New SCE Time-of-Use Rate Structure

Heads-up, Southern California Edison Customers!  In case you haven't noticed yet, our rates have changed as of the beginning of the year, and for those of us that are on the time-of-use EV rate plan (TOU-D-TEV), that plan is being pulled, to be replaced by three new plans. These new plans are available to all customers, not just those of us with EVs. Information on these plans can be found on SCE's website. Scroll down a bit until you see the heading "Other Available Rate Plans". Click on "View pricing for these TOU rates" to see the rate tables.

In case you don't feel like poking at the SCE website right now, below is a table that illustrates how these new plans stack up against the old one. Cells highlighted in green, yellow, or red are meant to depict, in my opinion, whether an attribute of a new plan is equal or better (green), slightly worse (yellow) or much worse (red) than the TOU-D-TEV plan that is phasing out.
 

Key differences between the new and the old are:

• Peak periods have been shortened and have been shifted to start later in the day
• Super-off-peak periods have been extended on Plan A and Plan B
• A monthly fee has been imposed for all TOU plans 

If you are on the old TOU-D-TEV plan and haven't figured out which plan you're being switched to, I strongly suggest you call SCE and find out ASAP since you'll be switched automatically on the March 2015 billing cycle. I made the call a few weeks ago when SCE first posted the plans online, and was told that I'd be switched to TOU-D-A. Which confused me, since our household consumes well over 700kWh of energy every month. Our consumption ranges from 1100 kWh/month during spring and fall, to almost 1800 kWh/month when daytime temps reach over 100F in the summertime.

After finding the new TOU rates on the SCE website and doing some really rough comparisons in my head, I called SCE again and asked them to switch me to TOU-D-B. The rep that I talked to offered to have one of her cohorts do an analysis first, but I insisted that I am well aware of their rate plans and my usage patterns, and have determined that Plan B was my best option. So she happily made the switch for me and said that if Plan B doesn't work out, just give them a call and they'll switch me back to Plan A.

After a few days, I started second-guessing my choice since I didn't do a detailed analysis. Truth is, I didn't even do a back-of-the envelope calculation. All I really did was a comparison of key attributes. So I started putting together a spreadsheet to compare the three new TOU plans with the outgoing TOU-D-TEV plan. I downloaded a week's worth of recent hourly usage data, the last week of January. Here's how it panned out (click on image to enlarge):

As expected, TOU-D is undoubtedly the wrong plan for me since it would increase my monthly bill by about $40 in the wintertime. But between Plan A and Plan B, the difference of about a buck or two a week is pretty much in the noise of this rough estimate. So I picked a week's worth of hourly data from last August to compare the summer rates. Here's how that looks (again, click on image to enlarge):

Based on the summer rate analysis, TOU-D-B is definitely the plan for us since it will probably cost about $40 per month less than TOU-D-A when it gets hot around here. I guess I got lucky this time; a decision made in relative haste turned out to be the right one (whew!).

So... if you are a SCE customer, it's probably in your best interest to find out as soon as possible which rate plan you've been switched to. If it's wrong for your situation, there's still time to change it before it takes effect at the beginning of the next billing cycle.

Return to the Magic Kingdom

Oh, well. I guess like anything else that's done on a grand scale, it's just not the same the second time around. Back in April when we first charged up at Disneyland, The sight of ten dual-port Chargepoint EVSEs serving one long row of  EV-dedicated parking spaces was truly glorious. Now, seven months later, as I approached that hallowed ground in the Mickey and Friends parking garage, the wonder and amazement just wasn't there. Perhaps after seeing it once, such creations become reduced from a surreal dream-come-true experience down to mere expectations. And with so many EV parking spots available, my expectation was to pull in, swipe in, plug in, lock up, and then head toward The Magic Kingdom. Just like last time.

No such luck. As we approached, it was painfully clear that we arrived a few minutes too late. The last EV spot was just taken by the driver of a Fusion Energi that had just finished plugging in. Of the twenty or so spots, about a third were occupied by Volts. My older son was in awe...  our Volt is his favorite ride of the family fleet, so seeing seven in a row in the wild pretty much made his eyes pop out of his head. There were about the same amount of Prius plug-ins, a couple of LEAFs, a couple of Teslas, and a couple of Energis. All the plug-ins were plugged in, except for one - a white Model S. That Model S blocked one of the two spots that was within reach of an unused EVSE port. The other spot, which was all the way at the end of the row next to the motorcycle parking, was ICEd by a Toyota Camry.

I was a bit miffed, to say the least. There should have been two more spots left, but I was denied by an ICE that couldn't charge and a Tesla that didn't need a charge. I'm not sure which ticked me off more.

