View Single Post
Old 05-29-2013, 03:58 PM   #8 (permalink)
bennelson
EV test pilot
 
bennelson's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Oconomowoc, WI, USA
Posts: 4,435

Electric Cycle - '81 Kawasaki KZ440
90 day: 334.6 mpg (US)

S10 - '95 Chevy S10
90 day: 30.48 mpg (US)

Electro-Metro - '96 Ben Nelson's "Electro-Metro"
90 day: 129.81 mpg (US)

The Wife's Car - Plug-in Prius - '04 Toyota Prius
90 day: 78.16 mpg (US)
Thanks: 17
Thanked 663 Times in 388 Posts
Looks like some good thoughts flying around here.

To start with, 357 MPGe is NOT way off.

The very first thing I did after I built my electric motorcycle was reset the trip odometer, go for a ride, come back and recharge it with the charger hooked to a Kill-a-watt to track the energy used.

With the distance tracked by the trip odometer and the energy to recharge tracked with the kill-a-watt, (including charging losses and/or inefficiency of the charger) I could calculate the electrical equivalent MPG. On my very first ride, it clocked in at 321 MPGe.

M.I.T. has a nice fact sheet on energy conversions.
http://www.mitenergyclub.org/assets/2008/11/15/Units_ConvFactors.MIT_EnergyClub_Factsheet.v8.pdf
Download it, save a copy, and print it out. It's good info to have.

On that sheet, it lists how much energy is in a gallon of gasoline (and diesel, and bio-diesel, and ethanol, and uranium.......)

Using that info and knowing how far you can go on a set amount of electricity, you can do a little algebra to figure out your real MPGe. Getting over 300MPG or about 100 watt-hours per mile is NOT unreasonable.

Electric motorcycles have the ability to be amazingly efficient compared to gas cycles or even electric cars.

Also, keep in mind that the real world is a very different place than a spreadsheet. Spreadsheets don't have hills and bad weather. And I've never fallen off a spreadsheet and broken my ankle.

There are other weird variables too. I've noticed that the most efficient charging is in the middle of the pack. If I use the "middle of the pack", that is if I take trips that are a middle distance of what my pack can handle (not really short trips, not really long ones) the batteries soak up the charging energy the most efficiently.

There are so many different variables, all of which will only work to bring your efficiency down.

But really, all that said. EV Motorcycles are great! Build one! They are fun and efficient

PS: If you want to know more about my cycle, you can read about it at 300MPG.org I named my blog that based on the extreme fuel economy of my electric motorcycle. 300 MPG seemed high enough. I don't think anybody would believe 321!
__________________


300mpg.org Learn how to BUILD YOUR OWN ELECTRIC CAR CHEAP
My YouTube Videos

Last edited by bennelson; 05-29-2013 at 04:01 PM.. Reason: ps
  Reply With Quote
The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to bennelson For This Useful Post:
Ryland (05-29-2013), Shortie771 (06-02-2013)