Author Archives: lukefrugalev

Why not include Picton in your next Prince Edward County visit? It is a lovely town, with lots of things to see and do. The Glenora ferry can make the drive to Kingston a lot more pleasant. There is lots of wineries some of which have charging stations, why not charge as you enjoy aContinue reading “Picton”

Much ink has been spilled over the state of Ontario’s Electricity grid, some fear a near total collapse as EVs become more common. As always, the truth is more nuanced, during certain times, Ontario’s grid is under strain, while at others, ample power is available. A home battery system can help. The idea here isContinue reading “Experiments in Peak Shifting”

I recently bumped into an elderly couple driving their first EV at a charging station. This was a DC fast charger at a highway rest stop. If you got it all down, you can park, plug in and be charging in less than a minute. But its a very different experience than stopping at aContinue reading “First charge”

With an electric campsite, why cook on propane? Driving an EV? Well, seems were doing a zero emissions camping trip. Well almost, the kids still insisted on smores over a campfire. We made most of our meals on a portable induction cook-top, but I also brought along my airfrier which can double as an oven.Continue reading “The (almost) #StopBurningStuff camping trip”

Newer EVs have much faster DC fast charging than my 2018 LEAF. The Ioniq 5 promisses 350 kW DC fast charging speeds (source), Tesla model S can hit 250 kW (source), and even the 2023 Nissan Leaf Plus claims 100 kW (source). Lets do some analysis and see how charging stop duration goes with increasingContinue reading “Is fast charging fast enough?”

Recently, I wrote a post of rooftop solar here in Toronto. Briefly, as I only spend 100$ per month on electricity, its tough to justify investing tens of thousands of dollars on a solar system to reduce my electricity bill. But seen from another perspective, how do Ontarians meet our energy challenges into the future?Continue reading “Rooftop solar, is it a better idea than I thought?”

The Nissan LEAF was launched with much fanfare in 2010 as “the first mass produced electric car”, 13 years on, lets discuss how things turned out. While far from a “needle-mover” the LEAF serves its purpose for Nissan, its a well built car that is true to its design philosophy of a Leading, Environmentally friendly,Continue reading “How well did the LEAF work out?”

Spring is in the air, the ski-hills are green, and that means its time for our bi-annual used car survey. As before, we set our price threshold at 35 000 CAD, limit of 100 km from Toronto, and we need to see at least three offerings for a car to make our list of usedContinue reading “Used car survey, Spring 2023”

Volume manufacturing of cars is a game of big numbers. Rumored development spending on the Nissan Leaf was about 6B$. Further Tesla apparently spent a whopping $90k manufacturing the first few Tesla Model 3 cars. Given all this, how do carmakers actually make money? The answer lies in a few “good-models” that can be soldContinue reading “Car program economics”

There is no denying it, Tesla has had quite the impact on the EV world. These days the Tesla Model Y outsells the Tesla Model 3, at least in North America. So I jumped at the chance to take one for a spin. Tesla’s roots as a sports-car maker are evident in the driving experience,Continue reading “Driving the Tesla Model Y”