Just bought a Zap Xebra PK!

[voxelman]

Saturday a week ago my wife and I took ownership (with the bank) of a brand new Zap Xebra PK (for pickup). It's designated a 3 wheel motorcycle by the government but its pure EV. The PK model seats two and has a total payload capacity of about 500lbs.

The drive train consists of 6 deep cycle 100 amp-hour lead acid batteries wired in series that drive a 5 kilowatt (this is about 6.5 hp) electric motor through a Curtis controller with 72 volts. The batteries charge from a standard 15 amp electrical outlet and a full charge requires 6-8 hours.

Top speed is around 40 mph on level ground with a range of about 25 miles at an average speed of 30 mph. This latter figure requires a battery break-in period of about 100-200 miles.

I'm taking it very easy on the batteries because they are very susceptible to harsh treatment during the break-in period and at $2200 and up for a replacement set early retirement makes all claims of economy go out the window.

I am in the process of instrumenting the batteries with a PakTrakr, a device that monitors and records the voltage level of each of the batteries and the current being drawn or supplied to the pack once a second. In addition I am adding two other devices, a BattEQ and a Battery Life Saver that can potentially extend battery life. The BattEQ interconnects all 6 batteries and automatically equalizes the voltages. The Battery Life Saver prevents and removes sulfation.

While there are probably better EVs out there this one had a reasonable price (it lists for $12,500) and it seems very hackable.

The Xebra is supported by an active Yahoo group, Xebra_EV that is a treasure trove of information for owners. Several of the group members are Zap dealers and they readily contribute to discussions.

I’m keeping a Kill-A-Watt attached to the charging outlet and so far after three days of light use it is telling me that I can expect a total electrical use of about $42/year assuming .10/kilowatt-hr electricity.

The adventure begins...

[SVOboy]

Nice! I've heard a lot about these! Looking forward to your impressions!

[voxelman]

Originally Posted by SVOboy

Nice! I've heard a lot about these! Looking forward to your impressions!

So far it is about what I expected. I made the purchase after reading a lot of the Xebra_EV discussion. Much of it is about problems that owners were and are encountering.

What I like most is that it provides basic transportation within my range requirement. It was quite inexpensive. 2 cents per mile for the electricity.

What I don't like is its very harsh ride. There is an aftermarket spring kit that is supposed to improve the ride. At $450 it will have to wait until the battery care equipment is installed and the bank account has recovered from that $700+ expense.

My biggest concerns are cold weather performance and battery survival.

On the battery front there is good news. See www.fireflyenergy.com

[cfg83]

voxelman -

Welcome to EM! It's great to have someone with a real Zap on board. I think the pickup is the most practical Zap to have.

CarloSW2

[MetroMPG]

Interesting. Thanks for the details.

You're smart to have invested in battery monitoring (Pak Trakr). Same idea as the LED pack monitor we stuck in the ForkenSwift recently, but fancier. And with memory!

I'd be very interested to know your efficiency - kWh consumption per mile. Are you keeping a log?

[ebacherville]

very cool.. now if you can mod that thing to get 50mph and 60 mile range id buy one.. without a decent range and speed it just wont work for me... but if i were in a city , heck ya id have a electric like that.

[voxelman]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Interesting. Thanks for the details.

You're smart to have invested in battery monitoring (Pak Trakr). Same idea as the LED pack monitor we stuck in the ForkenSwift recently, but fancier. And with memory!

I'd be very interested to know your efficiency - kWh consumption per mile. Are you keeping a log?

I am currently keeping a paper log and I have a Kill-A-Watt on the extension cord that feeds it while it rests in its crib at night. As things evolve I am going to integrate a GPS tracker into the data stream that comes from the PakTrakr. The odometer is notoriously inaccurate so it is that or pay nearly $300 to get the speedometer calibrated.

In round numbers it takes about 4.7kWh to bring the batteries to a full charge when they are broken in. If the car is driven on the straight and level at about 30 mph in temperate weather it will go about 25 miles on a fully conditioned set of fresh batteries. Starting and stopping, hills, cold weather and higher speeds will reduce this figure.

An ideal calculation is 4.7kWh/25= .188kWh/mile. Since the Kill-a-Watt records every watt-hour going in it should give a fairly reliable accounting of my electrical usage. Right now after just three or four days of history it is estimating a yearly cost of about $85.

However, there is a rather nasty secret hiding behind this number called per mile battery cost (PMBC). The replacement cost of the Xebra’s current set of batteries is about $2200. If my average annual usage is 3,000 miles (probably high as I live in a small rural community in south east Iowa) then if the pack fails after 1 year my PMBC will be 73 cents/mile. Clearly electricity cost is negligible if the batteries fail early.