Improvised! Thankfully, Guest Services was okay with this.

I figured it was time to improvise. So I created an EV spot using three of the fifteen or so open motorcycle parking spaces, backing the RAV's charge port as close as possible to the unused EVSE without invading the Camry's personal space, ignoring my wife's egging on to inch right up to its front bumper. After swiping in, plugging in, and locking up, we were ready to go. But my wife was worried.

"What if you get a ticket?", she asked.

Confusing signage may have been a factor.

"By whom? Goofy? Pluto? Dumbo?", I responded.

"The police," she said, sternly.

"This is private property, and I don't see a posted sign giving them jurisdiction," I said, as if I really knew what the heck I was talking about. I actually didn't.

"What if they tow us?", she prodded.

"Oh, you mean with Mater?"

There was a long pause, a sigh, and a cold stare. So I backed off.

"Okay, I'll write a note to Disney Security, put it on our windshield, take some pictures, and then show the pictures to the good folks at Guest Services.We have to go there anyway. If they want me to move the car, I'll come back and move it while you and the boys enjoy the park. By then we'll have over an hour's worth of charge, which will top us off enough to get home as long we obey the speed limit and don't make any detours."

She was good with that, so we headed for the trams. Then out of the corner of my eye I noticed two familiar headlight patterns rolling past the row of plug-ins - one was a Model S, the other was the distinctive Angry Birds expression of a Focus Electric. As the Blue Candy Focus Electric passed us, I tapped on the window and told the driver that we have the improperly parked RAV4 EV back there, and that we can text her in about four hours when we're fully charged. She smiled and thanked us, then said she has just enough to get home, holding her thumb and index about an inch apart. "Good to hear," I said. She thanked us again as she pulled away.

The Guest Services representative was very understanding. She said she will radio the parking folks to make sure they are aware of our situation. I offered to give her our cell phone numbers in case she  needs to ask us to move our car, but she said not to worry and to just enjoy our time at the park. So we did.

Turns out the park was pretty packed, which partially explains the high demand for EVSEs. According to the Mousewait app, the crowd index was at 91/100...  almost full, on the Monday before Thanksgiving. In contrast, the crowd index was only 51 during our Spring Break visit last April; back then the EV spots were less than half-full. Despite the huge crowd, everyone had a good time. My wife got to see the Christmas parade at night and enjoy the Holiday decor. My older son met Captain America, flew in a Mark 42 Ironman suit, and mixed it up with pod racers after being chased by Imperial Forces because Darth Vader identified his brother as a Rebel Spy. My younger son (younger by two minutes, they're twins) got his fill of sensory overload on Space Mountain and Indiana Jones. And at the end of the day, we were swept into a different time and place while strolling down Main Street on our way out. The street gently darkened, leaving only Christmas lights and the castle illuminated. Snow started falling, dancing in the breeze above the buildings before fluttering down onto the heads and faces of smiling parents and delighted children. In the same fashion that we were immersed, the glimpse into the past was swiftly and softly lifted, returning Main Street to its bright, bustling normalcy. Disney magic at its best.

Back at the Mickey and Friends parking structure, every EV space was still occupied at 8pm, albeit with noticeable turnover. And from what I could tell, there were at least a half dozen plug-ins of various marques scattered amongst the non-charging spots that are shared between EVs and those with disability parking permits. Our RAV4 EV was still there, butted up against the nose of the Camry that denied us a proper space seven hours earlier. As I unplugged, my wife eyeballed that Camry and said I should write a note.

"I'm tired. Not worth the effort. And besides, I think it's your turn to write a note," I said, pointing to my message to Security on the RAV4's windshield. She took my note, ripped it in two, scribbled on the blank half, then stuck it under one of the Camry's wiper blades.

"So... what did you say?" I asked, curiously.

"THIS IS AN EV PARKING SPACE. DO NOT PARK HERE."

"Ah, good one," I said. "Short and sweet."

Just then, off in the distance, a young woman evidently watching us smiled and yelled, "Good for you!". She was unplugging a very cute sky blue 500e, and said she had to come back to the parking structure in the late afternoon to plug in when one of the spots opened up. She said she was glad to see that we figured out a way to work around that ICEd spot.

