Member Introduction

[Karen]

Hi Everyone,
Karen here. Thanks to everyone on this forum who helped with persuasive info to get my better half on board with purchasing the Rav4. Now that we have it he is completely sold and drives it whenever he can. This forum is a wealth of information.
We were spending over $700 a month on gas with me doing the "worst" kind of driving - Lots of in town driving and 'stop and go' and waiting in lines for car pick up at school. I am always shuttling someone to or from baseball practice or dance. We live in Moorpark in Ventura County. Under warranty Honda replaced the bottom half of my engine at 99k miles on my 2007 Odyssey. It runs great but the gas mileage just dropped off a cliff. It gets around 14MPG city and 20-21 highway. With over 127k miles on it now it doesn't have a lot of value but it is loaded with all the gadgets (DVD, Navigation and leather) and so we are keeping it to be our trip car or distance car. It's so odd that it can do so poorly with just me in the car driving around town and yet with five people and luggage and snowboards it can get 20MPG. The Rav4 is my new daily driver and I LOVE IT!!! I have the EV grin!!!
Member Details: Three kids at home (8, 13, 16), two adult kids (28,30) are both married and each has a toddler girl (call me Grandma!!). We purchased our 7.4 kW solar roof system in December. Have a variable speed pump on our salt system pool. Doing our best to "go green". I'm just back from visiting my daughter and son-in-law on Guantanamo Bay, Cuba and was happily surprised to see the Naval Base extensively using solar power along with some electric vehicles and of course the desalinization plant for fresh water.
We bought from DCH Toyota in Simi Valley. I was happy to keep our business local and we also bought our truck from there last year. We were very close to buying from Dianne at Carson Toyota and it was only because Simi matched her price that we bought in Simi and saved ourselves a drive. I was fine with any of the exterior colors.
We bought the Leviton unit from Home Depot- again thanks to this site for posting information and the link - and had it installed on Friday.

Cars: 2012 Rav4 EV Silver, 2007 Honda Odyssey Minivan, 2002 Honda Odyssey Minivan, 2012 Toyota Tacoma

 

[Dsinned]

Welcome to the RAV4 EV forum and glad it was of help to you.

 

[cwerdna]

We were spending over $700 a month on gas with me doing the "worst" kind of driving - Lots of in town driving and 'stop and go' and waiting in lines for car pick up at school. I am always shuttling someone to or from baseball practice or dance. We live in Moorpark in Ventura County. Under warranty Honda replaced the bottom half of my engine at 99k miles on my 2007 Odyssey. It runs great but the gas mileage just dropped off a cliff. It gets around 14MPG city and 20-21 highway. With over 127k miles on it now it doesn't have a lot of value but it is loaded with all the gadgets (DVD, Navigation and leather) and so we are keeping it to be our trip car or distance car. It's so odd that it can do so poorly with just me in the car driving around town and yet with five people and luggage and snowboards it can get 20MPG. The Rav4 is my new daily driver and I LOVE IT!!! I have the EV grin!!!

Welcome aboard!

Regarded the bolded portions, I'm guessing your around town driving involved a lot of short drives which is killer on mileage (fuel usage is high on a cold engine). The around town and stop and go driving involves energy all being thrown away as heat and brake dust and yet the vehicle expended a whole bunch of energy just to get you up to speed. The stop and go and waiting in lines == 0 mpg while stopped w/the engine idling uselessly.

So, I don't find it 14 mpg city vs. 20 mpg highway odd at all. Your highway trip is likely much longer (so, engine is warmed up the most of the time), there's less energy being thrown away by braking, less energy wasted in accelerating from a dead stop and less energy idling uselessly.

At least w/EVs (and hybrids), you can recapture some of the energy that would otherwise be wasted when braking, via regen and you don't have engine uselessly idling and burning fuel while stopped.

If you're going to drive an ICEV on the fuel hungry trips, you should consider trying some of the safe, legal and free basic techniques at http://www.cleanmpg.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1510 like reducing useless idling and "Drive to your farthest destination first and then as you are heading home, stop at the closer destinations in order from furthest to closest as the car is warmed up for longer portions of your drive." and face-out parking.

