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Did you see the headline that stated GM was calling for a national electric vehicle program. Sounds great, right? Unfortunately, when the details are reviewed, it’s not as forward thinking as you might hope. Proposing what you already expect to happen as binding policy is not visionary.

Several other countries, including major markets in Europe and China, have much more aggressive targets on shorter timespans.

Elektrek https://electrek.co/2018/10/26/gm-weak-national-zero-emissions-vehicle-nzev-program-china-electric-vehicle/

As Donald Trump says… sad.

A colleague of mine generously lent her Nissan Leaf for us to test drive for the week. We need to answer two questions before we head down the electric car route:

1. Will the range be enough for daily driving in our two car household.
2. Is it cleaner than a hybrid or small diesel.

The answer to first question seems to be an unequivocal yes. Total daily driving for each of us is about 8 miles. Total miles driven in the household each day – about 16. It’s not much. We’ve ended each day with plenty of range on the Leaf. We can’t envision a day where it would be a problem.

The answer to question #2 is a little more difficult. I’ve heard anecdotally about the relative cleanliness of electricity generation vs. burning automotive fuel. I discovered one paper so far in my not-exhaustive research: A Roadmap to Climate Friendly Cars: 2013

Basically, in Minnesota if you don’t take in to account the manufacturing of the car, it is cleaner than the next cleanest option (a plug-in prius). If you do take in to account the manufacturing, it is less clean.

However, I imagine you can tip that balance on an individual basis by installing rooftop solar panels.

If we head down this path, my dear readers, you can be sure that I will blog about it here in excruciating detail… more to come!