Tuesday, January 16, 2018

The Arcimoto FUV, Fun, Affordable and 1/10th The CO2e Emissions Of A Gas Car.


If you’re serious about emission reductions ( I am with every breath I take ) as a principle benefit of EV’s, what follows should cause you to slightly gasp for cleaner air.

Emissions 
The Arcimoto FUV has 1/10th the emissions of a typical car.


The EPA rates new car emissions at 359 g/mi.
For an average 12,000 miles per year of driving, this translates to 9498 pounds of CO2e emissions.   

The plug in electric Arcimoto FUV will use 1,778 kwh’s to travel the same 12,000 miles.  In the SDG&E service area with 43% renewables in on the grid, the 2016 emissions intensity is 533 pounds of CO2e per MWH.  The Arcimoto using grid electricity emits 948 pounds of CO2e emissions per year.  Of course if you power by solar as I do, or other renewables, it’s a total zero emissions solution.  (Data here)

9498 pounds of emission for an average personal car.
  948 pounds of emissions for an Arcimoto FUV.

Ownership cost

Owning and operating a typical new vehicle in 2017 will cost a driver an average of $8,469 annually, or $706 each month, according to a 2017 study from AAA.  Much of that is depreciation and fuel cost.  (Data here)  

The Arcimoto FUV will more than halve the typical ownership cost, saving a typical family $4,500 to $5,500 per year,  per vehicle.     

Solar Powered Driving in the Arcimoto


I've been "Driving on Sunshine" now for 10 years, powered by our 8.5kw Solar PV system which provides 13,000 kwh's of electricity of which 5,500 is used by our two electric BMW i3s. 

When I do the sunshine math for the Arcimoto, it's staggeringly cheap to power by sunshine.  1kw of solar PV will produce about 1650 Kwh of electricity a year in our region.  That's enough juice to drive the Arcimoto FUV about 10,000 miles a year. 

Typical cost is $3000 for the 1kw Solar PV system (usually part of a lager system)  warranted for 25 years.  Simple math works out to $120 a year (less than most pay for one month of gasoline) or $10 a month in energy cost, less if you can arbitrage time of use rates.  Think of it as your own private sungas filling station, either 110 or 240 octane :)

Moonshots

Moonshots are doing something that is not just slightly better than what currently exist, but rather, doing something that is 10X ahead of the standard of the current day.  To do this, you don’t refine what already exist…you start with a bold vision and a blank piece of paper. 

So few pioneers risk and work endlessly to get to look out that “window of their vision” onto reality. Congratulations to Arcimoto, an Eugene Oregon based company that has achieved this "vision to reality" moonshot.  A company that is now delivering the first several Signature Series FUV’s to retail customers and later this year to the first few thousand-reservation holders.   Much work ahead but the first one is out the door :)

First Signature Series delivered to a retail customer

It's a "Resort Fun" like experience driving the FUV and extremely practical for the majority of errands around town similar to a two seat sports car... but more fun.  It's not that it can't be your only car, but more likely it will replace a second or third car in the family saving that family 4-5k a year.

Commuting, ride and delivery services such as Uber Eats,  beach cruiser rentals for coastal hotels and shared vehicles for large parking impacted workplaces are some of the uses for the Arcimoto FUV which fills less than half the space of a car with 1/10th the emissions.

The simple math of parking twice as many Arcimoto's as compared to cars at impacted parking lots will send civic planners into a frenzy of thought. Add to that future autonomous transport and Roomba like self charging and well, you have a new transportation reality.

I can't wait to have one in my typical "4 FUV" garage.
For more information and specifications of the FUV go to: www.arcimoto.com


Cheers
Peder