From my reading early failure or significant degradation is a real possibility if the pack isn’t managed carefully. This means not unduly stressing the pack with discharges greater than 50%, monitoring individual battery voltages and balancing the pack so that all of the batteries share the load equally, using available technical means to fight sulfation and keeping the pack fully charged.

Cold weather is also a challenge that must be met since the chemical processes that underlie battery performance are degraded at low temperatures. Iowa is cold and windy in the winter. If I am able to maintain these batteries for 5 years or 15,000 miles I might achieve a PMBC of 14.6 cents/mile. My 1991 Honda Accord gets 20 mpg city without much effort on my part. At $4/gallon for gas that works out to 20 cents/mile and it has a whole raft of creature comforts that the Xebra is lacking.

There is a saying in EV circles that your first set of batteries is sacrificed to the learning curve. Forewarned is forearmed. I’m trying to do this right and I’m willing to invest considerable time and energy in making this experiment a success. But as in all experiments the real results may not be what we wish for.

[MetroMPG]

188 Wh/mi would be a VERY respectable figure. At least based on what I've seen with the ForkenSwift (best drive/charge cycle to date is 244 Wh/mi).

Sounds like you're far more aware than the average person about the risks and precautions necessary to preserve battery life.

Please keep us updated.

[Ryland]

I have the paktraker as well and it is an amazing gauge, I would guess that it will pay for it's self in battery savings because of how accurate it is and the warningas that it gives you.

[voxelman]

Sorry for the long silence on this thread but here is a brief update.

Paktrakr, BattEQ and Battery Life Saver are all installed and working. Also installed Norm Woodward's spring upgrade and it has produced a real improvement in the ride. Norm's display and data capture add on for the Paktrakr has been purchased but isn't installed yet.

Casper (It's been named) is currently grounded because it's owners found out they are required to have a motorcycle license to drive it in Iowa. We have our learner's permits but have to organize getting Casper to the nearest driving test location which is beyond his range.

Prior to the grounding the following numbers were observed for energy consumption:

Date KWH Miles KWH/Mile Miles/KWH.
7/1/2008 2.22 5.5 0.404 2.477
7/2/2008 5.11 14.3 0.357 2.798
7/3/2008 2.20 4.8 0.458 2.182
7/4/2008 1.15 2.6 0.442 2.261
7/5/2008 5.67 18.0 0.315 3.175
7/6/2008 3.29 9.8 0.336 2.979
7/7/2008 3.52 11.1 0.317 3.153
7/8/2008 2.05 3.2 0.641 1.561
7/9/2008 2.17 4.3 0.505 1.982
7/10/2008 2.53 5.2 0.487 2.055
7/11/2008 3.15 6.1 0.516 1.937

This is a total of 84.9 miles within the first 200 miles of use. For
an average of .389 KWH/mile or 2.568 miles/KWH. This is about what is expected for early stage performance. Others are reporting closer to .3KWH/Mile or 3 miles/KWH.

That's all for now. Those interested in a broader view of the trials and tribulations of being a Xebra owner should check out the Yahoo group xebra_ev.

[al128]

good info - and good background knowledge from your part ...

if you dont mind me asking, what type of batteries do the xebra's use ... can those be replaced by - say trojans - or so?

... cos 2200 buys you a lot of trojans (or other deep cycle bat's) ;-)

cheers - and keep us updated!
al

[voxelman]

The Xebra's currently come stock with ~100 AH Discover EV31A-A Group 31 AGM batteries. The 140AH Discover EV12A-A version is available as an option. I believe that any Group 31 battery that can sustain a 1 hour discharge rate will work. I haven't made an indepth study of sources as I have my heart set on 6 Firefly carbon foam plate Group 31's when they become available. That is unless the LiFePo4 packs come down from their current $7000+ price. Also one dealer and various users have expanded their packs to include one or two more batteries for the increased range or speed that results from the 84 or 96 volt pack voltage.

[MetroMPG]

Thanks for coming back with an update. I know you're not the only person wondering what Firefly will have to offer the EV world...

[voxelman]

Originally Posted by MetroMPG

Thanks for coming back with an update. I know you're not the only person wondering what Firefly will have to offer the EV world...

Not to mention EESTOR!

[Christopher Jordan]

Originally Posted by voxelman

Saturday a week ago my wife and I took ownership (with the bank) of a brand new Zap Xebra PK (for pickup).
The adventure begins...

