It was the 12th of April. I had waited exactly 3 years and 12 days. That morning, like many before it, I checked the Danish locale of the Tesla Model 3 configurator and there it was: the Standard Range Plus ready to order.
From backpacking in the local canyons and beaches to as far out as Shanghai, China, my Voltaic Array Solar Backpack has kept everything nicely charged halfway around the world.
We are used to software updates on our phones, but cars that require software updates are still somewhat of a novelty. Until Tesla came along and shattered that paradigm, cars were more like appliances that, once they rolled off the production line, didn’t evolve much in functionality, safety, or technology. … [continued]
Normally, as journalists, we report on things others are doing or offer our opinion in op-eds about current events. This issue is a lot more personal than usual, and I wanted to disclose that right up front. I am the owner of an early 2018 Nissan LEAF, and this petition is my petition.
There are plenty of misconceptions running around about Chinese car quality. But with many ancient artifacts that survived thousands of years buried in the elements, it’s no wonder the Chinese can also deliver the level of quality displayed at the 2019 Shanghai auto show. Is China getting closer to the US market in terms of quality with new, smarter EV startups?
Of the three e-bicycles I have been traveling on, the GenZe offers the most in terms of exercise. Even on the full electric assist, I find myself pumping and circulating my blood more than with the others. I love all of them for their electric assist, but one of the reasons I prefer to bicycle is for exercise. I was getting too complacent and lacking that exercise, so I felt that along with preventing emissions, I could save my body and brain from more rapid degeneration.
Sometimes, in order to find the truth that we did not find from facts, statistics, or specifications, we need to step aside and look at a topic in a different way and from a different angle. That’s what this love letter is about – it’s about experiencing a new perspective.
This is the story of a 1200 mile journey taken in what’s basically the wrong car for the job. I decided to test the 2018 LEAF to the limits, in several different ways. Rapid charging repeatedly, going up one of the steepest interstate highway climbs in the US, some off-highway driving, and long journeys into places with no charging stations were just a few of the things I decided to take on. I thought that after more than a year with the car and almost 50,000 miles on the odometer I knew what the LEAF was made of, but it turned out that I still had more to learn.
Where did we leave off? Yes, it was that memorable night walk in the streets of Venice with Uncle Google. The plan was simple – charge up where you can and wander around sightseeing the north of Italy while heading towards Rome. Things never seem to go as planned, so right after we left — somewhere near Ravenna — one of the motorbikes in our team broke. It simply refused to go any further.
The sunny crew over at Voltaic build some of the coolest portable solar + storage solutions out there. We were impressed with the functionality and build quality of their OffGrid Solar + Storage backpack when we reviewed in it 2017 so we were excited when they reached out to us about reviewing their Arc 20W Solar Laptop Charger Kit. We are always on the go and on our laptops, so the prospect of pulling in power from the sun with a kit designed to charge laptops up was exciting.
