Make like a tree and Leaf!~ hahaha

As a fan of cars...I am interested in the way the automotive industry is trying to move.........anywhere. Mainly in the direction of alternative fuels. I guess Electricity is an alternative fuel.

Next year, Nissan and GM will be introducing the Leaf and Volt into the mass market. The Leaf is 100% electric and can travel about 100 miles. The Volt is another, more hybrid-ish option. You can travel 40 miles on all electric but can go up to 350 with assistance of a gas engine. Neither is new to the world, but this is the first (that I'm aware of) mass release of a plug-in electric vehicle.

I love the idea of an electric vehicle, however I can really say this isn't for me. (Shocking for people who know me. "Wayde...NOT wanting a car?") Well, the electric car is cool, and I would be on this if I lived in a house where I could charge my car. I live in a town-house now, and mainly lived in apartments and condos.

Then, I have to say....what's wrong with gas? Well for most, it's pollution and sustainability. Here in Hawaii, most of our electricity comes from fossil fuels....but we're working on it. We also have one of the highest electricity rates in the nation. Even with this, the Leaf takes 22.1 kilowatt hours to charge from 0-100 (100 miles). The Oahu residential electric rates are 22.51 average cents per kilowatt hour (on the low end) and the Big Island is at 32.69 cents per kilowatt hour. I travel about 350 miles per week. It would cost me about $17.41 per week to drive a Volt on Oahu. This is compared to my $35 I spend to fill my Honda Civic.

The problem I see with the Leaf is the limited 100 miles per charge. 100 miles depends on your driving conditions. If, for some reason, I decide to take a trip to the other side of the Island....like I did a couple of days ago....I would be screwed. The Volt fixes this problem. I could go only on Battery, then if I need to go farther, I can depend on a hybrid mode. But then, there's the life of the battery....Batteries lose their charge potential as they age.

If you switch out batteries as the car ages, what do you do with old batteries? Is this environmental to have all these batteries? In conclusion, I vote Fuel Cell!~ haha

Still has electric drive and can simply fill the fuel tank if I run out of juice (instead of waiting to charge) and less net carbon emissions than plug-ins (in my opinion).

Credits:

Please listen to this NPR article comparing both the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129180183

Hawaii Electric rates were collected from the HECO website.

http://www.heco.com/portal/site/heco/menuitem.508576f78baa14340b4c0610c510b1ca/?vgnextoid=692e5e658e0fc010VgnVCM1000008119fea9RCRD&vgnextchannel=10629349798b4110VgnVCM1000005c011bacRCRD&vgnextfmt=defau&vgnextrefresh=1&level=0&ct=article

Nissan Leaf charge amount came from the Hamiltonian Function blog (I think that's what the blog is called).

http://hamiltonianfunction.blogspot.com/2010/02/nissan-leaf.html

The Love/Hate TSX

I shall start by saying, I drive a Honda Civic. I love my CIvic. I've owned it for 12 years now and it's a great car from the time I got it. I must say....never really cared for that "Ricer" image that they give, but I was swayed by how much I liked to drive it. I guess it's the same way I feel about BMWs...which probably means I will end up owning one some day......Anyway......

The last TSX gave me mixed feelings. I loved the way it looked and drove. It was like my Civic, with luxury options....and 4 doors. But I felt weird about it, because it is a luxury(ish) car. Should it feel sporty? The problem is that it really felt like an Accord. Even though I drove it softly, it didn't feel soft. It's shifts felt sharp and the revs would try to stay high...I thought, this would be more comfortable if I had the 6 speed manual.....which is already not very luxury. Therefore, I really had to look at it from my Japanese perspective. It was a Honda Euro Accord. I remember watching Japanese racing videos of guys testing the Euro Accord R around the track and thought, "Wow, how quick for a large 4 door sedan." But then, I can't help but think of that luxury element in the Acura version. And then I can't help but think of the Front Drive element. For a car that sporty, it could have rear wheel drive...but then I thought, Audi A4's are front drive and tons of g***s and t@@@s buy those things. I'm censoring this out for my friend who likes Audi......

The NEW TSX has solved part of my problem. They really focused on the Luxury. Driving this made me feel like I was in a luxury car. The 4 cylinder made me think, I'm getting good value for the money, because it's fuel efficient but not sluggish and hard to drive. The seats were very comfortable, there's much more room, a great sound system and the little things like your side mirror tilts down when you reverse (if you select it on).

The one feature that I absolutely love....the paddle shifters. I usually hate these things, because if you want to down shift in...lets say an IS250....I need to shift the car into manual mode and then click the shifter down to the gear I want or push the paddles down to the gear I want. This is very distracting to me. First, I have to look at what gear I'm in after shifting into manual mode (so I don't over downshift). I felt like, in that time I shifted to Manual and figured out how many gears I had to shift, my reason for shifting has been lost by my need to press the break. (I'm sure if I owned the car, I would have adapted to it, but my point stands). In the TSX, you don't have to shift into a manual mode to shift the paddle shifters. If you're driving down the road start coming down a steep hill, you can just click on your shifter to shift you down a gear or two or three. To get back into auto, just shift back up. Though, some might complain that as a result, you'll never have a real manual mode....but neither does an IS250. You can easily drive your car in Manual 6th gear the entire time, and your car will still shift gears like normal drive.....

The sport option is also kinda fun where it makes the shifting aggressive...though this is where the negative comes in. Though the car feels much better.....it's bigger and heavier. The 4 banger doesn't really pull it's weight anymore. Though the TSX now comes in a V6 option, you sorta lose the Honda essence of fuel economy. Though, for a V6, that engine is still very fuel efficient, and has lots of balls.....Sounds good too.

Overall, I say its a good buy. Looking at the market, you can't really find many small, luxury 4 door that has that kind of luxury and that kind of fuel efficiency. I just wish they didn't go with that ugly chrome thing in the front......