One more i-MiEV on the roads of Honolulu

[alohart]

After traveling almost halfway around the world from Uppsala, Sweden, to Honolulu, my wife and I took a cab directly from the Honolulu airport to Cutter Ford Mitsubishi where we purchased an i-MiEV SE for just over $29,000 plus general excise tax, and documentation, registration, and license fees. The price would have been under $29,000, but the only i-MiEV at that price is my two-tone white/blue one ($300 option). The reason the price was this low was because my i-MiEV was manufactured in October, 2011, before the price increase, arrived at Cutter in early December, 2011, and sat in the blazing Honolulu sun for just over a year I don't know when the first U.S. i-MiEV's were manufactured, but I might have one of the earliest ones. Maybe the last digits of its VIN, 008555, would indicate where it fits in the series.

My wife commented that it had no new car smell. Maybe all the plasticizers that create this smell had been boiled off after sitting so long in the heat. I hope that its non-ideal early life won't affect it long-term.

I haven't been able to show my EV smile yet because I irritated an old herniated lumbar disc injury lugging 4 heavy suitcases around 4 airports. I've been able to do little but drive back to my apartment and lie in bed since returning. I hope my i-MiEV isn't feeling neglected.

I have one other little unresolved problem: I have nowhere to reliably charge my i-MiEV I've so far been unable to negotiate a reasonable charging circuit installation price in my apartment parking garage parking space. Hopefully, now that I'm here, I'll be able to make some progress on this rather important detail. Until this problem is solved, I'll be depending on public charging stations. We went grocery shopping today at Whole Foods which has 2 free public charging stations in its parking area. Unfortunately, a plug-in Prius and a Leaf had occupied both. When we had finished shopping, the Prius had been replaced by another Leaf. I've read that finding available public charging stations can be difficult here. This increases range anxiety because even though quite a few public charging stations exist, one cannot count on having immediate access.

I'm sure all of these problems will be resolved in due course. In the meantime, I'm happy to have joined all of you as a fellow owner and forum contributor.

 

[sandange]

Congratulations on your new I Miev . Yes please pictures are required, with the EV grin of course. Hope you feel better soon.

 

[steph]

Congratulations.

Please send us nice pics of the car... and of Hawai, 'cause it's winter here !
I wish you a lot of good times with your i-Miev.

Gott nytt år

 

[JoeS]

alohart, congratulations and hope your back gets better. Great New Year's present to yourself!
Even though I had pre-ordered an ES, I also bought the basic white SE with blue trim because it was an early production (10938) unit and cost the dealer less than the subsequent iMiEVs. Probably the only benefit of the SE that I consider worthwhile is the lighter alloy wheels.
You're right about range anxiety being induced by not being able to rely on public charging stations - I'm really getting fed up with these EVs with training wheels (PIHs) hogging the charging stations because they need to charge three or four times as often as we do for the same electric range and are just mooching the 'free' fuel.
Perhaps look around your neighborhood for a house with solar panels and see if they will allow you to park and charge in exchange for some token of your appreciation.

 

[oahumiev]

Now that you've had the car for a week on Oahu, any update on the charging situation? I primarily charge at home with my PV system and TOU rates but also find myself utilizing public charging quite a bit on Oahu due to our travelling distance to urban Honolulu. I'm sure you've researched the available public chargers extensively, having a Better Place membership is a huge help, they extended the free charging in Hawaii until the end of March 2013. Volta is a another huge player with many free chargers requiring no swipe cards. Most every major hotel in Waikiki has them, though you need to pay for parking but maybe grab a bite to eat and have your parking validated. Also some chargers are available 24/7 so going late at night to Ala Moana Center is a sure fire way to get a charge though you need to find something to occupy your time when the stores are closed.

 

[alohart]

Now that you've had the car for a week on Oahu, any update on the charging situation?

