Monday, December 30, 2013

SmartCar Adventure

 Here's my new baby! She is so cute and we just love her!














Dewman and I went on an adventure yesterday in the new SmartCar E-Drive. I packed his walker, Christmas feast and Christmas presents for the 2 Grandkids, our son and Daughter-in-Law into the back of the SmartCar.

Fully charged and ready to go we headed for Shady Cove, Oregon. It is 38 miles one way. Drove on
I-5 with the big boys, no problems. Gave rides around the block to 5 people in family and got it plugged in around 2:30 PM. After a few hours we realized the charger wasn't set on the highest charge setting. After we got it set properly it charged up much faster. We had a nice Ham dinner with our oldest son and his family. Dew and Tyler(the oldest son) played music in the "Chicken Shack", Tyler's garage music room. It is lined with egg crates for acoustics, hence the name.

I kept checking on the progress of the charging and we were getting there slow but sure. It was cold. The warmest temp was 32 degrees when we got there. It was 26 by the time we got enough charge to feel confident we would get home. We would need the defroster and the heater, so we had to compensate for that power expense.
We knew we would encounter fog on the way through Sam's Valley and maybe icy roads in a few places.
We had a great time visiting with the kids. Our 15 yr. old Granddaughter was there and we so enjoyed her company. The family all stayed up with us while we waited for the car to charge. We watched a movie the kids found hilarious: Grown Ups 2. It was great to see them rolling in laughter at the movie. I was laughing at the laughing kids. Our Grandson is 10 so he gets the juvenile humor.

Finally at about 1:15 AM we had enough charge to take us 48 miles. So that would get us home with the heater and defroster.
Dew was my co-pilot and was in charge of the energy expense of the heater and defroster. He did a great job managing those throughout the trip. He would turn them on and off as needed. When we got 5 miles from home and had 16 miles of charge left he cranked the heater fan up. We knew we had enough to get home.
We pulled into the garage with 10 miles left on the charge! Whoo-Hoo!! We probably won't take that trip again unless we have a quick charge station at the other end of the trip. But, I wanted the kids to see the new car and give everyone a ride. It was so worth staying up until 2:30 AM to do that!

My little SmartCar is a dream come true. I have wanted an electric car since 1972-ish. I never really thought there would be one I could afford in my lifetime. Mercedes/Daimler has made a car that is affordable and practical for in town driving and I am so proud to have one parked in my garage!

Join the revolution! Let's get more of these on the road to push the technology further!