A beautyful LEAF Tour on Natchez Trace Pkwy

We started out on our LEAF Tour in our Nissan LEAF at the Loveless Caffee at the northern tip of Natchez Trace Parkway, to top off the 3 bars used to get here from our home in Nashville. It took about 1 hour to top off, while we where eating one of there great Bar-B-Q platters. After wich my wife went shopping the stores here and I offered answers to inquiring minds about my LEAF hooked up to the BLINK L2 charger provided by Loveless Cafee. I reset the trip meter B to capture the miles driven on our leaf tour along the parkway @ 40 m/h we ended up at Whole Foods for a dinner w. LEAF at 25 miles left on the GOM, so we drove 79 miles since we left Loveless.

Cracker Barrel Nashville, TN installing BLINK L3 Chargers now!

Well just took a nice Sunday Lunch at the Cracker Barrel at the Stewards Ferry store and discovered an almost ready to go BLINK high speed L3 fast charger installed and two spots for L2 chargers, this is the most exciting News since the official statement by CB from last year.

Here you see the Power Supply / Transformer Cabinet that feeds the 480 Volt to the L3 and the 240 V to the L2 Blink Chargers.

And for those that don’t know much about Cracker Barrel 🙂 her is a picture of the store front. I also spoke with the Manager of this store and he is very exited about this addition to there business line, he told me that they will definitely put up good signage, and also adopt a policy that will notify the ICE owners know that there cars will be towed at owners expense if they decide to park in these spots.

…now I am hungry too, BLINK also has charger at Smoke House

After all the exitement an the photo shoot, and the interviews, I finaly realized that my Nissan LEAF is not the only hungry guy around here, so I followed Mr. BLINK’s suggestion and go on across the Intdrstate and enjoy some great Country Cooking at Smoke House.
Plus because they have 1 BLINK charger on site my LEAF can get some more juice too.

WOW this was fun, and finaly up the mountain, with 4 miles left on the GOM

The last strech from Manchester up the mountain was beautifull and lots of fun!
Speed limit is set to 35 but every on drove 50 or so on the part of the road that is on foot of the mountain.
So as I approached the first bend going up the hill, this old Audi 5000 was going 20 m/h up the hill, after the 3 turn and straight ahead I did the “kick-down” and passed the cat standinv still, you should have seen the look on there faces 🙂
Up the curvey road I never left the 40 m/h mark, this Nissan LEAF, had just as much fun as I did.
At the top behind the City Hall, where the two BLINK chargers as promissed, then my LEAF was hungry and the GOM only showed 4 m/kWh.
We where greated by BLINK and the mayor of Monteagle, who in turn where very happy to se me show up as well as representative from the Nissan Plant here in Monteagle.

…up the mountain, almost there on my way to Monteagle

On my way up Monteagle the GOM of my Nissan LEAF showed only 21 miles but I would have to go 22 on a steep grade. When I left this morning @ 6:30 AM I had only charged it short of 30 minutes to have a full 100% charge, so I would have some “space” in the Battery to regenerate from using breaking in city traffic. Well I probably would have had enough if I would have charged all the way to 100%.
But I did plan to stop over at one of the 3 locations available on my trip to the Monteagle Ribbon Cutting Event for the 2 BLINK L2 chargers, so I decided to go all the way to the last one before the upclime at Roberts Nissan in Manchester, TN.
As you can see going highway as oppose to Interstate pays off, I got there with 4.6 m/kWh going all the way speed limit. I charged only 30 minutes (about 11 extra miles), to “hopefully” have enough to make it up the hill.
…2 b continued…

Nashville’s Plug In Day event big success

We had a great turn-out, today on National Plug In Day @ our sponsor’s Office location in Nashville, TN today. A total of 22 EVs showed up 21 Nissan LEAF and yes 1 Chevy Volt. We shared our enthusiasim with about 12 guest and members of the great volunteers of our host Schneider Electric. Also Nissan supported our efforts today with a representative of the charging infrastructure. As a special guest we could also enjoy the presents of ecotality’s sales manager to answer questions regarding the EV-Project’s success.
We learned that the first L3 high speed charger is currently being installed at the Lebanon Cracker Barell Store. This site could turn out to be our next gathering point for the Metro Nashville LEAF owners.
We are all very exited about growing number of people that show their interest in a greener more sustainable future of driving.