 Although the journey ended well, I do have a few lessons learned for next time, which could perhaps serve as guidance to those that haven't been there yet with their EV:

• Think twice before heading to Disneyland in a BEV when the Mousewait app says the park is nearly full. Chances are that demand for the EVSE spots will exceed capacity.
• If you still have to go, try to get there much earlier than 1pm, otherwise all the EVSE spots will  probably be taken. However, there should still be plenty of space to park in a non-EVSE spot.
• Don't completely trust the Chargepoint app when it comes to EVSE availability. There may be spots that are ICEd or occupied by plug-ins that aren't plugged in.
• Plan a break from the action in the park, if possible, to unplug and move to a non-charging spot after you're charged up. Even in the late afternoon, there may be wonderful folks like the driver of that 500e, monitoring their Chargepoint app, hoping for an open spot so that they can juice up to get home. 
• With a BEV, always have a Plan B.  

Yup, good ol' Plan B. Plan B on this trip was to crawl home in the slow lane in the unlikely event that we couldn't charge up at all. Or in my case, if I forgot to tell the RAV4 to override delayed charge settings, so it would charge immediately when plugged in at Mickey and Friends. So the ride home took a bit longer than planned, but we did get home without stopping. More on that later....

Choosing a Rate Plan

Okay, so the good news is that when it comes to energy costs, driving an EV is way cheaper than driving an ICE. In my case, replacing three ICE vehicles with two BEVs and a PHEV is saving me about $400 every month in gas. The bad news is that charging up isn't free... yet. Most of my charging is done at home, and I have yet to go solar, so for now Southern California Edison is reaping the benefits of my vehicle choices.

Fortunately, SCE offers a few choices as far as rate plans... stay with the current residential rates, go with a time-of-use plan, or dig deep into my pockets ($2000 or so) to install a separate meter for the EVs and enjoy the lowest rate possible on my charging sessions at any time of day. After bringing home my first EV almost two years ago, a Focus Electric, I did a quick back-of-the-envelope calculation and tried out SCE's EV rate assistant tool, then switched to the time-of-use rate plan, figuring I'd never have a reason to charge during peak rate hours.

Twenty-two months and two additional EVs later, the TOU plan still seems to be the most cost-effective plan for me. To this day, I've never had to plug in between 10am and 6pm on a weekday, and most charging is done during the super-off-peak hours of 12am-6am. Based on my November bill for 1238kWh used in October, the TOU plan saved me over $80 when compared to residential rate plan.

I'd save even more if I could do all of my charging at the super-off-peak rate, which would be entirely possible if I had just one L2 EVSE. Right now I'm running with two L1 EVSEs on any given evening. Swapping out one of those L1 units with an L2 would enable me to fully charge the FFE or the Volt in less than 6 hours, after using 10kWh to 12kWh of energy on the homeward bound leg of my daily commute.

Typical daily electricity consumption

On a typical weekday, our electricity consumption look like this... about 3.5kW to 5 kW every hour during super-off-peak times, and less than 0.5 kW per hour on average during prime time. The off-peak usage at the 6am-7am and 11pm-12pm hours are higher due to charging of one of the commuter cars; the RAV4 EV is typically charging 12am-6am since it's typically only used close to home during the week.

Heaviest daily electricity consumption (once per week)

Our heaviest daily consumption occurs when the RAV4 EV is needed to run errands out of the Valley or clear across town; on those days our consumption during off-peak is much higher since I have to start charging it at about 9pm instead of midnight to replenish as much of the charge as possible and as cheaply as possible before the weekend starts, which is when we usually go on longer treks with the RAV4.

Hopefully in the next month or two I'll finally have a L2 EVSE. I've signed up for the submetering pilot program that comes with a free Juicebox. When that happens, all of my charging should happen between 12am and 6am.

If you're staring at the graphs and checking my math, you're probably wondering... if I'm only running two L1 EVSEs, why is the consumption peaking at well over 4kW at night? Well, the extra 1 to 2 kW is from running a pool pump. Since we're on a time-of-use plan, I've reprogrammed the pool pump to run between 12am and 6am only. We've also moved other activity to late night, such as running the dishwasher.

So... is time-of-use right for you? Well, if your on-peak usage is already minimal, or if you can move a good chunk of your current on-peak consumption to the off-peak times, and you have no need to charge up during on-peak hours, then yes, the TOU plan is probably your best bet. Check out your daily usage profile online, and if it bathtubs like mine does on the weekdays, I'd say go for it.

The Heat Is On...

"Wow, even your car was bitching that it was hot today," she said as she peered over my shoulder at a picture I took of the Focus Electric's dashboard. I chuckled. My wife can't stand this kind of weather, and neither does the Focus Electric, nor any other electric vehicle for that matter. 

