-
I bought a Russian off-roader to convert to electricity!
Something I’ve been wanting to do ever since I converted my old Mitsubishi Tredia to run on batteries (link) back in 2007 is finally happening! I’m going to convert another car to run on electricity – but this time it’s different. It’s a 1982 Lada Niva from the Soviet Union! After my first electric vehicle conversion […]
-
I bought a new car!
Good news! I’ve moved back to New Zealand temporarily and… wait for it… I’ve just bought a new car! It’s sexy, stylish, sporty, and made by the same company which makes the Kona and Ioniq electric vehicles! So, without further delay, here it comes! I know, I know, it’s just too sexy for the Internet, […]
-
The end of an era.
It’s the end of an era: the Kiwi EV has been sold. The obvious question now is: what car will take its place? It seems like only yesterday when I brought home a shiny, red 2011 Peugeot iOn electric car. It was my second electric car, after converting an old Mitsubishi to run on batteries back […]
-
My electric car ran out of electricity!
Are you thinking of buying a used electric car? If so, the first thing you should check is the condition of the battery. My faithful electric car is almost eight years old and – let’s not beat around the bush – it has lost a fair chunk of its battery capacity since it rolled off […]
-
Installing a kitchen in my electric car
I love going camping, but I don’t love leaving my creature comforts behind. So, to solve this problem, I’ll be installing a kitchen in my electric car! The problem is… where to put it. I realised that if I’m going to do this, I need to do this properly, with all the creature comforts of […]
-
Electric cars, electric bikes, and racing the train!
Summer’s back! This means changing back to summer tyres, removing the dieseasel air heater, and enjoying the fact that winter is long gone. Ahhh, longer days, more electric car range, and enjoying the great outdoors. All those things would be possible, if only winter hadn’t returned with a dumping of snow two weeks later… Fortunately […]
-
Battery costs, stickers, and a winter road trip.
“You’ll have to replace your battery every three years in an electric car,” screamed the naysayers. “The batteries will be thrown in a landfill,” they yelled, pretending to care about the environment in an attempt help their pro-coal, pro-oil arguments. Fast forward a few years and we’re all laughing at how crazy those anti-electric car […]
-
Making the diesel heater remote controlled
I did it! I made my diesel heater remote controlled! It was actually pretty easy, too! I like my little diesel heater. It works well and costs essentially nothing to operate, using around 500ml of diesel every week. The only downside is that it takes about 15 minutes to warm the car up when it’s below […]
-
Installing a diesel parking heater
Say what you will about internal combustion engines, but they produce a lot of heat for beating those winter chills. This means that I’ve mostly been warm for my 20+ years of driving and when I adopted my current electric car I just wasn’t prepared to give up comfort for the sake of extra range. […]
-
Cats, carpet and heating ideas
In this latest chapter of my electric car adventures, I dive into the world of heating In this latest chapter of my electric car adventures, I dive into the world of winter heating… without using electricity. But first, I needed to remove some “apple juice” that this adorable stowaway had installed into the carpet. Yes, to my […]
-
Unlocking hidden options!
My car has now turned five years old! This is interesting for two reasons: 1: It’s still running fine on the original battery pack. This is surprising because according to obnoxious electric car critics from years ago, “Ya’ll need to replace ’em batteries every three years in one of ’em new-fangled electrical cars! Mark my words!” […]
-
Taking a road trip to Ukraine
It’s been a few weeks since my last update on living with my electric car as there hasn’t been much to report on and electric cars don’t have much to fix or maintain so things have been quiet. In fact, a little too quiet… until 15 cars from eTourEurope arrived to recharge in Bratislava. eTourEurope […]
-
Winter!
To be fair, the above picture isn’t actually winter. It was taken while Veronika and I enjoyed a trip to New Zealand in December 2015 in order to experience Christmas time in the summer once again – the way Christmas should be. I also had the opportunity to test-drive a brand new BMW i3 with […]
-
Damage, data, and preparing the electric car for winter
Winter has arrived to Slovakia, bringing rain, sleet, snow and short days. However something else arrived which I was really looking forward to: my new high-speed, bluetooth OBDII adapter! As you’ll remember, I had a bit of bad luck with my last two connectors, as I didn’t know that they needed to be high speed devices. […]
-
Time for a road trip!
I decided to escape the city to spend a night nice in Banská Bystrica, a city in central Slovakia, 227 kilometres (141 miles) away from Bratislava. I decided to take the back roads to get to our first charging point in a city called Nitra because I was afraid taking the highway would drain the battery too much. […]
-
My unlucky electric car journey
The car needed it’s 40,000 kilometre service, so I took it into the Peugeot dealer and they really serviced it thoroughly. They changed almost everything you can change on an electric car: Plastic scuff-guard (free as part of a factory recall). Brake fluid. Pollen filter. Yep, they replaced three whole things… All three of them. Normally, […]
-
New stereo and subwoofer in the electric car
The stereo that came with the electric car was too boring for my tastes and I planned on replacing it with a cooler system. This plan turned into reality when I removed the stereo plug one evening to check the cable. When I reconnected the plug, the stereo asked for a code which I didn’t […]
-
Living with an electric car
It’s been 10 days since I brought my Peugeot iOn electric car home and this has given me enough time to learn about the technology behind the car, as well its limitations. Interestingly, my Peugeot iOn is actually identical to the Citroen C-Zero, which are both actually Mitsubishi i-MiEVs with different badges. All three cars are […]
-
Woohoo! I bought an electric car again!
Finally I own an EV again! After years of wanting another electric car, and almost two years of saving every cent, I just bought an electric car! I really did it! It’s 100% electric and it’s 100% mine! I’m truly gob-smacked (and very lucky) to have bought this awesome little electric car. As you can see […]