Hurricane Irene Recap: 2 Electric Cars, No Power? No Problem!

By Michael Thwaite

Michael Thwaite

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2,952 views Sep 6, 2011

Filling up the Mini E at the gas station; photo, Michael Thwaite

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We’re just back from vacation in the U.K., where we witnessed third-hand--through the eyes of the British media--the carnage and horrors that were about to befall the east coast of the United States.

In other words, we got to watch Hurricane Irene rip its way through North Carolina just before we jumped on an airplane headed home to New Jersey.

When we arrived we were elated to find that there was no physical or water damage to our home, or those of our friends and neighbors. Our hearts go out to those less fortunate.

What we did find is that we were out of power; Irene had taken it away. We resisted the urge to chase off after her and demand its return. Instead, we focused on how to power up the house and the cars.

Yes, we’d left our two electric cars at a low state of charge. Why? Well, Tesla recommends that any extended time spent without the car in use should be done in what they call ‘Storage Mode’.

Hurricane Irene

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Lithium-ion batteries last longest at a modest state of charge in a cool environment, and that's what storage mode delivers. You run your car's charge level down to about 20 percent, then leave it plugged in for the duration of your vacation. How much life is gained is unclear; remember, we’re still in the early days of battery discovery.

Being a believer in science and the word of the Tesla engineers, I’d left both my 2010 Tesla Roadster and our 2009 MINI E in the same charge state: low. Not such a great plan when the power is out and the prognosis from the power company is, "We cannot say. Is there anything else that I can help you with today?"

Polite, but the 800-pound gorilla in the room--mobility--was really the only thing I had on my mind.

Some years ago we’d bought a small generator to deal with some power problems. I’d wired it in and fired it up just moments before the power returned back then.

Well, every dog has its day--and this week was our generator's day. A few tugs on the cord and it fired up, to join the cacophony from its peers around our neighborhood. Its exhaust joined in with the stink as well.

21st-century fill-up for 2010 Tesla Roadster; photo, Michael Thwaite

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I probably sound like a broken record but, after two years of gasoline-free transportation, internal combustion stinks! The exhaust gets on your clothes, and the fuel, good grief, the fuel. I slopped some on my hand, and simply couldn’t get it clean. I scrubbed and scrubbed, and it still smelled days later.

Oh, and rolling into the gas station in an electric car to buy more gasoline? Not something I ever anticipated doing.

But, back to the problem. With the house power back, sort of, courtesy of the generator, what about the cars? And therein lay a problem. Electric cars are very sensitive to the power coming in, and the charging software looks carefully for any weakness in the current or minor fluctuation in the frequency. Nothing but pure fresh outlet power will do.

The noisy voltage fluctuations and stutters from a small generator meant the cars dropped the charging connection like a hot brick. Maintaining any kind of constant feed was near impossible, not to mention that fuel consumption skyrocketed with the cars hooked up to the generator.

At this point, I considered reaching for the telephone: "Dear car rental company, what have you got?"

But, where’s the pioneer spirit in that? Sherpa Tenzing didn’t decide, "Oh, let’s just hire a helicopter." Nor did Andy Holland of Imperial College's Racing Green Endurance team say, "Me and the lads are flying down to South America instead."

No, it was a challenge. If those guys can climb unscaled mountains or cover continents in absurdly low-sprung electric racing cars, I could last a few days with my electric cars.