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Back in Town

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Hits: 2006

After a nice vacation it is good to be back in town.  We saw an amazing number of Minis in France.  Much more small cars than in California including Smarts and some really small Chevys I have never seen in the U.S. 

The latest Mini-E bulletin says that 450 of the Mini-Es are now on the road.  That is pretty exciting.  I hope soon to see many more of them as we drive around town.  Still get a lot of smiles and waves when I drive the car.  I doubt many notice that it is electric and just are responding to the Mini itself.  People do notice how quiet it is though.  I had to ask some kids skateboarding in a parking lot to move since the didn't hear me coming up today.  Though they probably wouldn't have heard our old 70's muscle car either.

Less Fuel Friendly Vehicle

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When the Clean Fuel Connection guys came to upgrade the wiring to our main power line, the brought the monster truck.  Since they do a lot of larger scale solar installations they have a lot of big ladders and such, but still it was a shock to see this thing in my driveway.  About the largest non-semi truck I have ever seen.  Ironically after doing many installs of chargers for the Mini-E, the guys had not actually seen one yet.  So I took them both for a test drive.  They seemed to really enjoy it.  I wanted to park the two cars together for comparison but didn't have time.  But if you see this on the road, realize these guys are actually on the front lines of energy independence.

 

First Impressions

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I have been driving #148 for a few days now and am starting to get the feel of it. 

The car definitely drives like a manual transmission.  Everything from the slight roll back when stopping on a hill to the feel when cornering.  The regenerative braking allows you to "downshift" and engine brake into turns and allows you to take most turns without touching the brake.  I have been able to verify the mileage that I expected to get from the car.  Given my round trip commute of around 30 miles, I really only need to charge up every three days or so.  It is easy enough though to do every night and you never know if we will decide to go a bit more, so best to always start with a full charge.

I feel I have driven enough though to form some impressions.

Read on for the Good, the Bad, and the Unknown...

#148 Has Arrived

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Welcome a new member to our beach house... Mini-E #148

Couldn't have arrived on a better day.  Also, quite busy.  After pickup, I had to jam back to the Office, then home.  We then went for a lovely dinner of Uni Pizza at Il Chianti. Then to pick up the truck for a hand-off to my brother in Law.  I managed to log double my normal commute on the car in just a couple of hours.  I tested both the fast charge and the 110 charger and they seem to work.  Though, I need another wire installed and the final inspection before we are licensed to let the juices flow.

A couple of shots after the break...

 

It's getting a bit crowded

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More fun with the Google map stuff.  Custom pins to show the Car #'s as you can see.  Also started working on a full screen map though struggling a bit with framework.  Starting to get quite a few cars on the map.  I have no idea what it will look like if I even get a somewhat small sample of the 500 vehicles.  Should be interesting.

Can't wait till I get the car to join the real fun.  Now back to the paying work... 

  1. East Coast is now Online
  2. Pickup the car on Tuesday the 16th
  3. Added article commenting
  4. 5 Cars delivered and counting

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