Lease and Drive the Honda EV+ (EV Plus)--Trip Log of an ordinary driver

First 4,000 miles!

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• Thursday (8/28/97): Left at 7:00, up the San Diego Fwy (405). Car drives just like a gas car with automatic transmission. Forgot to take mileage. Did not spare the car--ran into traffic jam of lookie-loos at the 105. Amazed that the car just seems to equalize speeds in traffic jams. Radio is great, but, as usual, no warning of the accident. After the accident, speeds pick up to 75-80. Car does well, seems stable, burns juice. The car, I find out, has 10 bars. I arrive with 6 bars left.

  No place to plug in for re-charge. After work, drive in to LA. Show car to old friends who are much impressed. Give them ride around block.

  To the freeway. Four dudes with bandanas on head lean out of car. Will they shoot? No, they just want to know how much it costs to recharge and how long it takes. Accident on 405 South, according to radio. As usual, I forget to take mileage. Drive down Culver Blvd. past accident site, pick up 405 from Sawtelle. Still a mess. Once again, car does well in traffic. Dark is approaching. I am afraid to put on lights, finally do. Doesn't affect performance at all. Arrive home with two bars only. Forgot to take mileage.

• Friday (8/29/97): Left at 6:30. Freeway is empty. Up the 405 to La Cienega. Some girls in pickup truck see our signage, give me the thumbs up signal (much better than usual 405 hand signal). Take off at National, up to Pico. Blow away fools in gasoline cars. They can't keep up. Still forgot to take mileage. Remember to ask parking guy if there is a charging station. "Uh, no, I don't think so, but, ut, I think there is one over at the shopping center..." I pass. Strong Honda has no need for begging power. We will endure.
  No grils are interested in seeing the car. Fellow co-worker is from Europe, has driven electric cars in Swiss. I take him for ride around block. He wants to buy one. He says, "darn, I just bought a four-runner yesterday." Is disappointed when I tell him that Honda only leases vehicle, and their apparent insouciant attitude about customers. Still have six bars of power.

  Trip home: Finally find car at 4:40, and figure out how to set trip counter. Down the 10 East (405, they say, was jammed). 10 is jammed too. Suffer the traffic. Car does really well in heavy, heavy traffic. In my normal gas car, I usually can't stand it, and pull off freeway. Intermittent use of air conditioner. Life is great. Four people do double takes. Several girls smile encouragement. I blow all fools off with powerful acceleration. Also exhibit great courtesy--after all, want people to realize all drivers are not crazed. Let many crazed ones in, do not cut anyone off, do not want to give EV a bad name. Switch lanes a lot. Some believe that the distance I leave in front gives them license to cut in. I let them, even though I could blast them off. Five bars of power at the 10/Harbor Fwy interchange. 9 Miles so far. I follow the 5, which is great until the Long Beach Fwy (710). South on 710 at 5:03. Four bars of power when the mileage reads 19.2. I am doing 80-81 mph according to the speedometer. Three bars of power at 27 miles on the trip counter. I am at the 405 South. There is a blockage, so I take off at Long Beach Blvd. Willow St at 34.1 miles. South on Orange to Anaheim--now two bars of power at 36.8 miles. Finish with two bars of power at 44 miles for the trip.

  Ending mileage 570 total. Not bad for one week. Will continue log if possible.

• Saturday (8/30): Only nine bars of power, according to the car's computer. A problem? The Resident Engineer says no. Off to the Old Folks Home at 5:13, Post Office first. At 9.7 miles on the trip counter, down to 8 bars of power. Destination at 12.6 miles, still 8 bars. Home, running air conditioner the whole way: 7 bars at 15.2 miles, 6 bars of power at 22.3 miles. End the trip with 6 bars at 24.9 miles on the trip counter, 595 miles total. Bypass timer to recharge at higher rate. Still worried about the 9 bars.

• Sunday (8/31): Car charges back to 10 bars of power. No problem with batteries. R.E. says Honda predicts computer sometimes states 9 bars when battery really has 10. R.E. takes car to movies, then to Pomona. Recharges car on 110 courtesy charger. Car registers 8 bars of power with two phantom bars which fade when plug is removed. Ride home in dark, using air-conditioner all the way. 36.7 miles one-way from Pomona on trip counter, 685 miles total on speedometer. Many crazy drivers Sunday night. Where is CHP? They stop people for no seat-belt while drunks weave at 90+ mph in the right lane. We stick to 58-65 mph the whole way, often in very dense traffic. Car arrives with 5 bars of power at midnight.

