As a report for this year, scooter worked perfectly, except for the front drum break which had a little scraping sound once a while and the malfunctioned turning lights. Funny thing is that these are one of the few “good old” parts of technology this little machine has inside. They will repair and check those where I left it stored at (MP-hotelli) for the winter months. They will also keep the batteries recharged. The motor, batteries etc. themselves worked like a charm. It really started to feel like the dependable machine I could rely on. And I’m gonna miss it.

But don’t think it’s the end of electric mobility for this winter. We’ll see…

It’s also strange that most of these cars are occupied by only the driver. This really points out how much our current transportation system NEEDS some rethinking. In a gasoline car only 1% of the energy in gasoline is used to move the person around. Jusk as yourself, how stupid is that? I bet my 135 kilogram electric scooter with ~4kWh/100km energy consumption does a much better job. The climate is changing and oil is getting harder and harder to drill (and more expensive) and still we continue like nothing is happening.

And as the technology is already so cheap that you can get this kind of vehicle with less than 2000 euros, common sense tells me these should be much more popular than they are now. Especially now as gasoline costs 1.5 to 1.6 euros per litre (almost $8 per gallon) over here. And there should already be more affordable options to choose from that we could use all around the year. Sure, there are now some tiny slow electric cars that we could use even during the winter months, but even they are insanely expensive for what you get. You could get couple decent (used) gasoline cars for the price of one of these. The technology itself shouldn’t be that expensive or “unproven”. They’ve made pretty good electric cars that could fit the bill already during the 1970′s(!), so why it is so hard to build a decent priced electric car that we could use for more than 90% of our driving in 2011?

But even here in our capital area around Helsinki, a lot of people could already use these cheap electric two-wheelers almost 8 months a year, for all their commuting, instead of relying either on their polluting cars or our weak and unreliable public transportation system. As an example, I’m using one to travel to work for a distance of 20km back and forth. And most people would travel less than this. But I have to detour quite a lot. Straight line would be only 13km, but our road network where I can travel with my max. 50km/h (officially 45km/h) scooter  is rather limited. And I’m not even planning of using bicycle lanes. I think they are not appropriate for such a heavy vehicle, traveling more than 30km/h.

Yeah, I’m getting a bit depressed as I  need to take my scooter to storage, as the temperatures are going to drop below zero within a few weeks. It just gets a bit too slippery for my own safety and comfort. Good news is that I have some light shining at the end of this tunnel, although I do not know how long the tunnel is.

“Billmaier outlines how EVs will propel the coming “electriconomy”, a consumer-driven economic boom that will be ignited as society is transformed from an oil-based economy to one powered by electricity. The electriconomy will dwarf all previous technology revolutions—it will be bigger than the computer and Internet markets combined—and will catapult the economy of whichever nation masters it.”

Also the movie “Revenge of the Electric Car” (trailer here) is finally arriving to theaters in some parts of the world. I hope they will get here too, but I doubt about that. I can only hope that there will be digital copy available in iTunes etc. so that we could see it here in our backward country.

In the morning when I drive to work it’s getting so dark that it’s pretty hard to see all the holes in the road. And our car’s windshield was in ice this morning. So pretty soon the roads will be covered with thin layer of ice as it gets below zero in the night. The scooter itself seems to work just fine even if it’s colder, except the turning lights which seems to have started malfunctioning. The controller acts really weird. But I think I’ll get them fixed at the same time I drop it to winter storage, as it should be covered by warranty.

Edit: Just bought some warm gloves. No more freezing fingers.

Only thing that these articles prove to me, is that people’s expectations are not in level with reality. People are used to what gasoline powered cars can do, without analyzing how they actually use them in daily basis and how far they really need to go with them. And of course they expect them to work the same way as regular cars, as that’s what they’re used to. The interesting fact is that after people have been able to use them during trial projects, like the mini-E trials, more than 90% of their drivers would have liked to keep them. And as a result, they want to buy an electric car as their next car. In reality beeing able to live with an electric car is an eye-opening experience. Not beeing able to drive more than 100 miles per charge isn’t usually that a big deal. Most of us drive a LOT less daily. And each morning the car is charged up in the morning, with no need to drive to gas stations. Four out of five mini-E drivers preferred charging home, instead of refueling at the gasoline station. You can just roll on past them, smiling. When someone asks “how far can you go with a charge?” you can just reply “how often do you need to refuel?” and “how much did it cost?” And in the future, things like wireless charging could be reality, making things even easier than before (if that’s possible). Not to mention beeing able to fast charge in 5-15 minutes if you need to travel further than the range of one charge.

