Comparing unusually popular cars in red and blue districts

[newliminted]

I only hire documented sex workers, thank you.

[newliminted]

“Alaska - Not Available”

You mean to say, Piper Cub?

[Israel_B]

@stinkinbadgers

I’m also confused, but as to why anyone would consider this information relevant to anyone, anywhere, at any time.

Obviously because it’s comment fodder for lots of boingers to look down on others

[ejconrad]

@lamaranagram

Sorry. That was lame of me. It very well may have been on South Park that I heard that joke.

At least you’re not being smug about it.

[d_r]

@daneel

Also, Saab 3-Sep?

That day I’ll always remember…

Our Saab is a March 9

[jerwin]

@ficuswhisperer

All it’s really saying is “red state people like them some big trucks and blue state people like them some cars” to the shock of nobody. If you put a modicum of thought into this, consider how red states are more rural and agrarian, so driving big trucks makes a lot more sense. You can’t really haul farm equipment around in a Prius. Blue states are often more urban where practicality and fuel economy is important.

It’s more “congressional district currently represented by a democrat” vs “congressional district currently represneted by a rebublican” than red v blue state, but hey…

And since those are gamed by the state legislatures, I’d expect to see both democratic and republican cars bundled together.

[nungesser]

I’m still driving an original model Honda Insight, which I got a crazy deal on when I bought it in Kentucky – the salesman raised an eyebrow and said “I’m not sure who would want one of these.” Not to stereotype my old hometown of hickville, but I drew a crowd every time I parked that thing for years. “Hey mister! Does that thang run on solar or soybeans?” “Do you gotta crank it up in the morning?”

There’s three or four identical cars in my Boston neighborhood, so it doesn’t exactly raise eyebrows now.

[howaboutthis]

Flip-flopper.

[TobinL]

I don’t but then I didn’t grow up in Seattle… and I don’t miss the winter in St. Louis one bit, or the hot oppressively humid summer either for that matter.

[anon67050589]

Yeah, St. Louis is probably the nadir for weather in the U.S. Is there even one full week per year that isn’t yucky in one way or another?

[TobinL]

Oh late spring and autumn are pretty awesome so more than a week…

[Medievalist]

@anon67050589

Cold drains those electric batteries like you wouldn’t believe, and driving in snow and ice is even worse.

Essentially you’re right.

But hybrids are fine in the cold, despite having batteries, because it’s actually a lot more complicated than that. I’m not going to explain in detail because nobody really cares

With my electric tractor, which is antique and thus uses over five hundred pounds of lead in its battery pack, the thermal mass of the pack is so high that it can take a week to warm up after the weather changes. Right now it’s got condensation running down it in sheets! But in a Tesla (to provide the opposite end of the spectrum) the batteries are lithium ion double-A cells, very light and fast to warm up. It wouldn’t surprise me at all if just charging them gets them to optimal temperature.

We keep the Nissan Leaf plugged into 240VAC on winter nights, and program it to warm up the car, seats, steering wheel, and battery pack before it gets driven to work in the morning. This works very well, but range is still noticeably decreased in winter due to the inefficiency of electric heating.

[nungesser]

@Medievalist

We keep the Nissan Leaf plugged into 240VAC on winter nights…

A Leaf is one of the cars I’m eyeballing for when my Insight eventually dies. It’s still running fine, but it’s on its third replacement hybrid battery pack, and Honda no longer makes replacements for the old Insights. An aftermarket replacement would be around $3-5k. So when this pack farts out, that’ll probably be it for the old girl.

What’s keeping me from an electric is that I don’t have a garage to park inside. Would an extension cord going into the street work, do you think?

[daneel]

Depends on whether your neighbours would like free electricity, I guess.

[Medievalist]

If you buy a Leaf, you need to make sure it has the 240 VAC charger inlet. Some models don’t. Don’t drive it off the lot unless you are absolutely sure it has the 240VAC charge connector.

Using the standard 120VAC charger, which plugs into a regular 15 amp household outlet, means fifteen hour charge times which is impractical for nearly anyone. Yes I said 15 hours. Frankly Nissan is making a mistake by offering to sell them with only 120VAC inlets, their standard charger should be for emergency use only.

The 240VAC charger, by contrast, takes 5 hours which is great! But you’ll need to invest in a 30 amp 240VAC charging station (the charging circuitry is actually inside the car, so these are technically not really chargers, they are EVSEs, although everyone calls them charging stations or chargers anyway).

A 30+ amp continuous duty 240VAC extension cord is possible (I actually have one) but the local code enforcement officers would be very unhappy if you ran one out into the street, and the 240VAC EVSEs are supposed to be permanently mounted (which mine is, for very loose definitions of permanent.) Can you mount an outdoor EVSE with a long enough cable to reach the street? Keep in mind we’re talking a minimum of around $1000 investment to have this done legally (or half that to do it yourself with legality being dependent on local regulations).

@daneel

Depends on whether your neighbours would like free electricity, I guess.

The Leaf is capable of locking the J1772 cable into place while charging.

[ficuswhisperer]

@jerwin

It’s more “congressional district currently represented by a democrat” vs “congressional district currently represneted by a rebublican” than red v blue state, but hey…

Hey, we’re discussing what’s already a bullshit premise to begin with. Your pedantry has no place here!

[ficuswhisperer]

@Medievalist

Using the standard 120VAC charger, which plugs into a regular 15 amp household outlet, means fifteen hour charge times which is impractical for nearly anyone. Yes I said 15 hours.

Ohm’s Law is a bitch, ain’t it?

[Medievalist]

一緒にお茶でもいかがですか。

CHAdeMO puts a hurt on the battery pack, though…

[ficuswhisperer]

Oh, how I love those punny Japanese names.

[Medievalist]

This is what it looks like under the hood mounted “fueling hatch” of our Nissan Leaf:

CHAdeMO on the left, J1772 on the right.

The J1772 can accept 120 or 240 volts, depending on how many of the pins are live; 15 hours to charge at 120 VAC, 5 hours at 240 VAC.

The CHAdeMO can deliver 500 volts DC at 125 amps, so the cable is like a firehose, but it’ll charge the car in under an hour, and you can get 80% charge in about 30 minutes. This will permanently damage your battery, so you might not want to invest in the $10,000+ CHAdeMO charger.