If you have to back out of a parking spot w/lots of people behind/around you, you might not be able to do it quickly and you're idling the engine at a time when its fuel consumption ii the highest. If you're facing out, you can get out more quickly. When parking, even if it takes more time to back in, your engine is at a period of lower consumption.

 

[mudpie]

Hi,

I'm Dave and I have a little boy and girl. We live in Fremont, near the Tesla factory.

I'm semi-green with solar PV since 2006 and a natural-gas powered Civic since 2010. I cancel all of that treehugging goodness with a Honda Pilot AWD and a hugely modified barely legal Subaru WRX.

I've been a Tesla fan (and reservation holder, and shareholder) since they splashed their Roadster concept on the cover of Wired magazine years ago.
I could possibly afford a (stripped, small-battery, no-option, lease-returned, salvage) Model S if I gave up on eating out, or eating at all :lol:
When I heard about the Tesla-powered RAV4 EV for 40% off, it was the perfect and practical compromise to starving to death while driving a Model S.

Just ordered a 2013 shoreline blue RAV4 EV for delivery as soon as tomorrow (hopefully!) and I've already ordered 'powered by TESLA' license plate frames and 'TESLA Inside' stickers, plus a hitch for my bike rack -- from now on we won't burn 3 gallons of gas driving somewhere to ride our clean green bicycles for a few miles!

 

[AvLegends]

Welcome Dave!

 

[snoltor]

Hi, Steve here.

I introduced myself earlier in this post, but couldn't resist posting again to say I just picked up my 2012. First drive was 79 miles from the dealer to my home. Glad I am finally on the road! Next up I have to buy a HeatShield sun shade.

 

[AvLegends]

Congratulations! Now you have the EV grin!

 

[mikegerard]

Hi all-

I've posted on here a few times but not in the introduction section.

I'm Mike and I have a white RAV4 EV on the way to me. I'm in Webster, NY. I bought the car from Dianne at Carson Toyota and have to say it was pretty easy. I will have to do some of the legwork (getting registration and plates) but she made the process as quick and painless as possible.

I've been playing with Entune and have seen the vehicle bouncing around southern CA (loading other cars on the truck). Tonight it got on the 15 towards Vegas and right now it's halfway to Vegas. Hopefully I'll see it late next week!

I was really interested in the RAV4 EV when it was first announced in 2010 but the initial price and lack of local availability scared me off. This year I have been following green.autoblog.com and saw that there was a 10k incentive on the RAV4 EV. At first I did not look into it since I knew it was only for sale in CA. Then I started googling around and ended up here. After seeing that there were people out of state buying it the light bulb turned on!

I ran some numbers and the 10 year cost of the RAV4 EV will be less than buying another Camry. And it's just about the only electric car big enough to seat my family of 5 and bring some gear with us. Throw in the Tesla drivetrain and it's a no brainer. I may be the first in New York with one but I trust Toyota and Tesla engineering. The few issues noted here have been dealt with much better than I would expect from a traditional auto maker.

Mike

 

[RAV4Elly]

Hi Everyone,

My name is Elly. I am married with 5 kids I bought my car at Carson Toyota from Nate. I to like this dealership. I am digging this car. My kids love it. We live in Santa Monica.

Thanks,

Elly

 

[EVMe]

Yo Yo Yo!

Name is Jay and I am super excited to be apart of the exclusive Rav4 EV club! A friend of mine and I just picked up our new '12 EVs this past week in Auburn, CA.

Never thought I'd give up my B8 S4, but I ended up trading in that bad boy for the EV. This car is a absolute paradigm shift for me. Range is perfect for my 70 mile daily commute, and the car is just edgy enough to be fun around town.

Can't wait to learn more about the car, community, and how people are customizing their rides.

Jay

 

[jlhodges]

Greetings everyone! Jim Hodges here in Sacramento. My wife and I knew nothing about EVs until, on a whim, we went to a meeting of the Sacramento EV Owners at SMUD and 24 hours later (May 9) bought a RAV4 EV from Folsom Lake Toyota. We love it.