I'm meeting with the condo association manager and chief engineer tomorrow. They seem very open to finding an acceptable charging solution including possibly installing a shared charging station for use by all condo residents. Depending on what they would charge to use this shared charging station, that might be the most sensible solution for me economically considering how expensive it seems to be to install a 120 v. charging circuit in my parking space. But they're willing to dedicate to me an existing lightly-used 120 v. circuit that has an outlet fairly close to my parking space. However, the cost of extending this circuit to my parking stall seems to be around $3,000 which is still too much. Part of that cost is to connect to an existing submetering system that I could avoid if I could install a meter in my parking space which I would read and report monthly so that its total could be added to the electrical bill for our apartment.

Or if it's still too expensive, there are 4 public charging stations at Ala Moana Center which is about 3 blocks away from our apartment. Even if I had to pay to charge at one of the 2 Better Place charging stations, I could buy a lot of charging time for the cost of the installation of a charging circuit in my parking space.

I primarily charge at home with my PV system and TOU rates but also find myself utilizing public charging quite a bit on Oahu due to our travelling distance to urban Honolulu.

Lucky you! We're unhappy with our condo and would like to move. But I don't want to get into the maintenance and security problems of a single-family home (we live here only part-time). Maybe a townhouse would allow me to install a PV system and would take care of the grounds, roofs, etc. But I'd still be concerned about break-ins when the bad guys realize that no one is living there much of the year.

Also some chargers are available 24/7 so going late at night to Ala Moana Center is a sure fire way to get a charge though you need to find something to occupy your time when the stores are closed.

I would just walk 10 minutes to my apartment while charging. I've seen only 1 Better Place charging station available once out of 4 total charging stations that I've checked several times this past week, so these charging stations are very busy during normal mall hours. I'll have to check on them early in the morning or later in the evening although I wouldn't want to leave my car there overnight.

 

[JoeS]

alohart, thank you for the update and hope you get to work out your apartment charging without it costing you an arm and two legs.

Question: what vehicles are primarily using your local charging stations? Are they just sitting there or are they plugged in and still charging? I'd be inclined to make a small sign to put on their windshields asking them to move when they're fully charged to make room for those who NEED to charge. Around here, freeloading PHEV moochers are clogging the free charging stations, and it'll only get worse as more plug-in-hybrids get sold. The old-school electric vehicle courteous culture of letting people know it's ok to unplug at a certain time in order to share the plug is going by the wayside - heck, you unplug someone's Volt and their alarm goes off!

 

[alohart]

alohart, thank you for the update and hope you get to work out your apartment charging without it costing you an arm and two legs.

I just finished a meeting with our condo association manager and his chief engineer. They are very open to enabling the charging of EV's in our parking garage, but the costs of installing the necessary electrical charging circuit, submetering, and the monthly meter reading cost remain unreasonable. I don't see any way to reduce these costs enough to make the total reasonable. Retrofitting a large apartment parking garage for EV charging may be too expensive, in general. We might need to focus on encouraging apartment developers to plan for EV charging in the design phase to make EV ownership for apartment dwellers feasible.

If my historic driving patterns remain valid and I were to pay $2/hour at a public charging station (a high price considering how much electricity an i uses), it would take about 8 years for my charging costs to equal the installation cost for my own Level 1 charging circuit. This would not include my electricity costs and the monthly meter reading costs. Of course, the convenience factor for being able to charge overnight where I park is worth quite a bit, but not enough to justify installing my own charging circuit at this point.

Question: what vehicles are primarily using your local charging stations?

Mostly Leafs and plug-in Priuses and a few Volts. I would say that Leafs are near 50% of those cars I've seen using charging stations.

Are they just sitting there or are they plugged in and still charging?

They've all been plugged in, but I haven't checked whether they're still charging (not sure I'd know how to check for sure).

I'd be inclined to make a small sign to put on their windshields asking them to move when they're fully charged to make room for those who NEED to charge.

I've been considering doing this as well unless I can easily find an available charging station at a large shopping center only a 10 minute walk from our apartment early in the morning or in the evening.