• Monday 8:00 a.m.: Honda refreshed to 10 bars, rests on this Labor Day. OC Register published a cartoon showing lonely, cobweb-encrusted charging stations wasting taxpayer money. I called them, and the only two stations they actually know about (aside from GM dealers) are at the Duffy Electric Boat Co., a boatworks in Newport, and a Price-Costco, both of which use GM inductive charging. When we visited the Duffy plug, there was only one plug, and it was occupied by an EV1. No room for Honda EV+. Doesn't sound like the taxpayers (us, too!) have actually saturated the charging station market yet. I hope to get permission to post the cartoon on the "stupid stuff from all over" page. The Honda dealer in Costa Mesa (who kindly offers their plug) is the only place so far that is on our list of charging stations. Fellow students of the R.E. came by--"Looks really cool--Oh, the first one on this block"--at least the next generation think there is a future for Electric Cars.

• Tuesday (9/2): With choice of three vehicles, two gas, I choose the EV+ for daily grind. Leave at 7:02 with 10 bars of power. Know it will be bad, but is worse than that. Heavy traffic. Nine bars of power at 9.1 miles. Socks in at 110 Harbor, so north on 110 to 105. 8 bars of power at 19.0 miles. 105 is a trap. Off at Vermont, 8 bars of power at 23.1 miles. Air conditioner on all the way. 7 bars of power at 76th St. East on Gage, North on Western, West on Slauson. North on Overhill to LaBrea. LaBrea to 10 West at 34.1 miles. 10 West is a trap too. Down to 6 bars of power at 35.7 miles. Arrive at 40.6 miles with 6 bars of power at 8:20. Motorcyclist pulls over, asks about range and price. He is impressed. Fellow co-worker inquires how it is to drive as we park, seems impressed. Average speed: 30 mph.
  Leave at 5:05 with 40.6 and 6 bars. Down the 405. Forget to reset trip counter, so miles are total for the day. 5 bars at 43.4 miles. 4 bars at 51.2 miles. 52.5 miles at the 105 split at 5:24. At 5:33, socks up at 59.8 miles and 3 bars of power. At the 710 at 5:41, still 3 bars. Cherry at 69.1 miles at 5:44. I am driving too fast. I slow down. At 5:45, 69.7 miles, 2 bars of power. Finish with 2 bars of power at 77.1 miles at 6:04. Average speed: 35 mph.

• Wednesday, Sept. 3, 1997: Up the 405 at 7:30, heart of the jam. Only nine bars of power. The "timer" supplied by Edison-EV is a water heater timer, and operates a mechanical switch by solenoid. The handle sometimes only opens half way. Once again, human error confounds the best Engineering. Anyway, I take it easy--stick to horrible fwy all the way. Down to 8 bars of power at 10.6 miles. Down to 7 bars at 8:11, with 20.7 miles on the trip counter. 8:15, I am at the 105 with 22.9 miles on the trip counter. There was an accident, but for once people are not looking. Nevertheless, still jammed beyond the accident. I let the car sort of glide, using the regenerative braking to slow down, driving like a truck driver does--no way else to drive, in this. Down to 6 bars of power at 31.3 miles on the trip counter at 8:38. Finish at 8:55 with 36.6 miles and 6 bars. Average speed=25 mph. Yuch. But much easier in EV than in gas car--I would have gotten off freeway and weaseled up city streets.