It didn't feel that hot, really. Even after a brisk five minute walk in direct sunlight to my fully charged Focus Electric, there wasn't a drop of sweat on my forehead. And yes, I was fully clothed, in a black short-sleeved polo and blue jeans. I guess it was a dry heat. So I was really surprised that the temp readout in the FFE was reporting that we were in 101-degree heat.

I was in a meeting at Cal State Northridge while my beloved Focus Electric was sucking up some free juice out of a Chargepoint EVSE on campus. After two hours, during a meeting break, I took the car off of the charger so others could also enjoy some of that free juice, and pulled into an empty parking spot that's been absorbing the heat all morning. After one more hour, we left campus fully charged in that 101-degree heat, and made a stop at a nearby gas station for a quick three-dollar car wash.

The warning message came up the instant I powered off at the gas station. Just for kicks, I cleared the message, powered back up, then shut down again. Same warning message reappeared. "Good," I muttered to myself. At least the behavior was consistent rather than sporadic, which in my mind proved that the car's complaint was legit. So I kept the car turned on while the foam and pulsating sprays of water washed off layers of tree pollen and road dust, instead of shutting down like I usually do. Keeping the car powered up, I postulated, would let the battery's thermal management system work on removing any heat that was soaked up by the battery while parked unplugged on hot asphalt for that last hour. After the quick wash, we headed to work, which was a good 15 degrees cooler than CSUN, so the warning message did not reappear for the rest of the day.

UPDATE: Turns out the warning message seems to be tied to the ambient temperature and not the battery temperature, so in hindsight I'm pretty sure I had nothing to worry about. See this post by michael on myfocuselectric.com (thanks michael!). Equipped with an OBD scanner, he observed that in one case the battery temperature was in the low-80F range when the warning message popped up.

The user manuals for each of our electrics - a Focus Electric, a Volt, and a RAV4 EV - have something to say about parking in the hot sun - which is to plug in, if you can, while parked outdoors in hot weather. But none give any hint at what we should do if the opportunity to plug in just wasn't there.

Last summer I figured out a mitigation approach for parking outside on hot days that works quite well on the Focus - that is to keep the battery at less than full charge - at something like 80% or so - and remote start the car before the battery pack gets too warm. I first realized this might be an issue when, in the late evening following a hot 105-degree summer day, I noticed that the Focus Electric, while sitting on our driveway, was sending me email hourly since about 3pm telling me to plug it in. But instead of plugging in, I remotely started the car, then let it time out and shut down. That stopped the hourly email warnings; the theory is that the thermal management system (TMS) would kick in and bring the battery temp down to a level that was low enough to prevent the rest of the day's heat from elevating the battery temperature up to an alarming level. On subsequent 100+ degree days that summer, I kept the state of battery's state of charge at 50% to 80%  and remotely started the Focus Electric at  about 1pm-3pm, which ran the TMS for about ten minutes. I received no email alerts from the car on those days, so the scheme apparently worked.

The best practice, of course, is to keep the EV plugged in while parked in the driveway on days like this, but sometimes I forget to do that, and now I have a backup plan. Which did come in handy yesterday, since my Volt was sitting in the driveway, fully charged. So at about 3:00pm I jumped onto myvolt.com to remotely start the Volt an let it run for ten minutes, just for good measure. Probably really didn't need to do so, since the ambient was only 93F at home, not at 101F, and the Volt has a lot more buffer built into its battery management system than the Focus Electric - it only uses about 10.8kWh of the 16kWh battery's capacity (~65%), where the FFE seems to use a larger percentage - about 19.8 kWh of its 23kWh capacity (~85%), with most of that buffer allocated to prevent full discharge. Unfortunately the Volt doesn't seem to have the same warning capabilities as the FFE, so I'm not sure if I'll ever be able to know when the Volt thinks it's too hot outside. Fortunately, a member of gm-volt.com wrote up a great article on this subject - quite impressive, with graphs and real data - which leads me to believe that the remote start scheme will work just fine for the Volt.

As for the RAV4 EV - I wasn't worried about that one this time, since my wife was out and about throughout the day, so its TMS was engaged a fair amount. And the RAV4 EV's "full" charge utilizes only 80% of its battery capacity, much less than the purported 90% of the Focus Electric's capacity utilization. I did remotely start it earlier in the week though, when the temps first started approaching 100F, just to be on the safe side.

