The (R)EV Diaries - EVs in Rural America Electric Cars - Electric Vehicles

Here is a summer recap. Unfortunately we recorded it in September and we’re already two-thirds of the way through Fall. It’s been a busy year, but we love recording and talking all things EV. Hopefully we can get our act together and finish the year strong.

In the last episode, we were in the middle of a conversation with Jason Fee when he needed to attend to some business. We all know what it’s like when Ben breaks his train of thought… It takes three months (or longer) to get it back on the rails. Here it is; the last part of our discussion with Jason Fee. EV Pilot Program

Jason Fee has spent his entire life around automobiles. Growing up in Flint, Michigan, Jason naturally found his career in the automotive industry and is now with GM Service. Jason called me out on my GM bashing a few years ago and has become a friend of the show. He brings a manufacturers perpective to the discussion we have on EVD. It’s a fun, yet rambling conversation… because we wouldn’t have...

Many states are taking steps to get ahead of autonomous commercial vehicles that will eventually be part of everyday life. Kentucky, too, is debating a house bill that will set limitations and guidelines for this emerging technology driven by AI . While one can debate the pros and cons of AI and the long-term effects on the human race, we agree that there is a need for guidelines and tempered expe...

Can you imagine a EV that you could drive across the US, from sea to shining sea, without having to stop and charge? Now, you’ll have time to check out the World’s Largest Ball of Twine and The Grand Canyon simply because you’re not looking for infrastructure and can focus on the world around you. That’s the promise of the coming future. We have said numerous times, we are just one breakthrough aw...

a·nath·e·ma /əˈnaTHəmə/ noun Something or someone that one vehemently dislikes. car·math·e·ma /car MATH amuh/ noun The reluctance of people to do basic math regarding EV ownership (which is anathema to me). Kentucky now has an EV tax in place supposedly to offset waning revenue from the 26 cent per gallon gasoline tax.  A spokesman for EvolveKY, an EV advocacy group headquartered in Louisville, sa...

We are back. Welcome to 2024. We recorded this episode on January 22 in the middle of a polar vortex. As you can see, it took me (Ben) a while to get it posted. I do apologize and hope to do better. Every day is an adventure, huh? In mid-January, our part of the world experienced heavy snow (more than usual anyway) followed by bitter cold. This was true for most of the eastern part of the U.S. and...

Today, we have a cool episode. Brent had never been in my BMW i3. He had not driven an EV other than the Chevy Volt belonging to the co-op. We thought it was high time that he experienced something new. Join us as we cruise around town on a rainy day and do bad impressions of Jerry Seinfeld.

After years of waiting, the Tesla Cybertruck is here. The trucks are finally rolling of the production floor and into the garages of the people that made their reservations when it was first unveiled, assuming they still wanted it. It occurs to us that despite the long wait, people are still intrigued by the unusual utility vehicle and new excitement is brewing. In this episode, Brent wanted to di...

Not going to lie- I’ve been a little discouraged about the EV news lately. Sure, new models are coming out every day. New breakthroughs in battery construction seem just over the horizon, but I have found myself inundated with seemingly bad new. First, I found myself in a conference where a very influential member of a major utility organization proceeded to dismantle the improvements to the indus...

Last week, Kentucky announced the first round of National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure grant recipients. Sixteen projects submitted by six entities are now funded with $10.9 million in tax payer dollars. While I agree this is good for EV promotion and adoption, I was a little dismayed when a map of said projects showed an obvious lack of development east of Interstate 75, allowing eastern Kentu...

Is Tesla really that much better or just that far ahead? Elon Musk and his engineers did not invent the electric car. Steve Jobs and his engineers did not invent the cellular telephone. So why are Tesla and iPhone synonymous with EVs and cell phones? They’re not the only manufacturers, right? I think the biggest reason that these two companies have such a market share is not because they were the...

Patience is Cumbersome. That pretty much sums up this entire episode in three words. As we resume our discussion of the road trip recently taken by the Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, the author of the NPR article , Camila Domonoske, makes her arguments for why non-Tesla EVs have a “road trip problem”. First, she sees planning a road trip as cumbersome. Second, there is a lack of infrastru...