Around here, freeloading PHEV moochers are clogging the free charging stations, and it'll only get worse as more plug-in-hybrids get sold. The old-school electric vehicle courteous culture of letting people know it's ok to unplug at a certain time in order to share the plug is going by the wayside - heck, you unplug someone's Volt and their alarm goes off!

Because even Level 2 charging can take hours to fully charge PEV's, I expect public charging station congestion to remain a problem. Even if a shared charging station were installed in our condo parking garage, one PEV owner who commutes to work daily could end up monopolizing the charger each weekday night. Few people would want to unplug or plug in during the middle of the night when finished charging or when the charger became available.

Some charging stations are limiting the charging time, but I don't know whether these limits are being enforced. Does J1772 include a unique ID for the vehicle being charged? If so, a charging station could refuse to charge the same PEV more than x hours/day. Something like this will be needed.

 

[jray3]

Sorry to hear of the troubles Art, but glad that the condo management is not an obstacle.
When my permission to plug in at work was being debated (upper management was fine with it, but a fellow peon was making trouble), I showed up one morning with my genset trailer rattling away, and left that aircooled air polluter running all morning! :shock: (in a conspicuous, but distant corner of the parking lot). Upper managment was quite amused, and the whiner has been quiet since.
http://www.karmanneclectric.blogspot.com/2012/02/byov-build-yer-own-volt.html

 

[alohart]

After talking with our condo management and the electrical contractors who have bid to install an EV charging circuit in my parking stall, I've decided that it just does not make economic sense to pay so much for my own dedicated charging circuit, both for the installation cost and reading the electric meter every month. So I'm moving on to Plan B: pushing for the installation of one or more shared charging stations in our parking garage.

Until that happens, I'll be employing Plan C: using public charging stations. Yesterday while visiting the Hawaii state capitol building, I parked at the one PEV charging station in the capitol parking garage where charging costs $2/hour. It was available, so even though I didn't really need to charge, I was curious how the process worked, so I prepaid for 1 hour by credit card (worked as expected). Any PEV parked in the charging station parking space that isn't being charged is liable for a parking citation, so one must treat such charging stations just as you would a parking meter.

I returned just prior to my hour ending when the first i-MiEV I have seen driving around Honolulu appeared hoping to charge her car. I had just finished, so I temporarily parked in a neighboring stall while waiting for my wife to return. This i-MiEV owner has driven 16,000 miles in her year of happy ownership during which time she figures she's saved $4,000 compared with driving her previous ICE vehicle. She normally charges using an existing 120 v. outlet at her home which isn't quite sufficient for the amount of driving she does, so she depends on public charging stations as well. I didn't think to ask her whether she knows about EVSEUpgrade. She gave me a few tips on which public charging stations are most likely to be available and which are the most reasonably priced. E.g., a hotel in Waikiki within about a 20-minute walk from our apartment has 6 free charging stations in its parking garage. The garage parking fee is waived if your parking ticket is validated in the hotel. Simply buying a cup of coffee in its coffee shop will get the necessary validation, so cheap, unlimited charging is available there.

I suspect that most of my charging will occur at one of the 6 public charging stations in the parking garage of a large shopping center about a 10-minute walk from our apartment. They have been mostly unavailable the few times I've looked, but that was always during busy times of day for the shopping center. So at 8:30 this morning before most of the stores have opened, I drove over to the shopping center and found all 4 Better Place chargers available, but a Jeep was parked in one of the PEV-only charging station parking spaces. The driver was still in the Jeep, so I pulled up behind him intending to get out to ask him to park elsewhere. I guess he saw me behind him, so he drove forward to park in a non-PEV parking place (why hadn't he parked there in the first place!). That's the second time that I've encountered a non-PEV parked in one of these charging station parking spaces. :evil: I just received my Better Place card in the mail yesterday, so I learned how easy it is to use their membership card to charge for up to 4 hours. I just walked over to drive it home after 2.5 hours of charging. There were still 2 available Better Place charging stations, so this looks like a good solution until Better Place begins charging for the use of their charging stations in April. Hopefully, their rates will be reasonable.

