Lessons from Havana: E-Mobility Sneaks up on Two Wheels

I was lucky enough to take a vacation with family in Havana, Cuba. To be honest, Cuba wasn't on the top of my "places to see" list, but once I was there, I was seduced by the balmy weather, sabroso food, local musicians, and very friendly people. I was also surprised how easy it was to travel to Havana, and to get around courtesy of the famous classic American cars now converted into taxis.

There is a downside to swarms of very old cars in Havana: the smell of gasoline and diesel in all of the more popular spots to visit. But as the week went by I had a revelation: for every perfectly restored Chevy in front of a popular restaurant, I saw an electric scooter passing us by or parked down the street. It reminded me that the future of e-mobility probably won't look just like a Tesla or Bolt. In the urban megacities around the world, it will roll on two wheels.

Read about my experience on Medium.

Why an EV Should Be Your First Car

The EV community is scratching its collective head about why electric car sales are stalling, instead of accelerating. The Union of Concerned Scientists points fingers at the auto makers, saying they aren’t fielding enough models, and aren’t making EVs easy to find.

I suggest that part of the problem is a popular assertion that EVs are a great choice for a second car in the average urban household. For example, recently Michael Liebreich, advisory board chairman at Bloomberg New Energy Finance, talks about the electric vehicle as "already the perfect second car."

With due respect, that line of thinking is keeping EV adoption stuck in first gear.

An EV can and should be your first car.

The First Choice for Most Uses

Since 87% of your daily driving is within the range of an EV, you can hop in an electric vehicle or a gas-powered one for the vast majority of your car use. Here are the reasons why the EV is a better first choice:

• Owning an EV can save you $10,000 over five years, compared to a gas-powered car. 
• With instant, silent torque, an electric car brings a new dimension of fun to your drive.
• Those nine trips out of ten—when you hit the accelerator but burn no gas—you make another small step towards a more sustainable planet.
• The EV can even help you become more healthy and neighborly.

Considering all this, it does not make sense to use a more expensive, noisy, polluting and personally limiting option as your first choice for what will be the vast majority of your driving.

Own an EV, Share an ICE 

An internal combustion engine (ICE) car is the better alternative only for those 13% of trips beyond a convenient range for your EV. And if you're sorry to leave the advantages of your EV at home, here’s a tip: you can save even more money, make the trip more interesting, and further reduce your footprint using a car-sharing service.

• Save more money: the AAA estimates that owning a car costs you $8558 per year on average. Ouch. So for your second (gas powered) car, you sign up for Turo. You use a $40/day car once a week, and for two weeks of vacation, for a total annual cost of $2640 (66 days x $40). Add in another $1000 for gas, and you still save $5000 that you can put towards solar panels.
• Have more fun: rent a Honda, slide into a BMW, grab a pickup or a minivan… with car sharing, you can drive many different cars, and get the type of car you need for each trip.
• Shrink your footprint: the use of car-sharing services reduces traffic and greenhouse gas emissions.

So when you hear people say that an EV makes a good second car, set them straight. An electric car is the first, and perhaps the only, car you need to own.

6 Secret Reasons Why You'll Love Owning an EV

You've read the exposés in Forbes, Clean Fleet Report, VroomGirls and even a Fox affiliate. So you know.

EVs are cool. They're becoming affordable. They require practically no maintenance. Electricity is cheap fuel, even less than gas at $2 a gallon. Oh yeah, and no tailpipe emissions, so you're facing down global warming without sacrificing the convenience of a quick drive to Whole Foods for fair trade coffee.

Those are important reasons why you should consider an EV. But once you take the plunge, you discover six deeper truths why you and the rest of the EV clan live and breathe electric. 

Source: Geekologie

• You feel like Sulu on the Enterprise. Once you feel the torque in an EV, you're hooked. It's eerily still inside as the roadside starts to swish by, like stars past a spaceship in warp drive. You can hear a futuristic electric whine, if you have the windows down. Even better, and I'm aware this is childish, but I like knowing I can beat anything off the line.
• You become superior to Prius owners. Remember the feeling when you first saw a Prius? That confusing stew of repulsion and envy? As they proliferated, I felt environmentally sub-par in my Subaru, but I wasn't sure if I loved or hated the humpy hybrids. But now, at the helm of an EV, I am no longer conflicted. Each time I spot a Prius, I toss off comments like "fossil fuel freak" and "petrol junkie," much to my wife's bemusement. It feels good, even though I admit a few of my electrons are generated at a distant dinosaur-fueled power plant.
• You entertain your friends with lots of geeked-out factoids that they will suspect they should know. My Leaf's dashboard--now that I've had a year to decode its mysteries--inspires a stream of scientific insights to share with my unfortunate co-passengers. "What, you don't know the difference between energy density and power density? Let me explain..."
• You have a new ways to bond with your neighbors. As an EV owner, you enjoy new rituals at home. If you park outside, this is a chance to yell over the fence "Hi Jeff, how are you, just plugging in my electric car." Jeff will really enjoy all the little EV moments that you share, so do it frequently.
• Your health improves as you wean yourself off of Slim Jims. When you zip right by the Mobile MegaMart, you are no longer tempted by the bargain-size pork rinds and frozen coffee shakes that once made the weekly fill-up tolerable.
• You never, ever have to go through the SpiffyLube shakedown again. Face it, you KNOW when you go in for the $19.95 oil change that you will soon have to explain to the earnest mechanic why you (as an expert in automotive science) don't need that urgent $89 transmission fluid replacement. With an EV, there's no oil changes, no tune-ups, and no self-recrimination after forking over $25 to have a ten-cent light bulb replaced. I bet you're feeling relieved already.

So you see, owning an EV is as much about improving your daily life as it is doing good for your biosphere. If you're one of us, tell me more about your obsession with a comment below.