[MetroMPG]

BTW, I made and uploaded a neat 5-minute video of the first drive activities. Just waiting for YouTube to process it and spit it back out.

Today: added 2 more batts to the string, for a total of 48v. This made a noticeable difference; it turned the car from "interesting science experiment" but too slow to be practical, into a barely usable car. At 48v, it would never handle the cut & thrust of typical urban traffic, but as an NEV equivalent on the side streets of a small, quiet city, it'll be fine.

With some effort (EV hypermiling!) I managed to go 5.x km around the neighbourhood today on one charge (but 3 separate journeys).

I also started documenting individual battery voltages after each run to see if I can figure out which batteries are weakest. Turns out driving around the neighbourhood is an excellent "load test" procedure - the bad batteries are quick to reveal their true selves, relative to their pack-mates.