So, long story short (yeah, too late like usual), it's best to keep your EV plugged in while parked in the hot sun, just like the manual says. If you can't do that, my advice is to try to keep the state of charge (SOC) under 80% (50% is optimum), and remotely start your EV and let it run for about ten minutes, before the battery temp is heat-soaked to an alarming level, which should be something less than 86F (read this article if you want to know why 86F and less than a 100% SOC is important). Finally, if you park in a spot that's been soaking up solar rays all morning, your battery's temperature could possibly reach an alarming level faster than if your EV was parked there all night and shading the ground below it all day, depending on how well the bottom of battery (or batteries, in the FFE's case) is insulated.

There are, of course, other religious beliefs that various early adopters follow to keep their batteries healthy well beyond the 8-year or 10-year / 100,000 mile warranty and to prevent degradation that's not covered as a warranty defect by the manufacturer. On one end, some folks do nothing because they believe that the TMS (if equipped) and battery management system are good enough, or they simply don't give a damn because they have a 36-month lease and in the end it's not their problem. On the other end, there are those that advise others, typically know-it-all evangelists that have yet to purchase or lease an EV, that will tell folks to move to another state or just forget about driving an EV in Southern California, Arizona, or any other arid climate. I say ignore the extremists, for there is a happy medium. 

The Disney Experience

This year, our original Spring Break plan was for us to take the boys on a six-day road trip to Flagstaff, Arizona and back to visit relatives that just moved there. About a thousand miles round trip, with detours to the Mojave National Preserve and Vegas or Laughlin to break up the trip there and back. With four vehicles in our family fleet, surely one would fit the bill, right? Well, the two BEVs - the Focus Electric and RAV4 EV - were out of the running. Both work incredibly well for the daily commutes that they were meant to serve, but their range limitations keep them from being used for day-long treks. That left the Volt and Ram Quad Cab. My wife cringed at the thought of spending hours on end in a small sedan like the Volt, and I balked at spending $300+ on gas for the truck to make the trip. The solution? For about $250 I could rent a 50mpg Prius V, or perhaps a 4-cylinder cute-ute, i.e. an ICE RAV4 or Escape, that nets 30+mpg on the freeway. Rental fees and gas would add up to about $50 to $75 more than gas for the Ram, but I like driving other people's cars once in a while anyway.  Problem solved.

Unfortunately, that plan was thwarted when it looked like we would have to be back in town much earlier than desired, due to last-minute scheduling of a doctor appointment, a critical meeting at work that I didn't want to miss, and a much-needed batting practice for one of the boys. We now only had three days available for a road trip, so anything out-of-state was out of the question. So I thought... why not take a BEV vacation?  Our destination would have to be less than 100 miles away - within the range of our RAV4 EV - and have a suitable charging infrastructure so we could juice up for the ride home. My wife chuckled. "Right, so where could we possibly go?" she asked.

I knew it was somewhat of a rhetorical question, but I answered anyway, with a hint of sarcastic enthusiasm. "Well, there's Bakersfield. Or Victorville. Lancaster, maybe even Mojave if we push it. Oh, I know... how about Riverside?"

She scoffed, as expected. She's not a big fan of dry heat and tumbleweeds.

"Or... we could go to Disneyland," I suggested.

"Oh, I like Disneyland," she responded.

And so it was decided. Naturally, the boys would be more than just fine with it.

I figured that would be her answer, so at that point I already researched charging opportunities in Anaheim. Turns out that Disneyland has ten 2-port Chargepoint L2 EVSEs, with positive reviews in plugshare.com. Which is quite fortunate, because from what I could see, none of the hotels in the area claimed to have any L1 or L2 charging provisions. I was still a little worried though, since we didn't have a backup charging location in case Disneyland's EV spots were all occupied or inoperative. So just for good measure, I charged the RAV4 to 100%, aka extended charge, instead of the usual 80%, netting an expected 120-mile range, give or take. We live 59 miles away from Disneyland, so theoretically we could make it there and back on one extended charge if we really had to; worst case I would just have to look for a place to stop for an hour or two on the way home.

Like anything else that is Disney, it was a glorious sight, and of a grand scale... I spotted the row of over 20 EV charging spots, backlit by bright sun shining through an opening between the high ceiling and a ramp from the second floor. Easy to find, after paying $16 and obtaining directions from smiling cast members, then following the signage on the ground floor of the Mickey and Friends parking structure. It was by far the biggest EV charging site I've seen to date. Also in proper Disney tradition, the charging fees were pricey, at 35.5 cents per kilowatt-hour. Sure, that's about  the same as charging a Volt or Energi on a $1/hour public EVSE since they have 3.3kW chargers, but that's twice the price or more if you have a BEV with a 6.6kW or better on-board charger. It's almost as bad as paying $3 for a bottle of water or $4 for a bag of Cheetos, or over $90 to get through the front gates. Almost, but not quite.

