I Love My Chevy Volt
Did I mention that I drive a Chevy Volt. I love my electric car. Right now I'm getting 199 mpg. Yes, you read that correctly. Soon it's going to go up. On my next trip I'm sure it'll flip to 200 mpg. The Volt is a totally electric car, not a hybrid. When I run out of charge it starts burning gas to generate more electricity. In that mode I get about 50 mpg.
The last time I bought gas was July 13, 2018. I mention the year because some Volt owners have gone years between gas purchases. These folks use it strictly as a commuter car. With my 2017 Volt I get about 60 EV miles. Longer trips (visits to my mother or other family members) mean I have to burn gas. I hate burning gas!!!
When I drive into my garage after a trip, I plug in my car and let it charge. Doing this during daylight hours means the sun is charging my car. A few years back, my husband had solar panels installed on our roof so during the day everything electric in our house runs off the sun. We wash and dry clothes during the day. Anything that takes a big electric draw we try to do during sunlight hours.
Sorry, I got off track.
Yes, my trips around north central Florida are basically solar powered. Yay! If I get home after dark and need to leave first thing the next day, then I plug my car in and let Duke Energy charge my car. Yes, I have to play for this electricity but it only costs me around $2.50. When's the last time you drove 60 miles on $2.50 worth of gas?
An electric motor is 85 to 95% efficient. Gasoline engines are only 20 % efficient. Burning gas is old fashioned. It's like wearing polyester pants suits. Who wants to go back to those days?
We recently got a Whole Foods grocery store in my area. I am in love with Whole Foods! There's a lot of reasons but the main one is on this page. They have free charging for their customers who drive electric cars. How cool is that?
In this picture my car is on the left. When I came out of the store and saw my car's twin parked on the other side, I had to take a picture. I've never seen all four charging stations filled but another electric car owner told me that this happens in the late afternoon. Yay!!
I extend my time in the parking place by walking over to Starbucks to get my weekly bucket of coffee grounds. Walking over with the empty bucket is no problem but walking back with the full bucket is a cardio workout, let me tell you. The young people carry it out of the store for me but then I'm on my own.
Sometimes I eat lunch at Whole Foods. They have an incredible deli! Truly fab.
While I'm eating lunch my car is soaking up some more electricity. I usually leave with 10 extra miles on the charge. Not much but I'll take it.
The draw back with electric cars is how long it takes to charge. If I had no charge left it would take me 4 hours in the Whole Foods parking lot to completely fill up again.
Only Tesla has solved this problem, somewhat. They've built super charging stations all over the country. Most are located at Interstate exits. A Tesla owner can charge their car in 30 minutes. That's 300 miles in 30 minutes, folks. I feel cheated! I even called Tesla and asked if I could buy an adapter and maybe get in on this incredible deal. They let me down gently. "Ma'am, even if you could plug into one of our supercharging stations, it would blow up your battery." Wow! Guess I won't be trying that any time soon.
Living my life everyday in every way to show that . . .