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Ben Alexander The Solar Nerd
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The song made me think of my girls, Grace and Claire.
Don’t know why, it just did.
I’ve been delving into classical lately, here is another great piece:
There is no downside to listening to classical music, for me it clears the mind, and you can listen while doing other things, like writing, riding a motorcycle, or BASE jumping off a 10 story building.
My buddy John is having surgery today, so I drove out to Morton Plant hospital to see him.
Stopped in the little hospital chapel to pray, took the pic above to remember the moment.
Kind of a rainy crappy Saturday to end 2022… on the radio they were talking about the megamillions lotto getting up to $750 million, so I bought three tickets:
I started thinking about all the stuff I would do if I won a gazillion dollars, charities I could donate to, people I could help, where I would live, etc…
And this gave rise to an interesting thought experiment: a massive amount of money gives us more choices, but in thinking about becoming a multimillionaire I realized that I have similar choices even if I just remain a modest middle class guy…
For instance :::
I decided to cancel my engagement to a lovely woman, because I realized I wanted a partner with different belief systems.
I’m willing to be single for awhile until I find the right woman.
I’ve been thinking about getting into some form of ministry, maybe even going to seminary.
I like doing consulting work / sales coaching… I like the challenge, the engagement, how it adds value to the lives of others.
I want to get really healthy in 2023, slim down, put on muscle, wear the skinny clothes in my closet.
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I don’t need to be a millionaire to do these things, they are all within reach at my current income.
In 2022 I spent more time volunteering than in any other year of my life… and I had the highest year of income in my life.
Go figure.
Olga and Vlada have been living with me since June, and I’m glad I could help them out during this season of our lives.
Just a year ago I knew nothing about Ukraine, I had rarely fired a gun, my life was different.
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My friend Marcus became a father in 2022:
That’s Apollo, he’s gonna become President of The United States someday.
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I’m glad I can be here for Olga and Vlada, they’ve had a rough time since they fled Kyiv (with Russian missiles falling on the city).
I’ve always thought that the best things in life are the odd surprises, those plot twists of life that no one could foresee.
In 2023 I’m going to keep putting good karma OUT THERE, and I hope there are more unexpected surprises!
And if I win the $700 gazillion dollar lottery?
I’m gonna disappear off the face of the earth and only 3 people will have my number!
My house now, with a red plug-in Volt and a grey gas-powered Acura.
By 2030 most households will have an older gas powered car and a newer EV.
This past week I test drove the Volkswagon ID4 and really liked it.
The all wheel drive model has a 250 mile range, and when I mentioned this to friends they always ask about roadtrips and running out of range.
Thing is… I only drive more than 200 miles in one day less than 1% of the time.
Tesla has a really large network of chargers for Tesla drivers, but other EV’s have to use 3rd party companies like Electrify America or ChargePoint to charge on the road.
Some car companies give you free charging for 2 years on the Electrify America network when you buy a new car.
There are not enough Electrify America chargers to make charging possible everywhere, but in the next 5 years more chargers will be built, especially when (in a recent survey) 36% of American drivers have said they have an interest in electric cars.
Meanwhile?
I think most folks will keep an older gas powered car for longer trips.
I have an 2015 Acura with a 3.5 liter V6…
My Chevy Volt uses gas as well, but if it was full electric I’d use the Acura for longer trips.
Here’s the thing… most EV drivers will recharge at home, in 6 years owning a Volt I’ve only charged it away from home a few times. Of course, I have a large solar array on my roof, so charging at home is effectively free.
How many times do you charge your cell phone away from home? Not that often, right?
Within the next five years more chargers will be built, and EV ranges will increase to 400+ miles.
Hotels will install more EV charge stations for overnight guests.
At Tampa Bay Solar we are marketing rooftop solar and EV charge stations to hotel owners right now.
Like any new technology there will be an adjustment, when cell phones came out in the 1990’s there were dead zones on major highways, but as cell phones became mainstream the cell carriers put up thousands of relay towers to cover most of the United States.
As EV sales become MORE common than gas powered cars we will see EV chargers at every business, in most parking lots, all over the United States.
OK… I gotta go buy food for my bigh Christmas Eve BASH tomorrow night….
There are 2 versions of the VW ID4, one is rear wheel drive with a 190hp electric motor… I test drove it back in 2021 and really liked it…
… but I wanted to test drive the all wheel drive 290hp version, and I got to do that yesterday.
I would not buy a car with less than 200 horsepower, not unless I was broke, homeless and had no other options.
I’ve owned 2 plug-in electric vehicles, a 2013 Chevy Volt and my current 2017 Chevy Volt (with 130,000 miles on it).
The Volt can also run on gas, but the car is far superior on full electric mode; smooth, really quiet, really zippy off the line.
I’ve test driven different Tesla Models, the Chevy Bolt, even the Fisker….
BY FAR my favorite is the all wheel drive 290hp Volkswagon ID4.
TWO electric motors, one for each axel. Awesome power delivery. No torque steer.
My other car is a 2015 Acura with a 290hp V6, so driving a gas powered car with 290hp back to back with a full electric rated with the same horsepower is a really interesting way to compare apples to apples.
The Volkswagon wins, hands down. Smoother than any gas powered car, much faster off the line, quiet as hell.
My good ole Acura has to row through the gears, slowly shifting up to speed.
Gas engines are great above 70 mph, but there is so much drama to get there.
Gas makes a car clunky.
With an electric drivetrain acceleration is effortless, like a magic carpet ride on steroids.
I merged onto the freeway and hit 90mph in the ID4 like it was nothing.
THIS is the future, anyone who test drives the ID4 will not want to go back to a gas powered anything.
Full electric is just better, gas powered cars are yesterday’s technology, no matter how much they refine gas engines, smooth out the transmission… electric feels better.
It’s more fun to drive.
BUT and this is a huge BUTT, like on the people at Walmart…. a quick YouTube search reveals that the VW ID4 has a ton of software glitches.
Dumb stuff that a billion dollar company like VW should have fixed before they let the car out of the factory.
One solution?
VW should make their software developers drive the ID4 until the glitches are fixed.
If they do that I’ll trade my beat up Volt for a couple of grand and pick up an ID4.
Meanwhile? I might check out the Hyundai Ioniq 5 or the Kia EV6.
I’ll write about it, fer sure.
Now I gotta go shopping for my Christmas Eve party!
Ben Alexander Solar Sales Consulting. 