Milestone: No gas in July 2012

[nosuchthing]

I wonder if the oil companies are starting to feel the heat (i.e. less sales).

 

[Levenkay]

I wonder if the oil companies are starting to feel the heat (i.e. less sales).

Though I've been driving my LEAF pretty much exclusively for about two years now, I've been watching several of the filling stations on my commute (I still find that I enjoy waving 'bye-bye' to them and giggling), and they do seem to be less busy. Much as we'd like to think that the electric vehicles are helping, I'm sure they're still so far down in the noise, numbers-wise, to be irrelevant. I think a lot of credit is due to improvements in regular ICE cars' efficiency. I've had to rent an ICE three times or so now, for a 550 mile roundtrip, and been somewhat surprised that the 'standard issue sedans' (Huyndai Sonata, Honda Accord, etc) turned in 35-40MPG. Not close to the LEAF's economy, of course, but better than the 24-ish MPG my old ICE car got.

 

[ksnogas2112]

Leaf purchase June '12. Since then:

3 trips to the gas station to fill up the wife's Prius since I was taking it/took it on longer distance Scout campouts. (she fills it up bi-weekly)

this winter/spring moved over 4 feet of snow (over multiple storms) with electric snow blower

leaves were disposed with electric leaf blower

next week we're purchasing either electric (my choice) or reel type (wife's choice) mower for the yard. Wife's next replacement vehicle will be electric if I have my way about it. At that point we'll be gas free forever.

 

[RegGuheert]

We still purchase more gasoline than I would like. The Honda Civic Hybrid still gets regular use since we do not all fit in the LEAF and therefore take two cars if everyone needs to go somewhere. That car can't stand sitting around since the HiMH batteries are 11 years old and their self-discharge rate must be pretty high these days. We get a battery light if it sits for more than a week or two. It also gets used for longer trips such as the excursion into Washington, DC tomorrow. It's too bad there aren't L2 charging stations in the DC Metro parking areas. Perhaps that will change in the future.

The vans get used for transporting kids to-from college, etc.

On the electric side:
- Nissan LEAF
- two electric scooters
- heat pump for the house
- heat-pump water heater
- electric oven (2) We just moved from a propane oven.
- electric dryer We just replaced the propane dryer
- corded electric push mower (2)
- battery-powered electric push mower (2)
- electric grass trimmer
- electric snow blower (never gets used since we have a Wovel)
- grid-tied PV solar generation

On the fossil fuel side:
- Plymouth Grand Voyager minivan
- Honda Civic Hybrid
- Ford E350 15-passenger van
- Kubota tractor (diesel)
- Troy-bilt roto-tiller
- Honda generator
- propane cooktop

I don't see any of our fossil-fuel burners going away in the near future. We may have the occasional month here or there without any gasoline purchases, but that's about the best I can hope for.

 

[gsleaf]

I'm on the electric mower bandwagon too. If I had known more when I was buying a mower I would have probably went for a push mower because my yard isn't THAT big.

I tend to gas up every other month, but I usually just put in ~6 gallons (roughly half a tank) instead of filling it up.

 

[DaveEV]

I have both an electric/corded and push/reel mower - I by far prefer the electric mower, primarily because it cuts nicer than the push mower. If anyone in San Diego is interested in the push/reel mower, I can be convinced to to sell it for much less than what I paid for it.

 

[adric22]

I wonder if the oil companies are starting to feel the heat (i.e. less sales).

I seriously doubt it. We haven't even so much as made a dent. Carlos Ghosn himself said that even if electric vehicles manage 10% penetration, the gasoline vehicle is still a growth industry at that point. So oil companies have guaranteed customers for several decades.

However - that doesn't mean the oil companies are ignoring us and our electric vehicles. They certainly recognize the threat that is present. That is why they have spent so much effort spreading FUD in an attempt to delay roll-out of EVs for as long as possible. They are protecting their future interests.

 

[RegGuheert]

We've had all B&D electrics in the past, but I'm really loving the Homelite. It mows more like I remember our old Toro gasoline mower mowing. The B&Ds always were somewhat of a compromise in terms of mowing performance. In fact, I would say our new 20" Homelite cordless is a better mower than our B&D 19" corded mower. My only hesitation is I don't know how long the steel deck will last given my unwillingness to clean under the deck after each mowing. We'll see.

Just an update to say that our Homelite cordless lawnmower melted the plastic around the contacts for the plastic "key" a couple of weeks ago so I had to take it in for repairs. They replaced the handlebar assembly and all is well now. It only took a week! I asked why it melted and he said "tall grass". I asked why there isn't a fuse and he said the fuse is in the plastic "key". So I guess the fuse rating must not be quite right. Either that or I didn't have the key plugged in fully. I'll have to be more careful with that in the future.

Really, our battery mowers don't get fed the really tall grass around here, so this should have been no big deal. My experience with this mower to date has been that it handled the grass pretty well.

Anyway, I still love the mower, but that will change if this happens again.

 

[ebill3]

What a difference a few years makes. Before moving to the current apartment complex, we had a house on 10 acres, a Buick SUV, a Toyota van, a 1946 Massy-Harris tractor, a Troy Built rototiller, chain saw, 5 kW generator, small Honda generator, riding mower, walk behind mower, and a weed eater. All ICE powered.

Now we have a LEAF and a Tesla. Kept the little Hoda generator - this reminds me it is time to pour the gas into my daughter's (formerly our) Buick and get some fresh fuel and Sta-Bil.

 

[TomT]

I don't think the difference would be enough to even show up as an asterisk at the bottom of the balance sheet...

I wonder if the oil companies are starting to feel the heat (i.e. less sales).

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

I don't think the difference would be enough to even show up as an asterisk at the bottom of the balance sheet...

I wonder if the oil companies are starting to feel the heat (i.e. less sales).

oh they are. the price of gas is going down and that is due to less than expected sales.

 

[RegGuheert]

It looks like we didn't purchase gasoline in April 2013. This is only the second month this has happened since we purchased the LEAF. The other month was July 2012. Unfortunately, we have already purchased some fuel this month (May).

We spent just under $1000 on gasoline last year. Hopefully we can bring that way down this year. So far in 2013 we have spent just over $250 on gasoline.

 

[kentuckyleaf]

My wife was in an accident in our Leaf, nobody hurt. She is driving the 4runner and buying gas. She hates it! The repair shop said Nissan told them they could bake the Leaf at 120 degrees with the batteries in. Well, Nissan said 140, but the shop is going to use 120. If I wasn't leasing, I'd demand they pull the batteries! Anyway, the wife still refuses to pump gas, so I end up going to the gas station with her.

 

[DaveinOlyWA]

Pulljng The Batteries Is A 15 Minute Job. I Would Insist On Them Pulling The Batteries If I Were you

 

[OPECsux]

I got my Leaf 3 weeks ago, and immeadiately gas prices start to go down, but it's ok cause I know as soon as the news reports a dog in the mid east with a bad cause of hemmoriods the price will shoot back up again.

 

[LEAFfan]

I haven't used any gasoline since Sept., 2004. Prior to that, starting in1998, my 1990 Toyota Celica GT-S was converted to use CNG, so I only used gasoline about every 3 months to keep the computers in synch and use the getting-stale gas.