I started working on my Hybrid Cars & Electric Vehicles blog and website. You can click on the banner image or the links above to be taken to the other pages of my website.
It has been one month since my Ford Fusion Energi purchase. Using the MyFordMobile website, I have calculated that I have saved 61 gallons of gas compared to driving my pickup. 61 gallons at an average price of $3.00 a gallon, means I have saved $183.00 in gas this month alone.
I am sneaking up on my first gas tank fill-up. I am currently at 935 miles, and I have 93 miles of range left before I need to fill up. I should easily be able to break 1000 miles on my first tank of gas.
Today was my birthday, and I turned 34 years old. As a gift, I received a 240v charger for my Fusion Energi. I look forward to installing the electricity to the garage to be able to run the new charger. It will be a big project. I will have to bury about 50ft of conduit. Then, I will pull 8 awg wire through it. On one end I will install a 40-amp breaker. On the other end I will install my GE Durastation 240v charger.
Today my license plates were available for pickup. The new car is officially licensed for the road.
My first trip to work. While using my 20 miles of EV range, I averaged 125 mpg on the way to work. One the way home I averaged 48 mpg in full hybrid mode. I also tried the self-parking feature to park between two of my co-workers vehicles.
Today is great day. I purchased my fist new vehicle, at 33 years old. I bought a Ford Fusion Energi. This is a plugin hybrid electric vehicle or PHEV. On a full charge I get 20 miles of full EV mode, before it changes over to hybrid mode. On the supplied 110v charger, I can get a full charge in about 6.5 hours. If I purchase a 240v charger, that time can be reduced to about 2.5 hours.
Electric vehicles and hybrids are divided up into three main categories. First is a standard hybrid. Then, there is an all-electric plugin vehicle (PEV). Finally, there is a plugin hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). Generally, a hybrid combines an electric motor with a gas combustion engine to improve gas mileage and lower the carbon dioxide output of the vehicle. All hybrids also employ some sort of regenerative braking. This is where the inertia of the vehicle is captured through the braking process. Any energy captured in this fashion is stored in the hybrid's batteries.
A standard hybrid typically has two types of engines that are used. First, they have an electric motor powered by batteries. Additionally, they have a gas engine that can serve two purposes. It can be designed to act like a generator to charge the batteries and run the electric motor. It can also be designed to run like a normal combustion engine and make the car move or supplement the electric motor.
A PEV is vehicle that runs completely on battery power. It has a given range that it will run before it needs to be recharged. PEVs are typically purchased by people that make shorter more frequent trips. This allows them to charge the vehicle between uses. You can think of the PEV as the remote control car of the hybrid world. When the batteries run out, they have to be recharged before it can be used again.
The PHEV is kind of like a hybrid of hybrids. It combines the full electric mode of the PEV with the full time fuel savings of a standard hybrid vehicle. The PHEV isn't required to be plugged in and charged. However, when an owner does charge the internal batteries, they will get a certain amount of miles to run on pure electricity. When that range runs out, the vehicle will transition back to a standard hybrid, and the driver will get the benefits that go along with driving a normal hybrid vehicle.