Can you charge at work?
To me a 54 mile range is what a gas or diesel car is better used for if public transit is not an option.
Looks like a range of 50 miles with new batteries is pretty common, 250 watt hours per mile seems to be the energy use for every day driving 190 watt hours per mile and down as low as 150 watt hours per mile if you are in a competition and super focused on your driving but in reality 250 is more like it, that means that with 16 6v golf cart batteries you have a 40 mile range to 50% dod or that with new batteries you could make it 54 miles round trip and be closer to the max depth of discharge that you would want to take a lead acid battery to, but that is with new batteries! and with that kind of use they are going to show age really quickly!
Steve Heckeroth's 1964 Karmann Ghia has 24 6v golf cart batteries stuffed in his car so his 60 mile range is to a 50% state of charge, with that kind of use he should be able to keep that battery pack for 5 years, at the end of that 5 years that 60 mile range is going to be getting closer to 80% DOD and at that point the batteries are going to age even faster and die at the end of that 5th year, at least that is my educated opinion.
Everyone that I know who has Gel Cell lead acid batteries is really sad right now because they are finding out that they only last 2 to 3 years! sure they have a greater power to weight ratio and you can discharge them a little deeper but they don't last as long, over charge them and the gel gets bubbles, get them to cold and the gel gets bubbles! what happens when the gel gets bubbles? you loose capacity! how do you fix this? buy a new set of batteries.
Flooded lead acid batteries that are rated as a traction battery is what you want, not a trolling motor battery or a RV battery, Golf cart batteries tend to be the most common, fork lift batteries would work too if you could find the space for them but they are bulky.
Today
Other popular topics in this forum...
Frank '77 Electric MG Midget 