Secretary of Energy, Jennifer Granholm, set out on a whistle stop tour of the south east to promote EVs and EV adoption recently. Embedded in her caravan was an NPR reporter, who, like Madame Secretary, is a long time EV owner. The four day trip covered several stops for town hall style meetings from Charlotte, North Carolina to Memphis, Tennessee. Everything was business as usual, until a local s...

At 9:30 AM, the meeting started. Brent was attending in person and I remotely from my kitchen. Unbeknownst to me, Brent was supposed to be in the first half and I was supposed to be in the second half of the day long informational session. These things are typically conducted in a less than artful or entertaining way. After I realized the first half didn’t pertain to me, I excused myself and rejoi...

This episode is based on a Canadian F-150 Lightning owner and his bad experience on a recent road trip. More accurately, it is a discussion of a “hit piece” put out by Fox Business trying to tarnish electric vehicles’ worthiness in the marketplace and dissuade readers from purchasing EVs. It’s not the first time Fox has put out such content. So the basics of the story are as follows: a gentleman i...

Last week we discussed the BMW tweet where they called everyone “boomers”. We found out after the fact that the article was almost two years old but we thought the question they asked was still valid and relevant- “What’s your reason not to change?” After much thought, the answers to such a question are varied. Perhaps the idea of being an early adopter (yes, it’s still early) seems daunting and y...

An article came to our attention that we thought was recent only to find out that it was from Fall 2020. That being said, it was a good article regarding a marketing campaign that BMW launched to showcase their new EV line up, replacing their previous offerings of the i8 performance hybrid and the i3; both of which are now discontinued. BMW has 10 years of experience in the EV market place. They a...

This episode is just a wrap up of EVolveKY’s EV education event hosted in conjunction with the Laurel County Kiwanis Club. There was a bevy of EVs from A to Z (Nissan Ariya to many other Zero emission vehicles.) Ben and Brent discuss their impressions and take aways from the event.

It’s the end of an era. Lamborghini, one of the most iconic sports car companies ever, after 60 years of business, has announced they will no longer be making strictly internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles. Instead, they will focus on electrifying their fleet starting with the Revuelto plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV). Interestingly enough, Revuelto is a famous Spanish fighting bull, whi...

EVs are the “in” thing. Most manufacturers are scrambling to get electric models to market. Some are dipping their toe into the water. Some are going full-blown cannonball from the 10 meter platform into the EV pool. Five or six years ago when I (Ben) began educating myself on EVs, I was part of a focus group organized to chart the future of EV adoption and to craft policies for the cooperatives i...

Today, we are discussing Elon Musk. The guy is a freaky genius and looks at the world differently than most. His contribution to the EV world is his legacy (that, and PayPal… SpaceX… etc.), however his controversial take over of Twitter may tarnish the way history will forever look at him. Like him or hate him, we wouldn’t be as far along as we are if not for Elon. Now, he’s offering his patents l...

A startup called Ample is working with Fisker to create battery exchange stations for EVs that would rival traditional gas stations in speed and convenience. They can be constructed quickly and may be a better use of taxpayer dollars going toward infrastructure were it not for one thing: A lack of standardization in the EV world. The automotive industry has standardized many things in the name of...

The United States Department of Energy awarded 20 companies government loans totaling $2.8 billion to boost battery production in the United States. Texas-based Microvast was one of those companies and they announced plans to build a $500+ million dollar facility here in Kentucky which would create more than 500 jobs. Kentucky joined the cause offering $21 million in tax incentives to Microvast. A...

If I told you the Hummer EV was less efficient and produced more greenhouse emissions than a Tesla Model 3, would you be surprised? If I told you the Hummer EV was less efficient and produced more greenhouse emissions than a gasoline powered Chevy Malibu, would you be surprised? Today, we look at what probably started out as a cautionary tale that all EVs are not created equally, but that should c...