As far as availability, turned out I had nothing to worry about... on late Wednesday morning there were only two EVs juicing up when I got there, a shiny blue Fit EV and a Volt. Thursday was a slightly different story; only six EV spots were left by the time we got there at 1pm. Several were taken by Volts that weren't hooked up, and one holier-than-thou Model S driver thought he deserved two spots. Someone needed to bring their old beater car and park it so close to that Model S that its door handles would have had no room to perform their erection routine. Is it really that hard to back into a space? I do it all the time in the RAV4 EV. What a jerk.

Other than that, the overall EV experience at Disney was just fine. The EV parking spots are carved out of the existing huge disabled parking area, so it's relatively close to the tram that takes you to the front gates of the Disneyland, California Adventure, and to Downtown Disney.

With only six spots left on a pretty light day -  crowd index in the parks ranged from 51 to 67 per that invaluable Mousewait app - I'm wondering what the Disney charging situation is like on busy weekends. Fortunately I won't have to find out. But with the year-over-year increase of EVs in California, there may be a need in the near future for them to somehow enforce etiquette, or perhaps just install more EVSEs. I think the smartest thing for them to do would be to install 120v outlets and provide free L1 charging. They can easily make their money back on the install since folks on L1 chargers would probably stay longer and buy more of those three-dollar bottles of Dasani and four-dollar bags of Cheetos.

I'm sure they'll do something. Disney has always been great at improving and enhancing The Disney Experience for locals, tourists, and those with special needs. And they're certainly off to a good start on taking care of early adopters like us.

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RELATED ARTICLE: Return to the Magic Kingdom - Charging at Disneyland on a crowded day

Free Turkeys

Back in the old days, so I was told, a year-end holiday tradition for my employer was to hand out turkeys to employees from the back of a truck. Eventually, by the time I was hired on, the tradition morphed into a gift certificate to be redeemed at a local grocery chain for a frozen bird. Perhaps not as nostalgic as a fresh-plucked hen from the tailgate of a stakebed truck (or at least that how I imagined it, loosely based on folklore passed down from the elders), but still very much appreciated. For me, that small gesture of generosity helped set the mood for a warm holiday season.

As the years passed, the privately held company was sold to a publicly traded one, then broken into pieces and sold off for a tidy profit.  Cultural practices and traditions that once set us apart from other companies gradually disappeared, including the free turkey. Layoffs, a shrinking market, and shareholders with expectations changed the climate and cadence of the workplace. Even the company-funded year-end parties have been curtailed. We had to be lean and mean. The little holiday touches that reminded me that this company cares about its employees seemed to have completely faded away… that is, until one day last week when I pulled into work. Because on that day, there were twice as many dual-port Chargepoint EVSEs than the day before. Eight EV parking spaces in total, taking up maybe a third of the first floor parking spaces that were along the west wall of the structure. It was an awesome sight. I’m not sure what was playing on SiriusXM, but it might as well have been a chorus of angels at that very moment.  That visual had way more impact on me than discovering a free turkey certificate in my company mail slot. I pulled my Focus Electric into the last available space and plugged in.

It was actually no surprise to me that the additional EVSEs were coming. Last September, after leaving a strongly worded note on a plug-in that wasn’t plugged in while parked in an EV spot,  I called the Commuter Services office for help. I reported the indecency and asked them to please put up some signage telling folks to not park there if they’re not plugged in. They gave me a phone number to call of a guy in Facilities that might be able to do something about it. So I contacted him, and it turns out he wasn’t just some worker bee like me – he is the company’s Sustainability Program Manager. I let him know of the time that I was denied a charging opportunity twice in one day at two different charging sites (each with two dual-port Chargepoint EVSEs at that time) because the last available space was taken by an unplugged EV at each site. He was very empathic about my plight, asked me for suggestions on signage (which I still owe him), and mentioned that he was planning to double the number of EVSEs by the end of the year at our location if all goes well.

The situation worsened in October and November… although the previously inconsiderate (or more likely, uninformed) EV drivers were starting to play nice, there was a very noticeable increase in the number of plug-ins at work vying for the charging spots; many times I had to wait until after 5pm to charge up. Worried that the additional Chargepoints may not come in time to satisfy the growing demand, I set up an account with EVConnect so that I can charge at a nearby Metrolink station that had a couple of EVSEs. Just in case.

