Climate and Development Lab
Connect with the CDL on Twitter:
  • Home
  • About
    • Authors
    • Alumni
  • CDL in the News
  • Publications
    • Scholarly Articles & Chapters
    • Policy Briefings
    • Books & Special Issues
    • Submissions to the UNFCCC
  • Projects
  • Multimedia
  • Contact

It’s Energy Week: Here are 10 lessons about buying or leasing an electric car.

8/14/2017

 
By Timmons Roberts
Picture
The Chevrolet Bolt is an all-electric vehicle. Source: Wikimedia
While I am far from being a supporter of President Donald Trump, I thought I would like to give a nod to the White House in this post, since they’ve declared this “Energy Week,” with a focus on local and state energy issues. And, with the summer driving season now rolling, what could be more apt than sharing a story about an energy-efficient American car driven by ecologically-minded Americans?

​Recently, my wife and I took the leap and leased a Chevy Bolt, a fully-electric car with no gas motor. It’s not a hybrid, but it does go over 240 miles on a charge. What have we learned?

First, we may never go to a gas station again. This is a totally viable car for 99 percent of our driving. If we’re going on a very long trip, we might take the Bolt just for the adventure and experience of it, but we’ll probably rent a gas car or use our old station wagon. When that dies, however, we’re thinking about another electric.

Second, nearly all our charging has been in the driveway. You don’t need charging stations out there very often. With the great range of the Bolt, there’s no need really to go searching for charging stations. Still, there are some free charging stations available—which is like getting free gas.

Third, buy the “Level 2” quick charger for your house and get it installed. This means about a $600 investment and an electrician to put in a 220-volt 40 amplifier plug outside your house. The “trickle charger” 110-volt cord that comes with the car only adds about 4 miles worth of driving per hour of charging. That means if you’re under 100 miles on your charge, it could be plugged in for a couple days. The Level 2 charger would fill it overnight from empty.

Fourth, download the ChargePoint app to your phone and get an account card. It features maps pinpointing the locations of charging stations, which are (reassuringly) all over the place.

Fifth, driving such a quiet car is really wonderful.

Sixth, consider leasing instead of buying, since who knows what will be available in a couple years. That’s why we chose to lease. It’s $327 a month, with taxes, with 15,000 miles a year included. That was with a $2,000 down payment. With Rhode Island’s rebate, we are getting $2,500 back. These won’t last. Deals from all the main dealers in Southern New England are listed under the Drive Green program, but I bet dealers could be persuaded to match these offers anywhere.

Seventh, the Chevy Bolt is a generation ahead of everything else that’s available now in this price range. I was a few minutes away from buying or leasing a Nissan Leaf, but checked out the Chevy dealership next door before deciding, and I’m glad I did. The other affordable electrics (leaving available Teslas aside) only have around a 100-mile range. My wife drives that many miles quickly, and it’s reassuring to not be near the bottom of the battery charge. The Tesla 3 sounds great, but it’s not available yet and there’s a 300,000 person waiting list. And who knows how it’ll perform. The Bolt is here now, and it’s a very good car. With the current $7,500 federal tax credit, it’s just under $30,000. But again, the lease seems like a better idea.

Eighth, electrification is the only way forward for transportation that can get us off fossil fuels right now, and climate change and public health matter a lot to us. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency rating for the Bolt is 119 miles per gallon. This varies a lot by the part of the country in which one is charging the car, but according the Union of Concerned Scientists, it’s better than a gas car no matter where it’s being charged, and the entire grid is quickly getting greener. We seem to use a lot more juice than we used to, but we buy “green up” electricity through a local non-profit, so for every electron we take out of the grid at the house, they put one electron in from wind power generated right here in New England. I work with staffers at People’s Power and Light, so I know this is legit.

Ninth, an estimated 53,000 people die each year in the U.S. from vehicle exhaust, according to a new MIT study. We care about climate change and public health, and you should too.

Finally, the only way to actually stop the fossil fuel companies from destroying our planet is to simply stop buying their products. Divestment from fossil fuels would help and should be done by individuals, churches, universities, and pension funds, but even if Exxon and other fossil majors publicly say they are for carbon taxes and for staying in the Paris Agreement, they often privately fund corrosive denialist think tanks, industry organizations, and public relation firms with hundreds of millions of dollars to undermine the ambitious action on climate that we desperately need. The only way to stop this in the age of Citizens United is to stop the flow of money to them. Otherwise we are all responsible for their power.