  Left for Pomona at 5:04 from level 3 of parking structure. Down to 5 bars of power picking up the 10 at Robertson (5:26). At the Harbor Fwy (110) at 9.2 miles at 5:30. Make the 5 split at 14.2 miles (5:41), down to 4 bars of power. I stay on the 60 Pomona. No word from the radio, and all routes look equally bad. Miraculously, things clear up a little, hit the Long Beach Fwy (710) at 16.5 miles (5:43). Still 4 bars of power at the 605. Now speeds pick up to 60-65. Down to 3 bars of power at 26.5 miles (5:59). At my destination up in the Hacienda Height hills at 32.4 miles (6:11). Friends see and drive in car, are convinced to buy one. They are amazed at how well it drives up and down steep hills, how easy it handles, and its ergonomic features. I explain lease conditions. Should I go into auto sales? Leave at 7:10 with 35.3 miles. Down to 2 bars at 36.9 miles at 7:16. Freeway has miraculously cleared up. Arrive with only one bar left at 48.1 miles on the trip counter. Final steep hill, use "economy mode". Honda still makes it up hill better than any of our gas vehicles. Total miles on the original nine bars, 84.7 miles with one bar (maybe) left.

• Saturday, Sept. 6: Left for Carlsbad. The car has 992 miles on the odometer. This is our first long trip, so we take it cautiously, but use air conditioner (set to 71 degrees) and CD player the whole way. Down to 9 bars of power at 9.1 miles on the trip counter. Down to 8 bars at 19.8 miles. 7 bars at 23 miles (! hills on the new toll road). 6 bars at 37.2 miles (regen braking on the downslope). 5 bars at 47.1 miles, 4 bars at 56.7 miles, 3 bars at 65.7 miles, and we arrive at 72.1 miles on the trip counter with 3 bars. We give demo rides to grandparents (3 more miles on trip counter), who are amazed and impressed. They would like one to replace their 2nd Toyota, but balk at the price. It is really all the car they need for 90% of their trips.

  Recharge only to 9 bars, so we are careful on return trip too, but also use fan or air and CD all the way. Down to 8 bars at 7.3 miles, 7 bars at 15.5, 6 bars at 25.2, 5 bars at 34.5, 4 bars at 43, 3 bars at 54.3, 2 bars at 64.5. We take the 405 on the return, for comparison, and get off at Westminster to go to Post Office. Finish with 2 bars of power still showing at 72.5 miles. Next time will try the Coast road.

• Sunday, Sept. 7: Forgot to note miles. Can the EV+ go up local mountains? Resident Engineer tries Baldy, keeping speeds down to 35 mph on the steep parts. It is about 25 miles away and about 5,000 feet up a steep windy road to the base of the ski area. Started with only 9 bars at 9:00 P.M., with 3 persons in the car. At the base of the mountain (10 mi. on the trip counter), 8 bars of power. At 9:25, Baldy Village, 5 bars. At 9:40 arrived at the top (25 miles) with 3 bars left. No place to recharge, so took a walk.

  Return trip: left about 10 P.M. with 3 bars. Regen braking regained 1 bar 2 miles into the trip. Regained the 5th bar just below Baldy Village (34 mi.). At the base (38 mi.) with 5 bars of power (!). Freeway driving at normal speeds, arrive back (50 mi.) with 5 bars of power. Mighty Honda conquers great mountain while achieving 13 miles per bar (!)--our best yet. Big Bear is next. Do we dare dream of Yosemite, and Mammoth? More to the point, will R.E. ever let me drive the car?

  If Chevron ("do people care") would be so good as to make a plug in their stations available for any EV to recharge, or perhaps Motel 6 ("We'll leave the plug on for ya") while we sleep, we could just look for the next Station or Motel. We will write letters to big chains to see who is interested just for publicity value. One decision from higher managment, and the letters would go out, and we could travel anyplace.

• Thursday, Sept. 11: R.E. to Pomona with ten bars of power. Arrived with 37 miles on the trip counter and 6 bars of power, travelling at freeway speeds and using air conditioner. Three Solar Engineers looked at car, thought it was "interesting." Recharged to 7 bars. Went shopping for the Center buying groceries, Trader Joe, etc., in Upland, Covina, Walnut, returning with 38 miles on the trip counter and 4 bars of power. Recharged to 6 bars, left for Chino with 6 bars. Down to 5 bars at 3 miles. Down to 4 bars at 15 miles on the trip counter, arriving in Chino. Leaving for Seal Beach, down to 3 bars at 25 miles on the trip counter. Down to 2 bars at 39 miles. Arriving with only one bar of power and 55 miles on the trip counter. Total miles for the day: 130. Total miles on the odometer: 1494.