Fortunately by the beginning of December, construction started to accommodate the additional EVSEs. It took a couple of weeks to complete – the foundation had to be prepped and poured for the outdoor units, and both the outdoor and garaged units had to have two metal pylons installed in front of them, in case someone pulling in forgets that the brake pedal is on the left, not the right. For a few days, the existing EVSEs in the garage were unpowered, probably in an effort to bring the new ones online. This meant that all the plug-ins were then competing for the four outdoor charging spots at a building about a mile away. I did feel bad when I beat a Volt and C-Max Energi by mere seconds to take the last available spot one Friday morning, but hey…. at least they can get home on gasoline; I needed to pump at least 9kWh of juice into my car’s battery to start my weekend. I quickly plugged in and avoided eye contact.

As promised by our trusty Sustainability Program Manager, we now have sixteen EV charging spots to serve our sites. What surprised me is that on the first morning of service in the parking garage, all eight spots were being utilized; six Volts, a Leaf, and my Focus Electric. The eight outdoor spots, probably due to a less convenient location, were only half-ultilized. Those that previously chose not to deal with the EVSE shortage are now enjoying the benefit and convenience of charging at work, and those like me who have to charge at work to get home can now rest easy that there will be a space available. To top it off, there is clear margin to serve more employees when they inevitably replace their ICE vehicles with plug-ins in the coming year.

I sent an email to our Sustainability PM, thanking him for the thoughtful holiday gift. He wrote back, excited about being able to make it happen here in California and about putting in our first EVSE at a Texas facility, with more locations to follow.

Sounds pretty wonderful to me. Perhaps this is the start of a new workplace holiday tradition.

Prolonging Life

From what I’ve seen, much of the angst of those contemplating EV ownership is centered around the battery. Range anxiety seems to be the most prevalent worry bead.

Another source of angst is battery life. And why not? For those not driving an EV yet, their only experience with batteries in cars is with lead-acid units that last five to seven years before crapping out. Even worse, their only experience with Li-ion batteries is probably with cell phone and laptop power sources that suffer noticeably degraded performance after a couple of years of continuous use. Not to mention the fact that there are stories of LEAF owners out there that lost 20% or more of their range after two or three years. Why should we believe that the batteries in EVs will fare any better than cell phone and laptop batteries?

Fortunately, my Focus Electric came with an 8-year/100K mile warranty on its thermally-managed Li-ion battery, so initially I didn’t worry too much about battery life, figuring that I can just ditch the car after three years if the battery turns into a relatively useless brick. But in short order I fell in love with the car, and since it might be a keeper, I started surfing the net for battery info and started paying attention to articles offering tips on prolonging Li-ion battery life in a plug-in EV.

There’s lots of stuff out there, but this is one that I like to refer folks to, from insideevs.com:

Understanding Battery Capacity Loss From A Four Year BMW Electric Trial Veteran

In short, five tips offered in this article are (in case you don’t want to read through the whole thing):

1. Avoid deep discharge.
2. Don’t leave a fully charged EV sitting unused for long periods of time.
3. Avoid excessive fast charging.
4. Don’t leave the car parked in a hot parking lot in direct sunlight if possible.
5. If you don’t need all the range the car can offer on a daily basis, then don’t fully charge it every night.

There are other similar articles out there on prolonging EV battery life, they pretty much say the same thing, but it’s nice to have a second source to help draw your own conclusions and plan of action. So here’s my second favorite, from plugincars.com:

Eight Tips to Extend Battery Life of Your Electric Car

This article has more tips than the previous one, but they center around the same three mantras as the first article: (1) avoid deep discharge/full charge, (2) avoid excessive fast charging, and (3) keep the battery cool.

As an Enginerd, I yearned for technical information that these tips are based on, as well as some specific data and values that can provide better guidance (i.e. how cool is cool?). Fortunately, batteryuniversity.com is a great reference for such information:

How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries

Interesting stuff in this article includes a comparison of cycle life as a function of depth of discharge, which illuminates why we should avoid full charging and deep discharging. It also illustrates the effects of elevated charge voltages on cycle life, which backs up the the tip to avoid excessive DC fast charging. It talks about capacity loss as a function of temperature and state of charge:

“Lithium-ion suffers from stress when exposed to heat, so does keeping a cell at a high charge voltage. A battery dwelling above 30°C (86°F) is considered elevated temperature and for most Li-ion, a voltage above 4.10V/cell is deemed as high voltage. Exposing the battery to high temperature and dwelling in a full state-of-charge for an extended time can be more stressful than cycling.”

With 86F being a considered an elevated temperature, it’s no wonder that a thermal management system should be considered a necessity for an EV. It also explains why I’m constantly frying laptop and cell phone batteries, which have no thermal management system.

