Rav4EV

I mean this is the nicest way possible, but are we supposed to know who Tony Williams is?

 

LOL. He's well known in the Leaf community. He's now gone thru 2 Leafs.

He drove his 2nd one from Mexico to Canada (My Nissan Leaf Forum • View topic - Mexico to Canada via Electric Highway June 12-20, 2012). He's been quite vocal and active relating to Nissan's (pretty poor) handling of the hot climate (AZ and TX mainly, so far) battery degradation issues (My Nissan Leaf Forum • View topic - Lost Battery Capacity and Range / Autonomy, Page 2). He also headed up a range test related to that: My Nissan Leaf Forum • View topic - Phoenix Range Test Results, September 15, 2012.

I believe he also heads the San Diego Leaf Club. EAASV Monthly Meeting - SF BayLEAFs had a brief blurb on him.

I met him and spoke with him last year when he flew up to the Bay Area for a SF Bay Leaf meeting where the Leaf's Chief Vehicle Engineer (Kadota-san) + a whole bunch of senior Nissan folks and engineers were present.

 

Gotcha. So he's kinda like the Wayne Gerdes of Leaf's (Leaves?)?

 

Kinda sounds like it, but Wayne is more just hypermiler god father than brand or model specific. Before buying one to get a fair assessment of, he was actually anti-hybrid. His personal vehicles are currently a standard transmission Accord and Ranger. I think his lifetime mpg with the Accord is higher than what most people average in a Prius.

 

I guess. He has done a LOT for the Leaf community. He also put together this: My Nissan Leaf Forum • View topic - Range Chart. I'm guessing he's going to do something like it for his Rav4 EV. But he says the Rav4 EV GOM (guess-o-meter, aka "distance to empty" in miles) is MUCH better than the Leaf's.

In other posts, he did confirm he got rid of his last remaining Leaf. He's now selling all his Leaf stuff: My Nissan Leaf Forum • View topic - Tony Williams LEAF stuff blow out sale !!!!.

I think it was him that was into buying Nissan Altima spare tires from junkyards to use as Leaf spares (since the Leaf comes w/none).

 

Saw my first RAV4EV today. Didn't know what it was at first, but the guy driving it was a total a-hole.

Came up right on my butt and continued to tailgate me till he cut right and passed. I wasn't driving slow, and I wasn't in the Prius.

Apparently, the RAV4EV has good acceleration.

SCH-I535

 

What color was it? Where were you driving???

 

Pearl City, Hawaii. It was super white.

I don't think it was from your dealership.

SCH-I535

 

This Guy Can Get 59 MPG in a Plain Old Accord. Beat That, Punk. | Mother Jones

 

:::koff::: unmmmm yes it probably was. I'll mention it to him. LOL.

 

Thanks, I appreciate it.

He's making EVs look bad. Tell him to be a good ambassador for All EV drivers LOL.

SCH-I535

 

You never know. There's at least 1 Hawaiian Rav4 EV owner at Toyota Rav4 EV Forum - Toyota Rav4 EV Forum for the Rav4 Electric Vehicle.

Yep. At the bottom of Testing Electric Vehicles in the Real World, it's the fastest EV except for the Model S.

 

There are at least 2 Blizzard Pearl White RAV4 EV's on Oahu, but if this was Pearl City then it probably was me. Strange because I don't tailgate at all. Been driving slow cars all my life and most people tell me that I drive like a grandma. However, the RAV4 EV is fast and it's hard to not get carried away with the crazy acceleration, although I only "play" when there aren't other cars around. Sorry if I came across like an a-hole, but I don't tailgate at all, especially in a brand new car that I'm not familiar with the braking performance.

 

It was Saturday, at approximately 1140am heading East on Moanalua road between Waimano Home Road and the freeway on ramp heading East. If it was you, you were definitely in a hurry and impatient.

SCH-I535

 

Ummm, think again. The Roadster is quicker off the line than the S. And of course there are some home-brew racing EVs, such as the White Zombie, that are even quicker.

I know this was posted a very long time ago, but accumulated experience with the Tesla Roadster suggests that the above is far too pessimistic. While it might be possible, with intentional abuse, to achieve such rapid battery degradation, with reasonable care it looks like the Tesla battery packs will do far better. And unless you regularly need to use 100% of your range, I cannot imagine needing a new pack earlier than 10 years. In my case, since I only need 50% of my range, I do not expect to ever have to replace my pack.

The Leaf is a different story, without active battery cooling, and with such little range, a lot of people routinely use the greater part of their capacity, so a 10 or 20% loss will make the car problematic.

 

Thanks.. that is what I expected to hear.. someone at green reports is just hyping it to gain readership

 

Or, like most journalists, they just don't know what they're talking about. You could probably count on one hand the number of articles published nation-wide in the course of any given month that are not complete bollocks. (And on TV, you probably would not run out of fingers in less than a decade.)

 

Ok... I should've amended my statement. Of the vehicles they tested in that comparison, the Roadster wasn't tested and you can't buy a new Roadster anymore.

 

Then they should have said "... of new cars available from commercial manufacturers today..." or perhaps "... of the cars we felt were important enough to include in our discussion..."

The Tesla Roadsters are still on the road. Nearly every one built still is on the road. And a few are available for sale used. We're not talking about a car that would be hard to obtain for testing, or for which specs are not easily available.