I have been on the fence for about a year. The dealer here cut all ties with Zap, then the only person to service an EV quit. They jus haven been able to sell 2 of them since 2006- makes me wonder!

Another big concern is getting a CA. motorcycle license.

Wired magazine has several articles of states (Tennessee/Massachusetts) refusing to allow it as a motorcycle since it has 2 seats. Very confusing-the Carver, Aptera, Triac, Venture are all 3-wheel EVs with more than 1 seat.

Thanks for letting me know how your Xebra PK is holding up.

countersTrike

[voxelman]

Casper is back on the road again!

On Thursday evening, July 31st our dealer parked a trailer in our driveway and we carefully loaded Casper for his big adventure; a trip out of town for his owner’s motorcycle driver’s test. We left at 7:15 AM Friday morning with our dealer driving the van pulling the trailer. The DOT office that gives the test is located in Ottumwa, Iowa about a 25 mile drive from our home in Fairfield. I drove chase in my Honda Accord, a wise decision as the van/trailer couldn’t exceed 50 mph without starting to fishtail. Most of the trip was on 65 mph four lane so we proceeded at 50 mph with 4 way flashers ablaze.

When we arrived at the DOT office it was about 8:00 AM and there were already 5 persons in line for the motorcycle test. The office only allows 10 tests per day and my wife and I were glad that we had secured two of the spots. The DOT office opened at 8:30 and we all received numbers and were called up individually for administrative processing prior to the driving test.

After a short drive over to the test course we unloaded Casper and raised the “hood” for interested bystanders to see his inner secrets. After a walk through of the test stages with the examiner we were informed that because our vehicle required a different spacing for some of the tests we would go last. This suited us fine as it gave us a chance to observe other test takers. Testing proceeded apace and in what seemed a very short time it was our turn

My wife elected to go first as she wanted to take pictures of my testing without a stomach full of butterflies. The test course was laid out on a section of little used street with spray painted markings and miniature fluorescent orange traffic cones. Most of the test tasks were designed to establish the ability of the driver to competently handle and maintain balance on a two wheeled vehicle. The test tasks required us to make a sharp left turn, stop in a box, make a “U” turn, weave through a series of cones, break quickly (“panic stop”) and avoid an obstacle without stalling or losing control of the bike. Most of these are irrelevant for a Xebra driver since the vehicle is inherently stable.

The biggest challenge was that due to the enclosed nature of Casper’s passenger compartment the front wheel is concealed. The “stop in the box” test required that the front wheel come to rest in a 3 x 5 foot box. The panic stop required the driver to start breaking as the front wheel reached a spray painted line on the roadway. The cone weave test was modified to accommodate the longer wheel bases of trikes but no allowance was made for the lack of visual cues. Also, it was the examiner’s initial interpretation that all parts of the vehicle had to remain inside the lines demarcating the sharp left turn path.

All of these things together proved to be my wife’s downfall as she got dinged for not keeping the entire vehicle inside the turn box, not stopping inside the stop box (the front wheel was on the near edge of the box) and not starting her panic stop on the prescribed line. Her score was 12 points with no more then 10 allowed for a pass. After hearing the results I closely questioned the examiner about the relevance of these tests to her driving the vehicle safely as it was amply clear that she could maneuver the vehicle with skill. The examiner protested that she had to follow the test rules.

It was with this preface I began my own test. I experienced the same difficulties as my wife except my dead reckoning of the stop box position was more accurate and I managed to place Casper’s front tire entirely within the box. I passed with 8 points. While I was grateful to have passed I was miffed that the testing was so inappropriate for our vehicle. After our return to the DOT office for the issuance of my updated license we voiced our displeasure to a supervisor and included our complaints in the evaluation that each person taking the tests is requested to make. We also spoke to the vehicle inspector for good measure.

I wish to make it abundantly clear that all of the DOT staff behaved in an exemplary manner. The examiner in particular was as helpful and supportive as could be expected given what she felt were the rules.

This cast a rather dour mood on the rest of the day and we made plans to return the next day for another test attempt. After lunch and some shopping that lightened our mood we proceeded home to Fairfield. Shortly after getting home the phone rang. My wife answered it and from the other room I could hear her excited exclamations. Shortly she came running up asking me to “Guess what”. I had no clue so she quickly bubbled over with the news that the person on the phone had been our examiner at the Iowa DOT. After reviewing the results of my wife’s test with her supervisor they had decided to rescore the test based on the sharp left turn requirements so that she received a passing score.

All’s well that ends well. I will let this rather lengthy missive end here.

[greenitup]

The DOT sucks. Glad it came out ok for you.