Last thoughts, on costs and emissions: The ultimate goal is for there to be “variable rate charging,” where you could program the car or charger to only fill up the battery when the electricity rates are the lowest on the grid. This would incentivize people to charge and run their clothes dryers and dishwashers at night when the wind is blowing but no one’s using electricity. This isn’t available in my state yet, but we’re pushing for that. The Juice Box charger can be set it up to charge when there’s more renewable energy on the grid. That would mean more to me if I wasn’t getting 100 percent renewable electricity already. But for others, it’s potentially a big contribution to reducing our nation’s emissions of greenhouse gases.

Finally, there is the cost of maintaining these new electric cars, which could be sharply lower than gas-powered vehicles. There is no oil to change. No muffler to repair. No carburetor, no turbocharger, no fuel lines. There are two thousand moving parts in a gas-powered car, and only 20 in an electric one. 

So I’m sold on these things, and think that there will be a huge surge in the next three years in their uptake. With the Bolt and others about to come out, electric cars are viable and affordable. They can help us rapidly address climate change, and clean up our urban air, which gets especially unhealthy every summer. Imagine a heat wave without an air quality alert—since we’re headed to more hot days with a warming climate, we need to make this switch quickly. New electric buses and fleet vehicles could be transformative for urban air quality and children’s health, in the U.S. and around the world.

​Originally posted on Brookings Planet Policy Blog on June 27, 2017.

Comments are closed.
    Tweets by @ClimateDevLab
    CDL in the News

    28 Dec 2018 - Edwards in the NYT on electric vehicles in Latin America

    24 Dec 2018 - The Public's Radio RI interviews Roberts on how the fossil fuel industry outspends environmental groups on campaign contributions & lobbying

    19 Dec 2018 - EcoRI News: New Report Claims RI Climate Council Falling Behind Targets

    17 Dec 2018 - 'We must move beyond business as usual,' says new report on Rhode Island's inadequate climate plan.

    12 Dec 2018 - 
    Isabel Cavelier, Guy Edwards and Lina Puerto “COP25 en 2019: reto y oportunidad para elevar la ambición climática en América Latina” El Espectador

    4 Dec 2018 - Whitehouse, Ciciline meet with climate lab

    28 Nov 2018 - Edwards quoted in New York Times story on Brazil backing out of hosting UN summit on climate change

    11 Oct 2018 - Brookings Institute Climate reality requires starting at home: Weaning from fossil fuels

    23 Sep 2018 - Edwards quoted in Financial Times on Argentina energy future

    13 Jul 2018 - Europe and Latin America can blaze a trail on implementing the Paris Agreement
    ​
    1 Jun 2018 - Brookings Institute One year since Trump's withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement

    21 May 2018 - Edwards article in World Politics Review: Is the G-20 Heading for a Showdown With Trump on Climate Change?

    11 May 2018 - Edwards Op-Ed in Washington Post 

    22 Jan 2018 - Roberts Op-Ed The climate solution no-one in Davos will be talking about

    ​15 Dec 2017 - Edwards' article on how Regional and domestic politics could sabotage Brazil's bid to host UN climate change talks in 2019 ​
    ​
    8 Nov 2017 - Roberts quoted in Reuters story on financing loss and damage

    9 Oct 2017 - EcoRI article describes Roberts' testimony against the natural gas power plant proposed for construction in Burrillville, Rhode Island

    17 Sep 2017 - BBC Radio 5 featured a live interview with Roberts about Trump's conditions for staying in Paris

    4 Sep 2017 - Roberts comments on the use of his work in a report by Rhode Island Department of Health on the proposed power plant in Burrillville, Rhode Island 

    17 Jul 2017 - Roberts mentioned in NPR's story on the US having a say in UN climate spending
    ​
    15 Jul 2017 - Roberts calls for solid climate policies in RI

