The afternoon of December 30, 2016, was a rainy one in Southern California. I remember when we used to have those. It was also the day I drove a Bolt EV off the lot of my local Chevrolet dealership. It was the very first one they sold.
I’ve had the Soul EV for approximately one month, driven it for 3,000 km (1,900 miles), and … have been lovin’ it!
If, like me, you charge up your vehicle in public places, I am sure you will be familiar with what I am about to describe. I do my public charging at motorway service areas here in the UK. These are always busy. The car park is always nearly full, and there is a constant stream of people moving towards and away from the main doors, which lead to and from the restaurants, shops, and other public facilities.
As I noted a moment ago, I recently took a small risk, faced a short freakout, and then made it through my first Tesla software update. The reason I cut it close on the timing and installed the update was that it was a fun Christmas one that I knew my older daughter (3 years old) would love.
Some other members of our Tesla Shuttle team installed Tesla software updates on our Model S earlier in the year, but the first time I personally did so was the day after Christmas (or 2nd day of Christmas as some people call it). I was a little uncertain whether to do the update at that time — we needed to leave approximately 2 hrs later and the car said it would take 1 hour and 40 minutes. Additionally, I was a little concerned about how much energy it might take. We had an 85% charge but quite a ways to drive. “How much energy does a Tesla software update take?” I had never thought to ask and didn’t recall seeing this information somewhere, so I searched online. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find an answer.
We’ve been conducting electric vehicle reviews for years, but we really stepped it up in 2017. Much thanks in particular is owed to Kyle Field and Nicolas Zart, both of who have written a ton of EV review articles this year. Thanks are also due to Cynthia Shahan, Steve Hanley, Jose Pontes, and several guest contributors and less frequent writers who have also contributed articles. And I’ve admittedly been having fun with a long-term review of the Tesla Model S, which began around the time Kyle’s ended.
In part 1 of this Chanje electric van review, we looked at the Chanje electric van’s background and some of its features. In this second part, we take a look at what Chanje brings to the table for fleet owners if they turn from simple vehicles operators to energy management and vehicle coordination. Chanje is a game changer, and this time, pun intended.
Over at CleanTechnica, we’re always excited to see something new, something smart, and something designed clean from the ground up. Enter center stage, the Chanje electric van. The Chanje electric van is a serious fleet industry game changer in more ways than seems obvious.
The Awair Glow is a tiny, night light–sized appliance that brings smart air quality monitoring to your home. It doesn’t stop there, as it is also able to trigger actions to correct the issues. Awair sent us over a unit to review, so we took it for a spin over the course of a couple of weeks.
In this last sneak peek of the 2017 LA Auto Show, we take a quick look at the Porsche Panamera plug-in hybrid (PHEV), the Hyundai IONIQ, and Volkswagen’s distant electric van.