• Tuesday, Sept. 23: One, two, skipafew. Resident Engineer has not been filing travel slips. Will fill in missing miles as time allows. On this day a problem stikes at the heart of the EV+. R.E. leaves Pomona with 9 bars at 9 P.M. The "trac battery" (i.e., traction battery problem) light came on at 8 bars. It stayed on to the strip mall at 9: 30. Back to Pomona leaving at 10:00. The light still on, arriving with 6 bars of power.

• Wednesday, Sept. 24: Car recharges to 10 bars. The "trac battery" light is now off. Leaving Pomona at 2 P.M. to go to Long Beach Harbor to pick up fellow student's car. The "trac battery" light came on again at the foot of the hill (about a quarter mile). Arriving at the dock at 3 P.M. with 5 bars (seems a little excessive usage for the distance). Heading out from the dock for Scott Robinson Honda Dealer at 3:30, light still on. Arriving at appx. 4 P.M. with only 3 bars of power. Honda swarmed over the car, running computer diagnostics, examining it, although Honda Heavies can only communicate via long distance from retreat at French Camp. Next day they decided to keep the car for a while, and we were awarded a loaner rental car, free for the asking (on Honda's largesse), but a Plymouth or Dodge Neon. What a come-downance! The car gets about 22 mpg, small as it is. Visibility is not good for lane changes to the right. The steering is difficult, and wobbles at speed. The air conditioner is a monster, causes the engine to stagger. The auto trans seems ill-suited for the engine. While power is adequate (unlike pinto or chevette), there are anomalies at low and at high speeds. The left front tire had a slow leak, but the gas station guy said the alignment was off. Took the car in, they came up with another. Lo and behold, it had the same problem with alignment! Horrible comparison between beautiful Honda and ugly American. Tragedy strikes Honda EV+ with 2424 miles on the odometer. Moreover, EV class at Pomona was deprived of seeing EV+, representatives from other schools missed seeing EV+, and worst of all, EV+ aura of invincibility is called into question. Maybe it is just as fallable as a gas car after all.

• Thursday, Oct. 2: Honda finally stated that the original battery pack was bad, implying perhaps that it was faulty from the get-go. Honda states that ours is the only one so far to experience the problem, and states that there is nothing we should do differently. It turns out others have taken EV+ to the top of Baldy, and driven it as far as we, with no problems. In fact, the owner of Green Motor Works is beating our mileage by a ton. Could just be that there was a mechanical or electrical defect in our original battery or ECU system. Anyway, they replace the battery pack, the problem goes away, and we are reunited with the Honda. Pick up the car with 2459 miles. Seemed to be O.K.

• Fri., Oct. 3: After stopping and starting at three stop signs after exiting the Fwy, the "motor light" came on, and the "check power train system" warning light came on. This indicates a problem with the "motor controller unit." The car went into "limp mode," 15 m.p.h. After stopping and then re-starting the vehicle, it was fine. We will call Honda in the morning.

• Sat., Oct. 4: Left messages at Scott Robinson Honda, will call Allison at Honda of Costa Mesa at 10:00, and will call Honda Engineers if possible. The light dawns. Test driving EV+ this morning, the two lights came on when and only if the accelerator pedal is pushed below 60%. So there is a problem with the high-draw circuitry. This triggered the warning lights (and now, put the machine into "limp mode", which is potentially dangerous).

• Mon., Oct. 6: Returned machine to Costa Mesa Honda. Received classy loaner--their demo EV+. Treated very well by Costa Mesa Honda. This is our store from now on. What a difference--going from stodgy old Toyota back to EV+. Manager--Brian, mechanics--Tom and Russ, Allison in sales. All were great.

• Tues., Oct.7: EV+ is ready already. Honda Engineer "Bill," on the "technical line," reputedly stated that the new battery required initialization of the accelerator pedal. No word yet on why the old battery needed replacement.
  Loaner EV+ travels 33 miles using 4 bars. Pick up our EV+ without incident with 9 bars. Travel up Fairview to Edinger to Harbor to 22 East. Avoid giant truck which ran into 4 by 4 and turned over, causing huge traffic jam, by fortuitous use of hated car-pool lane. We keep speed above 75 on the freeway, against wind. Arrive with only 4 bars of power (36 miles, appx.). Considering the speed and wind direction, this may be O.K. At least, our motor light does not go on, and trac battery light is silent.