The Town of Monteagle gets Plugged In celebrating National Plug In Day on Monday

The Town of Monteagle gets Plugged In
 
Monteagle, TN – The Town of Monteagle is celebrating National Plug In Day on Monday, October 17 at 10:00 am with a ribbon cutting ceremony for their new Blink electric vehicle (EV) charging station received through The EV Project. The charging station will be located in front of Hannah Pickett Park behind Monteagle City Hall.  Everyone is welcome to attend the ribbon cutting and hear about the new environmentally friendly addition to Monteagle’s infrastructure.
The EV Project, which officially launched October 1, 2009, is the largest deployment of EVs and charge infrastructure in history. ECOtality, project manager for The EV Project, is deploying approximately 14,000 Blink chargers in 18 major cities and metropolitan areas located in six states and the District of Columbia: California, Oregon, Washington, Arizona, Texas, Tennessee, and Washington, D.C.
Monteagle was strategically chosen to compliment the charging infrastructure triangle between Nashville, Knoxville and Chattanooga. Monteagle will have three local charging stations. Visit www.ecotatlity.com for more details on The EV Project.
Contact Monteagle City Hall @ 931-924-2265 for more information on the ribbon cutting.

Location:

16 Dixie Lee Ave

Monteagle, TN 37356

Mayor of Hendersonville: “Electric cars have made it to Hendersonville!”

Electric cars have made it to Hendersonville!

You are invited to the Ribbon Cutting to introduce the world of electric car charging stations to Hendersonville!

This will mark the kick-off of National Plug-In Day.

WHEN: Sunday, October 16, 1:00 pm
WHERE: McDonalds, 258 Indian Lake Blvd, Hendersonville, TN 37075

See attached agenda for details.

Don Long
Mayoral Assistant
Director of Economic & Community Development
City of Hendersonville
101 Maple Drive North
Hendersonville TN 37075
(615) 349-6768 cell
dlong@hvilletn.org
http://www.hvilletn.org

And Here’s the Agenda:

Tennessee Region
Stephanie Cox, Stakeholder Services Area Manager – Tennessee
(615) 504-4928
scox@etecevs.com
Electric Car Charging Stations have made it to Hendersonville!
National Plug In Day Event
McDonald’s Ribbon Cutting for BLINK Charging Stations
Location: McDonald’s
258 Indian Lake Blvd, Hendersonville, TN 37075
BLINK Charging Station Ribbon Cutting
Agenda
Sunday, October 16, 1:00 pm
Welcome: Mayor of Hendersonville: Mayor Scott Foster
McDonald’s and the EVProject: Ted Lyon, Owner
Nashville Electric Service: Electricity as a transportation fuel
Nissan: The LEAF
The EVProject Opportunity: Stephanie Cox, Stakeholder Services Area Manager – Tennessee
JOINS INSTALLING

National Plug In Day is comming up Oct. 16th in Nashville, TN

We the Nissan LEAF owners of Metro Nashville are planning our 2nd Meet-Up at our Host Schneider Electric at 1010 Airpark Center Drive, Nashville, TN 37217. We welcome anyone that owns / drives a LEAF or any other EV, also those that are interessted or just wanting to support the cause are welcome to come and join us. The above pictures shows the location near the Schneider Electric EVSE will be where will meet. Nashville is one of the more then 20 Cities that are activly participating in the event inspired by PlugInAmerica.org.

You can follow our discussion on My Nissan Leaf dot Com at: http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.mynissanleaf.com%2Fviewtopic.php%3Fp%3D138748%23p138748&h=kAQBwk0uAAQBlEk644pyp4soS2nfS0x4Kc9uTWha_mvAGQA

And we have a Facebook Event as well for the event at: http://www.facebook.com/#!/event.php?eid=180710912007745

Beware of more LEAF on the road this time of year

Looks like we are seening an increased number of LEAF on Nashville city roads now. I caught up with blue Nissan LEAF the only 100% all electric mass produce car, on my way to work this morning.