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Electric

*** Admittedly the rees genre blog has had a dry spell of late so pardon the massive recap as I catch up on life as it supposedly happened the last five months. 

We thrived for a long time with just one car-- nearly eight years! We thrived for a long time, we survived a little, and then one day it just didn't work any more. I was spending a lot of my time as the family chauffeur; instead of two adults moving three kids where they needed to go it was me moving everyone else which just became too much. Chris had been researching cars for a long time (waiting for the moment in which I would give way to the idea of having a second) and given his employment he naturally factored in an electric car into the calculations. Somehow he made the numbers work so that it was feasible for us to consider leasing one rather than purchasing a gas vehicle (if you want the details, ask Chris!). We leased a Nissan Leaf in January and we have loved it ever since. 

So what is it like to drive a fully electric vehicle? Starting the car feels like starting your computer. With a push of the "on" button, the engine starts with a soft hum, barely audible, and you wonder if it is really on and ready to drive. Put it into reverse and the dashboard display camera shows not only the rear but a 360 birds eye view of what is around the car, helping you to reverse easily. With the engine in drive, the smooth acceleration catches you off guard when you look at the speedometer and realize how fast you are going. Though I love the acceleration of the V8 engine that I normally drive, the Leaf is so smooth that you almost feel like you are flying a space craft instead of a car. I'm sure the charm of the car is somewhat distorted by the fact that when I drive it I'm often on my own, taking an hour or two escape to leave kids and house behind and hang out with girlfriends, etc, so driving the car feels like a bit of freedom and reclaiming the adult from the "mommy." Enjoying the full capacity of the Bose speakers with music that I don't often listen to with the kids doesn't hurt either. The car is fully electric which means that it doesn't any fuel to make it run; driving it is like eating a decadent chocolate cake and then finding out that it is calorie free-- a guiltless guilty pleasure. 

Obviously the electric car has its limitations and we can only use it for city driving. It gets about 75 miles until it needs to be recharged and then it takes several hours to recharge. Chris drives it to work (about a seven mile commute) and then parks it at a charging station all day so we usually only need to charge it at home on the weekends (and we haven't really noticed a difference in our power bill). We have reduced our gas consumption significantly, though, in addition to reducing the number of miles we are putting on the gas car that we own. We can all fit into it comfortably, though, and the boys particularly like driving to school with Chris in the mornings. Overall, if this is the car of the future, the future isn't looking too bad!  

The Leaf on its maiden voyage to school







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