The 2 Volta charging stations in the shopping center parking garage have always been busy when I've checked. Volta is a local company that installs charging stations whose costs are financed by advertising on their rather large pedestal style charging stations, so charging will always be free (assuming this business model is successful) with no membership requirement unlike Better Place and ChargePoint. Supposedly, one is limited to 2 hours of charging time per day, but the same 2 Leafs that were charging at 8:30 were still charging at 10:45, so they had exceeded the limit which is apparently not enforced. It would be nice if these charging stations would turn off after 2 hours and maybe display a flashing light of shame if a PEV remains plugged in after charging has ceased. There's just too much demand for PEV's to use charging stations beyond their time limit and after if charging is not occurring.

I decided not to join ChargePoint at this time because they don't have many charging stations convenient for me, and membership isn't free. I do like their mobile app and Website that show which of their charging stations are currently available. You can also register for notifications when your charging session has finished, when a particular charging station becomes available, etc. ChargePoint also supports reserving a charging station, but none of their local stations has this function enabled. I'll keep checking on ChargePoint to see whether it becomes attractive enough to join.

 

[JoeS]

alohart, thanks for the rundown as you "get your feet wet" getting to know your charging stations. That lady with 16K miles on her iMiEV in a year - that's a lot!

Unless something has changed, even though ChargePoint does ask for a nominal up-front amount, that money gets 'banked' and deducted-from whenever you use someone's fee-based ChargePoint station. After a year I've only used 75cents of that original amount. As I understand it, ChargePoint is primarily a software company which provides the administrative support for charging stations, and they sort of backed into providing the hardware as well. They have a lot of flexibility built into their systems and can provide whatever fee structure their customers want - their customers being the actual owners of the charging stations. Until things settle down, we're going to have to deal with many different EVSE charge cards.

You might consider making a few courtesy-notice cards to place on windshields as part of ICE and EV-newbie education.

So, alohart, how far have you ventured with your new iMiEV?

 

[alohart]

Unless something has changed, even though ChargePoint does ask for a nominal up-front amount, that money gets 'banked' and deducted-from whenever you use someone's fee-based ChargePoint station.

Currently, one must pay ChargePoint $4.95 for a membership card which will apparently allow one to use only free charging stations. To use charging stations that are not free, you must register a credit card number which would immediately be debited $25 against which future charging fees would be applied until the balance reaches some point at which another $25 would be debited. If you choose this option, you get 2 membership cards at no cost. However, I don't want any merchant to store my credit card information which could then be stolen. There's also a mention of using a "contactless" credit card for payments (smart card with embedded chip??). Maybe you wouldn't need to register a credit card number if you have a contactless credit card. Smart cards are common in Europe, but do they exist in the U.S.?

I did find a free ChargePoint charging station in the municipal entertainment complex parking garage which also offers free parking for PEV's. This one will likely always remain free because it's owned by Honolulu City and County which is promoting PEV's. This charging station might be less busy than the shopping center charging stations and is only about a 15 minute walk from our apartment. So it might be worth paying ChargePoint $4.95 to have a backup charging solution available. I'll soon have a keyring full of charging station provider membership fobs. I'll be able to dangle the keychain in front of a charging station to see whether any fob works

As I understand it, ChargePoint is primarily a software company which provides the administrative support for charging stations, and they sort of backed into providing the hardware as well. They have a lot of flexibility built into their systems and can provide whatever fee structure their customers want - their customers being the actual owners of the charging stations. Until things settle down, we're going to have to deal with many different EVSE charge cards.

I'm impressed by their technology which offers both charging station owners and customers a lot of convenient functionality. Ironically, ChargePoint is pushing to install a charging station in our condo parking garage very near where I park. Until the end of January, they're offering a Level 2 charger at no cost, but the installation cost for our condo association would be ~$7,000. I'm the only condo owner pushing to have PEV charging implemented, so persuading our Board to fund a charger would be a tough sell. But I'm going to try I'm afraid they'll want to recover their installation cost by taking a cut of the hourly charging fee which would likely make charging quite expensive. ChargePoint must charge something for managing the charging infrastructure, so I don't know whether the economics would work for the Board and for EV owners.