61 years old, originally from the LA area (Boyle Heights, then Whittier) we've lived in Sacramento since 1980, though we lived 5 1/2 years in San Diego (Kearny Mesa) while my wife was San Diego County's Registrar of Voters (Deborah Seiler). She retired in December 2012 so we're back in Sacto.

Two grown sons. Used to fly and own a Trinidad (20FK, yes, ATC would sometime tease me about our call sign). I'm a consultant for regulatory affairs representing clients in proceedings of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).

Folks on this forum are great. Here are basic concepts I think I've learned from you all.

Guess-O-Meter: The Range number is an estimate based on how you have been driving. The range you achieve depends on how you drive, where you drive, and ambient conditions.

Only 2,600 units: To meet the requirements of CARB ZEV regs. Toyota loses money on each RAV4 EV and is not crazy about the idea of selling more than required to meet ZEV goals.

Planning trips of 100 miles or more (San Francisco, Tahoe, Chico) requires planning similar to the trip planning I used to do with the Trinidad.

My experience: Plenty of charging stations in and between Sacto and SF. Plenty south of the Tehachapi's. Too few everywhere else.

Hope to meet some of you soon.

 

[snoltor]

Hope to meet some of you soon.

Welcome aboard! I live in Davis but work in Sacramento. Bought mine the same day you got yours.

 

[TonyWilliams]

...Used to fly and own a Trinidad (20FK, yes, ATC would sometime tease me about our call sign). I'm a consultant for regulatory affairs representing clients in proceedings of the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).

Welcome to the EV world!!! Interesting background. I used to rent a Trinidad out of a club in the SF Bay Area in the late 1980's / early 90's. I think it was in San Carlos. I've owned a Cessna 172M, 177B, and Beechcraft Baron B55. Used to live in Rancho Cordova in the El Nino winter of 1997-98... I was flying to work in HWD from MHR. I was an air traffic controller at ZOA, SCT and CMA.

I'd love to chew on your ear about CPUC issues someday. If you can get some time off, why not join us on our little EV rally?

 

[jlhodges]

Snoltor: Our older son went to UC Davis undergrad and law school. Now with a firm doing labor and employment law downtown.

Tony: Our younger son is a struggling student at UCSD.

Wow! Oakland then SoCal Tracon then Camarillo. Camarillo must have seemed peaceful by comparison.
I learned to fly fresh out of high school at Brackett Field and Fullerton when there weren't many planes in the LA airspace.
Based our Trinidad at SAC Executive. Was fun. Expensive.

CPUC? Don't get me started.

 

[AvLegends]

Welcome Jim! I fly out of SZP... have been for 33 years! Currently have a C180, Howard DGA-11 and 2 Aeronca 7AC Champs, one is a project. I have been told... "It's not what you own... It's what owns you"

 

[TonyWilliams]

I learned to fly fresh out of high school at Brackett Field and Fullerton when there weren't many planes in the LA airspace.

1986 at NZJ (closed El Toro) and SNA. It was busy then.

 

[Bassman]

Welcome to our little club. I think I talked with you at the Sac EV meeting about my Rav4. You picked a great EV. Sacramento to SF is not a problem on an extended charge, you'll only need to charge in SF and there are a lot of EVSEs there.

 

[jlhodges]

Hello, AvLegends! I saw a t-shirt at an airshow years ago: "If God had meant for Man to fly, he would have given him more money!"

Bassman: Yes, it was you! We didn't even know there was a thing called a RAV4 EV until you told us! My wife and I hold you personally responsible for our crazy impulsive decision to buy it it.

BTW, what, if anything, does "RAV" stand for and were there 3 earlier ones?

 

[Ampster]

Hello, AvLegends! .................
BTW, what, if anything, does "RAV" stand for and were there 3 earlier ones?

Recreational Active Vehicle. It was first introduce in North America in 1996,
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toyota_RAV4

 

[AvLegends]

Hello, AvLegends! I saw a t-shirt at an airshow years ago: "If God had meant for Man to fly, he would have given him more money!"

Yes, we often tell new students "when asked what is it that makes aircraft fly, remember the correct answer is money, not lift".