Although not published anywhere, owners of Focus Electrics have figured out that only about 85% of the battery’s advertised capacity is used, leaving a 15% reserve. One owner on myfocuselectric.com did a pretty good analysis (in my opinion), and surmised that 10% of that reserve, about 2kWh, is used to avoid full discharge, and 5% (about 1kWh) is used as a buffer to avoid full charge. I would think other EVs also implement similar reserves and buffers to prolong battery life.

What about when we need to leave our EV unplugged at some parking facility, like at an airport, for a long period of time? Well, here is another batteryuniversity.com article that might help:

How to Store Batteries

This article addresses how to store several types of batteries, including Li-ion. In essence it says to avoid storing at elevated temperatures, and that leaving it at a partial state-of-charge, ideally 40%, is recommended.

Oh, there’s one more article on this subject of prolonging life that I like. It's from DesignNews, one of my favorite trade rags:

Can EV Batteries Last 20 Years?

This article states, “Lithium-ion battery packs need to stay as close as possible to a 50 percent charge”… “usually going no higher than 80 percent and no lower than 20 percent.” It’s a good read, explains why we should expect thermally managed Li-ion batteries to last 20 years before losing 20% of its capacity… as long as we treat them right.

Charge Depleted

It's inevitable. If you own an all-electric vehicle, you will be asked.

“Have you ever run out of charge?”

A perfectly reasonable and appropriate question from someone contemplating EV ownership, thanks to the current state of battery technology. It’s also an engaging topic for EV owners to discuss, sharing stories of how they ran an experiment to test the range limit of their vehicle, or how they have come so perilously close to the end of the line that their EV resorted to some kind “limp mode” to extract as many miles (or yards) out of that last fraction of a usable kWh remaining in the battery.

For me, answering that question is somewhat cleansing (i.e. forgive me Father, for I have sinned), because unfortunately my answer is yes. I have run out of charge. Once. So far. Never again. And out of the many BEV owners online and in person I’ve talked to, only one other person has confessed. Luckily for him, he was maybe a hundred feet or two from a receptacle, so he was able to push his beloved Focus Electric to salvation. As for me? Well, if you haven’t seen the story in one of the Focus Electric forums, please read on…

February 4, 2013… it happened on my FFE’s maiden voyage, a 78 mile round-trip commute to work, with a 1200ft elevation loss/gain, and stop-and-go freeway traffic for about 30% of the trip. Did not intend to go round-trip on a single charge, but I thought my chargepoint account was set up for the charging station at work, and it wasn’t. Fortunately I elected to freeze my extremities on the way down to work (kept the heater and bun warmers off), so I had well over 60% of charge left, which the FFE translated to 62 miles, to get me back home.

Well, that wasn’t enough for a 38 mile, 1200ft elevation gain. But, damn-the-torpedoes idiot that I am, I opted out of every opportunity to stop for a quick jolt at a free charger or Blink station along the way. Heck, I even thought I was going to make it when FFE was telling me I had a mile of charge left with 7 miles to go. Stupid, in hindsight.

Then it happened. “Charge depleted, pull over safely”. I felt a chill down my spine, and it wasn’t because all life support systems were shut down for the entire trip. I was still 4 miles from home, going uphill before a final descent into the valley.

I slowed down from 50-55 to 35-40mph, with semis blowing by me as I crawled up the truck bypass. Went about a mile more until the charge was really depleted. The crest of the hill was within sight, but my speed was gradually falling… 25.. 20… 10… 5… I thought we were on the downhill side by now, but it must have been an optical illusion… we were moving, at a leisurely walking pace, but the speedo needle was on zero.

I got religious for a moment.

Speed finally started picking up after we really crested the hill, got to about 15mph when I lightly braked, maintaining 15-20mph all the way down in hopes that we’d generate enough energy to drive home. No such luck – still had zero range at the bottom of the hill, so I pulled into a park and ride area and shut down, making sure the FFE was positioned for a quick tow hookup.

So now I know – charge depleted means, well, that the charge is depleted. Got maybe a mile or three to go. No “reserve” like in most ICE cars – which I’ve taken 20-30 miles on fumes a number of times.

Also – Ford Roadside assistance works well. Free of charge, very courteous, and perhaps even expecting the call…

“Ford or Lincoln?” she asked.
“Ford, a Focus Electric.”
“Aww, did you run out of charge?”
“Yup.”
“Don’t worry honey, that’s why we’re here.”

That's right, she called me "honey". In a sweet southern drawl, no less. Suddenly I felt better about this sorry situation I’ve inflicted on myself. In fact, if I wasn’t happily married, I’d have asked her out for a cup of coffee or something.