But I also have to somewhat agree with one thing in these articles. Electric car prices are currently ridiculously high. As an example the Nissan Leaf is about to be sold in Finland for about 40000€. Wow. I could buy a pretty nice BMW for that price. Of course our ridiculously high car tax added on top of the pretty high 23% VAT adds up pretty fast, especially as there’s not a single incentive offered from the government for clean vehicles. Just an added fuel-source based tax (the good old “diesel tax”) is slapped on top, as a penalty for not driving a gasoline car. I guess they’re just too afraid they will loose some tax revenues, as our gasoline is so highly taxed (the price is around 1.5-1.6 euros per litre, which translates to almost $8 per gallon). Of course these are only examples of the first generation of electric vehicles, when there’s barely no competetion and mass production is barely starting. And how could there be any competition, as every single car they can manufacture is sold in minutes? There’s a huge cry out for them – and the car companies can’t (or don’t want to) even match the demand. Nissan Leaf has a months long waiting list in the US, where it’s sold for $25000 with the incentives. So why would they want to offer cheaper alternatives?

But the good news is that the electric cars are coming. People are buying them, even if they’re still very expensive. Production is ramping up and competition is only beginning. And as a prelude to what we can expect from the future, the iMiev is just announced to be sold for $21625 (closer to 16500€) in the US. This sounds almost like the “Volkswagen of the 21st Century” to me. Batteries and manufacturing costs will drop as they are being produced with higher volumes. Some studies estimate that battery prices will get halved by 2018, which would mean you could get a Leaf-sized 24kWh batteries for less than 4000 euros by then. And most likely they will also hold 30-50% more charge per kilogram of weight. Pretty impressive improvements, like some new electric motors without rare earth metals, more efficient hub motors and new types of nickel and lithium-batteries are introduced in monthly basis. During the last year there might have been more technological breakthroughs and new announced electric car models than in a decade before. And car shows are filled with prototypes and production models. The future of electric cars is definitely bright, like it or not. They have just left the station and can’t be stopped, even if the petrolheads try to deny it.

But hopefully I won’t have to drive our petrol-hungry box of metal on wheels too long. I have couple of choices which will not cost a fortune, and I’ve been discussing with our landlord about the possibility of charging an electric car on our parking slot’s electric outlet. I’ve been given a permission to do so. Since an electric car will eat up much more electricity than my little scooter, we had to discuss this in little more detail. We talked about how I will pay for the electricity and I’m happy to say that we got it settled. Hopefully I’ll also be able to buy wind power as our source of electricity for the car.

To be fair, I’ve only driven 430 kilometers myself, as I bought it “used”, with only 90km in the trip meter. But if I had chosen the car instead of my scooter, I would have driven 430 x 1.3 = 559km and used up about 36,3 liters and 57 euros worth of gasoline with our car. (Usually when the warning light turns on there’s room for 37 liters.) Also this has saved some 80+ kilograms of CO2 emissions, an amount equal of my own body weight (which is kinda scary thought). It’s amazing how much crap a regular car can pump into our atmosphere. About ten times this (5000km) and I’ve compensated the amount of CO2 that has been emitted while manufacturing the scooter itself. And this only by comparing against the listed tailpipe emissions of our car, not counting emissions from extraction, refining and shipping the gasoline to the pumps.

Can’t beat the feeling of driving this scenic route through the misty fields and small suburbs with a vehicle that’s near silent and emits no exhaust. With an open helmet I can just enjoy the ride and the morning sun. Just noted that I only have to buy thicker gloves, as my fingers start to freeze. (Or I’ll try my thick neoprene gloves.) It was only 7°C warm in the morning and it’s getting colder every day. But it’s all about right clothing. I’ve got this nice retro motorcycling leather jacket with protection pads and extra padding for winter use as well as padded motorcycling trousers. Stylish, warm and comfortable.

The good news is that this summer I finally found and bought the “Cemoto City Cruiser” electric scooter, so I could travel to work with it. It’s really affordable, as you could actually pay more for a high-end bicycle. And I’ve been thrilled to be able to drive with it. It has stylish retro-look, it’s cheaper to use than public transportation (only 50 cents of electricity per 100km), produces less emissions and it’s just about maintenance free. The emissions are only about 4 grams per kilometer, as it’s still charged from national grid which includes fossil fuel power. But I’ve asked if I could buy some wind-power shares for our electrical outlets at the parking slots, so that my scooter would be truly zero-emission. Just in comparison, even when powered by fossil energy this would be only 1/5th of the emissions compared to local train, which would emit 25g/km of CO2 per person according to the latest report, not including the electricity used by the train stations, warehouses and their lighting. And it’s also 1/20th of what HSL buses produce – average of whopping 100g/km! Too bad our long winter does not make it possible to use my scooter all around the year.

I shall begin my blog with experiences with all kinds of EV’s I get bumped into, starting with my beloved scooter. I’ll also try to participate all the events and shows related to electric vehicles. There’s a LOT to do to change people’s attitudes toward electrics here and it’s just dumbfounding how little people seem to know about the subject.

Typical thing people always say when I talk about electric vehicles are “how long will the batteries last”, “it’s useless if I want to further”, “it won’t work in the winter” or “isn’t electricity made in coal plants” etc. On the page “Why Electric?” I’ve tried to explain a little bit how these things actually work, according to latest studies and user reports.