You might consider making a few courtesy-notice cards to place on windshields as part of ICE and EV-newbie education.

I'll print up a few when I submit my next FedEx Office print job.

So, alohart, how far have you ventured with your new iMiEV?

I haven't ventured far at all. Still recovering from our long journey from Sweden. Probably haven't driven more than 80 miles. But we're planning a journey to the North Shore and back via the windward coast which will exceed our i-MiEV's range. So I'll be hoping for at least one available public charging station en route, hopefully at an interesting location. This will be a test run for when a Swedish couple will be visiting us in about a month. So our i-MiEV will need to haul 4 adults up and down about 1,000 ft. on our way to the North Shore and then up and down about 1,200 feet on our way back to Honolulu from the windward side, about 83 miles, probably about half of which will be at speeds of 50 - 60 mph with the remainder 35 - 45 mph. If I didn't recharge en route, I'd probably run out of electrons ascending the 1,200 ft. pass which would not be good. If I could reach the top of the pass, I could probably regen most of the way home. This should be fun!

 

[alohart]

On Wednesday, my wife and I completed a practice run around much of the island of Oʻahu in preparation to take 2 visiting Swedish friends on the same route in February. Google Maps claimed that the total distance was 82 miles, so I knew I would need to infuse a few electrons along the way. It was a beautiful winter day on Oʻahu with very weak cool northerly winds, bright sunshine, and temperatures in the high 70's, so there was no need for A/C.

We drove the gradual 800-foot climb from sea level to the central Oʻahu plain at 60 mph without needing to use anywhere near full power. The remaining range dropped to ~30 miles which made my wife nervous, but I assured her that descending to Haleʻiwa at sea level would stop the drop in remaining range. Indeed, when we parked to shop in Haleʻiwa in which there are unfortunately no public charging stations, our remaining range had increased to ~35 miles which would make reaching the several charging stations ahead on the flat, 35-45 mph stretch of road a piece of cake.

Fortunately, the beautiful Turtle Bay Resort about halfway along our route has 3 free Better Place public charging stations with 6 charging cables, so I figured that the odds of 1 being available in this rural section of the North Shore were high. When I pulled up to the charging stations, a Volt was using 1 charging cable but the other 5 were available. Unfortunately, 2 of the 5 were also handicapped parking spaces, so these 2 were unavailable to me. I pulled into 1 of the remaining 3 only to discover that it did not respond to my Better Place fob, so it was broken. Unfortunately, the second charging cable on the same charging station was also non-functional leaving only 1 available to me. Fortunately, it was working, so I was able to charge for about an hour while we sat on the beach eating lunch and enjoying the scenery.

I reported the malfunctioning charging station to Better Place and suggested that they ask the Turtle Bay Resort to separate the handicapped parking spaces from the EV parking spaces. The Resort could designate the parking spaces adjacent to the handicapped EV parking spaces as handicapped parking so the extra width of the existing handicapped EV parking spaces could be used by the new handicapped parking spaces. Handicapped EV drivers could park in the EV parking spaces using the additional width of the adjacent handicapped parking spaces if necessary. The number of handicapped EV drivers must be really tiny, so I wonder whether these 2 charging cables have ever been used.

Better Place told me that they were unaware that 2 of their charging cables were accessible by only handicapped drivers and would ask the Turtle Bay Resort to move the handicapped parking spaces so that the charging station would be accessible by all.

After an hour of charging, we continued south along the windward coast of Oʻahu which is a flat, 35-45 mph stretch ideal for good EV efficiency. Had no charging stations been available at the Turtle Bay Resort, I could have use the public Level 2 charging stations in a shopping center or at the Polynesian Cultural Center, both in Laʻie, a few miles south of the Turtle Bay Resort, so the charging opportunities are quite plentiful in this area.

