Kataphn said:
Great! Maybe at 6-3 I will fit!
I'm 6' 5" so first I adjusted the driver's seat. I would be okay at one notch forward, but best was all the way back. Then it felt fine, about the same as my Prius in leg room and (ample) head room. Leaving the seat adjusted for me, I then got into the back seat behind the driver's seat. Knee room was tolerable but tight. My knees hit the back of the front seat, whereas in the Prius they have a bit of clearance in that test. Rear headroom seemed better than the Prius. The trunk seemed a bit smaller than the Prius but it was hard to tell without taking measurements. The Leaf trunk is definitely shorter front to back, but much deeper, even if you count the under-floor-panel extra storage space in the Prius.
Talking to SDG&E at the booth I got the impression that, apart from the EV Project which
wsbca wrote about, we'd do pretty well with electricity rates. I think I'd have my choice of one meter or two. If one, then I could continue on my net metering schedule or switch to a time-of-day schedule that would be very favorable to me with an EV. If I had two meters, I could have my choice of rate schedules for each.
Talking to ECOtality at the booth I learned that, even though I didn't reserve until 8/31, there is still a very good chance I may get into the EV Project. They have 1000 places in the program in San Diego, and currently have something like 800 applications, including mine.
I went to two of the CCSE workshops and found them very useful. I believe the presentation slides will be posted later to the CCSE web site,
http://energycenter.org . The CCSE presentation did the best job I've seen of explaining transportation energy issues, including tailpipe emissions versus smokestack emissions. CCSE also administers the California rebate program, and there was reassuring news on that front. There is still most of the $4M from 2009-10 left, and $5M is in the draft budget for 2010-11. So people really stand a very good chance of getting their rebates. Of course with the budget still not passed, and the politicians looking for any pot of money to raid, next year's amount could still be zeroed out. But - best news of all - even if that happens, early adopters will not lose out. In the old scheme, if money ran out, you bought, and later the program was funded again, you got nothing. All the new money went to new applicants. Now, whenever the program is funded you keep your place in line to receive the next check.
From Nissan I got some reassurance that we would actually get our cars. That is, despite the seemingly gross disparity between supply and demand, they expect to be able to produce enough cars even before the Tennessee plant opens. The negative side of that good news is that I'm afraid the main reason they expect to be able to meet demand is that they expect a sizable fraction of those who reserved cars not to follow through with purchase.
Josh Tickell, director of the film Fuel (
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1294164/ ) gave a great presentation on energy sources, uses, and distribution. Tickell sketched a scenario which he said - without contradiction by ECOtality nor SDG&E - was realistic. It's the middle of a hot summer afternoon, everyone has switched on the A/C, and SDG&E is looking at a stage 2 power emergency. You get a message on your phone from your car. It says, "I have 85 miles of range right now and you only need 25 for your next destination. SDG&E is offering $0.30 per kWh. Would you like to sell down to 30 miles of range? Press YES or NO."
Next was a presentation from ECOtality on the San Diego charging infrastructure. They are planning charging station locations based on how many applications they got from which areas of the city. Also there will be a lot of charging stations along I-5 and I-15 corridors - and from the map it looked like hwy 56 too. Also, popular destinations like Wild Animal Park and La Jolla Cove.
SDG&E gave a presentation on the smart grid that ran out of time before he got much into the rate structure he wanted to talk about, but he was ready afterwards at the booth to answer any more questions. With the addition of a "super off-peak" rate tier, it sounds like midnight to 5am will really be the ideal time to charge cars. Since that's not enough time for an L1 charge to give much range, I could see how an L2 charger might pay for itself. He also finally explained the discrepancies in L1 charging times that have been mystifying me. The difference in time estimates is whether you're charging it on a 25 amp circuit or a 30 amp circuit. Every garage is supposed to already have at least one 30 amp circuit in it. On the SDG&E web site
http://www.sdge.com/ you should be able to find all that information and more.