100~150 miles would be preferable
• Battery life concerns need to be addressed
• Battery life needs to be considered as resale value will be affected