Rather than continuing around the southeast tip of Oʻahu, we chose the shorter route over the mountain range that separates the windward side from Honolulu. With 2 occupants, our i-MiEV climbed the mountain pass at the 45 mph speed limit with ease. Even with 4 occupants, it should be able to maintain the speed limit without using full power. To maintain the speed limit with 2 occupants in my Honda Insight, I would need to downshift to 4th, or if I wanted to preserve battery pack charge, to 3rd, so effortlessly cruising over this pass with no drama in my i-MiEV was a nice change.

Traveling the last few miles downhill to our Honolulu apartment resulted in enough regen that our i-MiEV had over 20 miles of range and about 4 bars of charge remaining. So had I not charged en route, I might have seen the turtle or worse climbing the mountain pass. Or I might have just squeaked through, but my wife would have been catatonic with range anxiety if she realized how close I was cutting it So recharging en route was the smart thing to do.

All in all, our first extensive i-MiEV outing was a very pleasant success. I think our Swedish visitors will be impressed when we drive them around the same route and on other long day trips in February.

 

[JoeS]

Alohart, thanks for the nice write up. Sounds as though Better Place is responsive. Glad you had a successful first long trip!

South San Francisco parking garage (one of my favorites) also has an EVSE serving only a disabled parking spot. What I have in my collection of windshield-stuffing signs is one which states that I HAVE to charge in order to get home but will be happy to move and leave my mobile number. I hope this works, as the fine is huge! I've notified the city asking them to make that charging station accessible to all.

 

[dakine]

Say Aloha nui loa to my sweet Hawaii nei for me. I miss it very much.

 

[alohart]

Say Aloha nui loa to my sweet Hawaii nei for me. I miss it very much.

Done!

In about 8 hours, we'll be driving our i-MiEV to Honolulu International Airport to pick up some Swedish friends who, as I write, are flying almost halfway around the world for a visit. They will be our first rear-seat passengers. It should be very cosy with the four of us and their luggage for a 24-day visit also along for the ride I'd better go find a rope to tie down the hatch should the luggage prevent it from closing.

 

[JoeS]

...They will be our first rear-seat passengers. It should be very cosy with the four of us and their luggage for a 24-day visit also along for the ride I'd better go find a rope to tie down the hatch should the luggage prevent it from closing.

1. Maybe you should go alone and fold down one of the back seats?
2. Need to add an eyestrap just above the latch mechanism, as there is nothing to attach a rope to. Either plastic or stainless (marine stores have a great selection). Alternatively, add a cord or fabric eyestrap under the bolts holding the latch, but need to keep it short to keep it out of the latch mechanism.

We perpetually keep the back seats down and only raise them on the rare occasion that we have passengers.

 

[alohart]

1. Maybe you should go alone and fold down one of the back seats?

My wife needs to go along to buy and present the lei But she wouldn't want to miss the arrival excitement. She has mentioned the possibility of taking a city bus back to our apartment from the airport, but I don't think that will be necessary. One suitcase could fit between the rear seat passengers, if necessary. The trip back to our apartment should take only 20 minutes, so any discomfort would probably be less than they will have suffered on one 9-hour followed by a second 11-hour flight in coach seats.

2. Need to add an eyestrap just above the latch mechanism, as there is nothing to attach a rope to. Either plastic or stainless (marine stores have a great selection). Alternatively, add a cord or fabric eyestrap under the bolts holding the latch, but need to keep it short to keep it out of the latch mechanism.

Yeah, I looked long and hard trying to figure the best way to attach a rope to the hatch. I found that I could thread a rope through small openings adjacent to the license plate lights and tie the rope through the latch loop on the body. These openings are formed by sheet metal that is folded so that it touches but is not welded to the sheet metal behind the license plate. So it might be possible to bend that sheet metal if there is too much force on the rope, but I doubt that will happen. This attachment method would route the rope over the rear license plate. I would pad the rope with an old towel to keep it from scuffing any paint.

We perpetually keep the back seats down and only raise them on the rare occasion that we have passengers.

As do we…