Public Charging in Helena, Montana

There is little opportunity to publicly charge my Leaf here in Helena, Montana.  The more running around town I do the more I like the possibility of charging outside the house, so I compiled an incredibly brief and incomplete list of places at which I've wanted to charge.  A shout out to local restaurant Suds Hut and to car seller Lithia Chevrolet...the only two in town to offer public EV charging.

At work
No dice.  I work at a public school so there's the legitimate question of using taxpayer dollars for any purpose-- even microwaving your lunch.  I have asked for my district's formal policy regarding employee electricity use but I suspect it is sparse or may not provide the kind of direct guidance needed for EV drivers.  I would be very curious to know how school districts nationally are answering this question.

I might suggest a legislative fix for the EV and public institution question.  The money needed for EV charging stations is not huge. Making the change from exhaust-belching cars to fume-free cars is worth the trouble.

Walmart offers 120V
This is a frequent grocery stop for me since it lies between me and work.  It's only 120V, but I still have managed up to an hour of charge.   As I wrote before, I enjoy the fact that the longer I spend in Walmart, the more it helps charge my car.  This is not me taking something for nothing from Walmart; the more I linger the more I will spend!  Moreover I prefer going to this store over its competitors because they offer a unique service.

I should note that Walmart probably never intended to help the EV owner with these outlets...they likely provided them as a service to Montanans with block-heaters.  This would explain why the outlets are only 120V and not energized year-round.   The outlets are located in the East parking lot.

Gread Divide Ski Area
I emailed the kind folks at Great Divide, and, although they theoretically support EV drivers, they do not offer any charging of any kind.  

Capital City Health Club
My family has a membership here and they do not offer any charging at this time.

Conclusion
Although there is little opportunity here for public charging, I suspect that will start to change soon. Merchants may find it is a little bit like wi-fi: if you build it they will come.  Supporting EV charging with front-row parking spots gives the business a good public image for not a lot of money, and also helps attract the growing number of customers that can plug in their cars.

The Leaf in Winter

Winter arrived abruptly to Montana a few weeks ago.  We had been enjoying weather in the 50's, also known as shorts-weather in these parts.  But like death and taxes, winter came and ended shorts season.  The temperature has been around 0 F.  Brrr.

Does winter hurt the Leaf's range?  Definitely.  But it doesn't make it any less usable.  I still get to work and back, take a kid to Karate, go get groceries, and whatever else comes up.  You'll remember that I live in a smaller town so distances are not great.

I noticed that I estimated the size of my town at 50,000 in my first post and 40,000 in the second.  I could invent a reason like, "the people flew south for the winter," but really I just didn't look.  So tonight I looked.  Here's the Census data: a population of 65,338 living in Lewis and Clark county in 2013. In the city proper I believe it's less than 30,000.  But back to the Leaf.

It is amazing to see the difference in estimated range with the heater on or off.  You lose about 10 miles with the heater on.  There was one sub-zero morning (my Leaf is garaged) that the range was estimated at 36 miles with climate control.  Mind you this was a fully charged Leaf.  I confess that this drop, compared to my autumn driving days of 70-80 miles, felt severe.  Again, for my 16-mile commute plus errands this is still plenty.

I find myself taking the charging cable with me on most trips, even though I seldom use it.  It provides a sense of security, and tonight I did plug in to my local Walmart while grocery-shopping.  I enjoy the fact that the longer I have to wait in line, the more Walmart contributes to my trip home.

Do I have range anxiety now that it's winter? Watching my battery gauge go way lower than ever before was a bit scary, but now I'm used to it.  I'm sure when the warm season eventually finds its way back I'll feel like a rich electricity man.

How many miles do you get in winter?  Like I mentioned before, my estimate-o-meter (nicknamed the guess-o-meter by many) got down to 36 miles on its worst day.  In real-world chilly Montana, I feel like the 36 mile estimate is close or maybe even a mile or two low.  On warmer days like today (26 degrees F!),  I feel confident saying 40-50 miles.  And yes, that's with the heater cranked.  

Notice the battery temperature-- one bar.
Range estimate is only 27 miles.