• Wed., Oct. 15: Honda finally gets us a payment coupon. We are told that they stop the line at Honda each month to put out the allotted EV+. Honda will come to us next Monday to shoot videos of the car and its home.

  Pomona to Seal Beach, 37.9 miles on 3 bars, not so bad by use of "economy mode". After that, car loses a bar (used 4, 6 left) at 47 miles (economy mode, fast), to 5 bars at 56 miles (economy mode), to 4 then 3 at around 70 miles, or 10 miles per bar. Recharge to 10 bars. We plan trip to Carlsbad on inland route from Pomona (95+ miles, with hills), so take gas car. Next time will do it with Honda, recharging in Elsinore. One hour charging time gives 2 bars.

• Saturday, Oct. 18: Honda has 3313 miles on the odometer, and we have just sent in 3rd lease payment. So car has averaged appx. 400 miles per week, or appx. 20,000 mile per year. At lease cost of 489*12, this works out to 33 cents per mile plus cost of electricity. Gasoline costs are not included.

• Sunday, Oct. 19: From Seal Beach to the "Tour of Solar Homes". Leaving with 10 bars,

  9 bars of power	6.0 miles on the trip counter
  8 bars	15.1 in Garden Grove. Give demo ride to Voice Recognition Engineer from Rockwell (and son), who think Honda is grand. They say I should try auto sales.
  7	24.1
  6	33 down Laguna Canyon (133)
  5	43.4 up BlueBird Canyon elev. 650. Demo rides up and down steep hill for owner of "Sprout Acres" and others.
  4	49.5 Corona Del Mar
  3	58.5 Huntington
  Back, with 2 bars	65.0 total on the trip counter
  (average perhaps 8 miles per bar including hill climbs and demo rides)

• Monday Oct. 20: After another trip to Baldy, back to Seal Beach. Honda EV+ has 3567 miles on the odometer.

  Three persons from Honda interview us. They acknowledge that others have complained about the "conductive device" problem, and the incompatiblility with most of the charging stations. They claim that Ford and Toyota will "follow Honda's standard," although it is hard to believe that anyone else will fall for the $2495 wall-mounted plug scam, as Edison-EV did. Honda subsidizes that ridiculous piece of hardware to the tune of 1700, leaving poor us to pay the other 795. For a wall mounted plug! Will Ford be so stupid? Will Toyota jump off the same cliff? Only time will tell. The cost of the stupid plug is the big problem with getting more charging stations. The Century City shopping center garage manager said that his two EV1 inductive charging stations could only be expanded if Edison-EV came up with the money. Yet if the plug were reasonably priced (say, $50), there wouldn't be such a problem. Failure breeds failure.

  Honda stated that the problem with the bad battery which they replaced was the GFI, and that it was sent back to Panasonic, which makes it. We were pleased to be able to praise the excellent Honda EV+ to some of the people responsible for it.

• Saturday, Oct. 25: The Honda EV+ has 3802 miles on the odometer. Off to Ontario from Seal Beach with 10 bars. Heading into a strong "Santana" (East) wind, down to 9 bars at 8.9 miles. Down to 8 bars at 16.4 miles, 7 bars at 23 miles. North on the 57 freeway, now fighting a cross-wind. 6 bars at 29.4 miles, 5 bars at 38 miles as we turn East onto the 10 (San Berdo) freeway. Down to 4 bars at 47.4 miles. I get off at wrong exit, have to drive around a bit: finally find destination at 4 bars and 48.4 miles.

  No place to charge. If there were, or if we knew about the hidden 2.5 bars (only found out about that later), we would not have worried about getting back. As it is, we decide to head for Cal Poly Pomona. Down to 3 bars at 59.1 miles, arriving with 3 bars at 60 miles. Recharge the car to 5 bars. The wind has died down, so we won't get any benefit on the trip home. Down the 57 freeway, 4 bars at 65.5 miles. Down to 3 bars at 78.3 miles, 2 bars at 91 miles (! good driving by R.E.). Arriving with 97.1 miles and 2 bars of power, the "charge battery" light not even flashing. We had plenty of power, it turns out, even against the wind.