Category Archives: Uncategorized

In some markets, particularly ones with lots of solar such as California, Electricity prices reach their lowest point not overnight, but in the middle of the day. The reason for this is the glut of Solar power that hits the grid at that time. Particularly in the spring, when its sunny, but not yet hot.Continue reading “The “Duck” curve”

Wife and I were thinking on how to speed up our trip to Tremblant, the idea of taking just one stop came up. Not sure if I’m up for that personally, I kinda do like my coffee/pastries/meals/dog-walks etc. But lets continue with it anyways to see where it might lead us. To begin with, thereContinue reading “Toronto to Tremblant in one stop?”

A good charging stop has not only lots of chargers, but productive means of using the charging time to further your journey. Lets look at some charging stops near Toronto, ON and see how they rate on my ever so subjective 5 star scale. Ideally, I like to see a grocery store, some restaurants andContinue reading “My Favourite charging stops”

I recently travelled to Japan, while there, its hard not to admire the Shinkansen, the Japanese high speed rail network. Particularly while zooming along at 320km/hr with barely a ripple in your tea. But does such a service make any sense in Ontario? Some have pointed to Canada’s vast geography, others point to the cost,Continue reading “Does the Shinkansen make sense in Ontario?”

One Marion King Hubbert (source) proposed something called “peak-oil” back in 1956. Briefly, when charted by year, oil production tends to follow a bell curve for a given geographical region. Let’s look at this sideways and review statistics on annual gasoline sales for a few regions: California, Norway, Texas and Ontario. Interestingly enough, in allContinue reading “Peak Gas?”

Change is hard, and without a nudge will not happen. Be it gas cars or humming generators, gas is everywhere in our society. A nearby construction site has generators humming day and night, despite having a power line they could use for less money. In fact, upon closer inspection, that construction site is using “colouredContinue reading “The argument for the Carbon tax”

As many jurisdictions edge closer to a ban on internal combustion engine car sales, panic is rising in some quarters, some even go as far as to suggest that EVs are much much inferior to gas cars. As discussed in a previous post, the situation is more complicated. For short journeys such as your commuteContinue reading “EV vs Gas car, the long and the short of it”

Had to travel to Chalk river on the Ottawa Valley for work, and discovered a beautiful part of Ontario that is well worth visiting. In fact I did so later with the family. Conveniently located next to the hotel was a distillery that offered river tubing which was an wonderful combination, particularly as the onsiteContinue reading “Ottawa Valley”

A common grumble among auto-dealers is that EVs will kill their business model as their reduced maintenance costs result in less service revenue. Well, lets look at my receipts from my local Nissan Dealer since 2019 when we went electric. Our local Nissan Dealer has seems there is a fair bit of money to beContinue reading “Servicing and EVs, from an automaker’s perspective”

Why is Tesla going “all-in” on robotaxis? Seems it would take a fair bit of money to develop robotaxis, in particular convincing skeptical regulators and the public that whatever they develop is going to work well enough. This is at a time where Tesla’s full self driving (FSD), has been met with some skepticism (source).Continue reading “Mr Musk’s Dilemma”