The outside temp was one degree F.

Negative 2 degrees F.  It was chilly.

Despite the cold weather, the car kept a higher batt temp by virtue of not sitting outside as long as above.
Range estimate is 28 miles.

I  

Range Anxiety

I normally don't experience range anxiety and I normally don't bring the charger with me.  My city is only about 40,000 people so there's just not that much of it to drive around.  I plug in at night, wake up, and my car is ready for all-day use.  And then there was Boulder.

Boulder is a small town about thirty miles to the South.  My sons had a birthday party to attend there so off we went.  According to google maps my round-trip would be under sixty miles.  I told myself I would bring the charger but I forgot.

By the time I arrived in Boulder I had around 25% of charge remaining.  Since I still had to return home, this was a little scary!  I mentally kicked myself for forgetting the charger, then I looked up a tow truck company and got its number handy.  How was I supposed to make the other 50% of my trip with 25% charge?

On the way home, I was down to three bars and the car indicated something like fifteen miles remaining for my thirty-mile trip.  Yikes.  Remembering the Leaf's max range speed, I set the cruise for 38mph.  Please don't run me over! I thought to myself as I entered I-15 Northbound towards Helena.

I gripped the steering wheel and turned on the hazards.  My attention was equal parts looking rearward and forward, as 38mph is a good rear-ending speed for the interstate.  I hugged the white line and kept driving, despite the dire prediction of insufficient remaining miles.  Most of the trip I spent really sweating it, thinking I was going to have to call for a tow, and wondering if the tow truck would have room for three small children as well as the me and the Leaf.

A few miles before I hit Helena I knew I was going to make it...whew!  I was reminded of the significant difference conditions can make for the Leaf: this trip was almost all uphill travelling to Boulder, and the temperature was just below 50 deg F.  Thus the Leaf used way more juice travelling there and less travelling back.  I videoed the Leaf's dashboard about a mile outside town--it's been telling me I'm doomed for a few miles now.

Why I Bought a Nissan Leaf

About three weeks ago I met a car delivery man behind a local Walmart and took delivery of a silver 2011 Nissan Leaf.   I bought it from a dealer in the Seattle area a week earlier.

I live in Helena, Montana, the "Queen" city of Montana.  (We can claim that title because we are the capital city of the state).  We're a city of about 50,000 people in a large state with robust winters and great driving distances between cities.  Reactions to my decision to buy an all-electric car for my family of five have been interesting.

It's fascinating that even after saying, "all electric" people will still ask me about belts or oil changes or even gasoline consumption.  Perhaps the casual listener has assumed that it's a plug-in hybrid or some kind of new Prius.  Once a person asking about maintenance stopped himself mid-sentence after he realized that the all-electric Leaf wouldn't have the parts in question.  The big question I usually hear is about range.

"So how far can you go on a charge?"

"Well it's for around town only and in an ideal situation you could go 100 miles.  In the real world it goes 70 miles or less.  It's replacing our aging second car that seldom left town."

I was well aware of the Leaf's limited range before I bought it.  My decision to buy it was not based on long driving range.  So why buy a car with only a 70-mile range?

I chose to buy the Leaf because an overwhelming majority of our trips are within that limited range.  Probably 98 out of 100 trips are in-town.  By national standards our town is small, so we never go far to get places.  My children are young, so we (my wife and I) do a lot of kid-hauling trips.  Having a car that covers almost all my driving needs without buying any gasoline is amazing.  

The Leaf is not for the person that owns only one car...it's for the typical working family that owns two.  When I travel out of town, I'll be in our Toyota Sienna, very likely with the rest of my family.

The Leaf holds three children in the backseat.  Two are in boosters, one is still in a car seat.  The kids are more crowded in the Leaf compared to our Sienna, but they fit.

I think the idea of owning a limited-range car in Montana freaks people out...there's no way the Leaf would work for driving between towns in this state.  But that's not the idea, so why worry about it?  If you can accept having an around-town-only car, life is easy.  I have absolutely zero range anxiety.

No gasoline, no range anxiety, and fits the kids.  That's why a bought a Nissan Leaf.