    5 Jul 2017 - Roberts demands swifter action on CO2 release

    5 Jul 2017 - Roberts demands RI Governor Raimondo to take climate action

    30 Jun 2017 - Roberts gives advice on owning and using electric cars

    23 Jun 2017 - Roberts comments on how voters are persuaded by the terms 'climate change' and 'global warming'

    20 Jun 2017 - Roberts' involvement in local climate group is helping to fight fossil fuel development

    3 Jun 2017 - WPRO Radio's Steve Klamkin interviews Roberts on the Paris Agreement

    2 Jun 2017 - Roberts comments on US involvement in the Green Climate Fund

    2 Jun 2017 - BBC Radio 5's Faye Rusco interviews Roberts on Trump's withdrawal from Paris

    2 Jun 2017 - Roberts discusses the role of mayors and private sector companies post US pull-out of Paris

    1 Jun 2017 - Roberts gives more details about the US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement

    1 Jun 2017 - Roberts organizes emergency protest in RI

    1 Jun 2017 - Roberts comments on the implications of US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement

    1 Jun 20117 - Roberts share his views on the US exit from the Paris Accord

    31 May 2017 - Roberts cited on the far-reaching implications of US withdrawal from the Paris Agreement

    31 May 2017 - RI left vulnerable if US pulls out of Paris Accord, says Roberts

    24 May 2017 - Roberts chimes in on Trump's proposed EPA budget

    30 Apr 2017 - Roberts helps to 'fact check' Trump's first 100 days in office

    25 Apr 2017 - Roberts lobbies for people's march in RI to mark Trump's first 100 days in office

    23 Apr 2017 - Roberts cautions against threats to science at march for science in Rhode Island

    7 Apr 2017 - White House Chronicle's Llewelyn King interviews Roberts on Trump’s executive order and climate policy directions

    10 Mar 2017 - Roberts quoted in Providence Business News about new proposed fossil fuel infrastructure in Rhode Island

    6 Feb 2017 - Devex article on climate finance under the new administration quotes Roberts

    18 Jan 2017 - Roberts featured in NPR Marketplace segment on Obama's $500m donation to the Green Climate Fund

    29 Dec 2016 - Roberts quoted in Common Dreams article about the state of environmental justice in 2016

    19 Nov 2016 - EcoRI profiles Roberts and the new Civic Alliance for a Cooler Rhode Island

    14 Nov 2016 - Roberts featured in Rhode Island Public Radio segment on Trump and the Paris Agreement 

    12 Nov 2016 - Roberts quoted in Climate Home article on Republican plans to defund climate change programs

    10 Nov 2016 - Roberts quote appears in EcoRI article about Trump and the environment 

    9 Nov 2016 - Roberts quoted in InsideClimate News article on COP22 reaction to Trump's election

    9 Nov 2016 - Science Daily discusses new CDL article on paying for loss and damage

    9 Nov 2016 - Roberts quoted in Climate Home article on COP22 reaction to Trump's election

    8 Nov 2016 - Roberts' paper on paying for loss and damage discussed and quoted in Phys.Org

    7 Nov 2016 - Roberts' paper on paying for loss and damage discussed and quoted in Futurity article

    21 Sep 2016 - Roberts quoted in a Breitbart News article about Clinton's support following shift in climate change language

    20 Sep 2016 - Roberts quoted in a Climate Home article on Clinton's language around climate change after Sanders' endorsement

    5 May 2016 – Climate Home quotes Edwards on the announcement that Patricia Espinosa will lead the UNFCCC from this July 

    5 May 2016 - Dialogo Chino quotes Edwards following announcement that Patricia Espinosa will replace Christiana Figueres as head of the UNFCCC

    24 Apr 2016 - Deutsche Welle quotes Edwards on how ratifying Paris Agreement can boost prosperity in Latin America

    23 Mar 2016 – Edwards provides extended quote to Dialogo Chino on Obama’s trip to Cuba and Argentina
     
    25 Dec 2015 -  ConexiónCOP conversó con Guy Edwards sobre el nuevo acuerdo climático y America Latina

    14 Dec 2015 - Rhode Island Public Radio quotes Roberts on how Paris Climate Pact should steer New England toward clean energy

    11 Dec 2015 - Associated Press quotes Romain Weikmans on “Wild West” account on climate finance

    10 Dec 2015 -  Climate Home talks to Roberts about the lack of an independent system on climate finance

    Read more...

    Archives

    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    June 2021
    January 2021
    December 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    August 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    April 2012
    December 2011
    February 2009
    December 2008

    Authors

    The pieces featured in the blog are authored by CDL members and a diverse group of partners from around the world. The opinions expressed in these articles are the sole responsibility of the authors and do not reflect those of Brown University. 

    Categories

    All
    Civil Society
    Climate Finance
    Conference
    COP17
    COP19
    COP20
    COP21
    Energy
    Equity
    Latin America
    LDCs
    Legislation
    Loss And Damage
    Mitigation
    Policy Brief
    Publications
    Rhode Island
    Small Island Developing States
    UNFCCC
    United States

    RSS Feed

Proudly powered by Weebly