EV Driver here just joined up

[bennelson]

Originally Posted by EVDRVR

Thank you all for the welcome.

Ben point me to the final specs on your vehicle. The thread I found will take me longer to read than it takes to convert a car.

It will actually take exactly as long to read as to convert the car.

I think I have spent as much time talking about the car as actually working on it.

The specs are pretty modest. It is 72V and currently using 6 x 12V true gel cell (100 amp hours each) batteries. Using a Curtis 400 amp peak 72V DC motor controller and a 10" Nissan forklift motor.

The Solectria Force really is a pretty nice car. I just saw one in the Chicago area. It had mis-matched hubcaps. Only two of them were full moon, but they were both put on the same side of the car, so you didn't notice!

[EVDRVR]

I guess this site is all about efficiency so I'll go ahead and post some numbers. First off I was just driving and not trying to see if I could beat Worden's records.

Based on the data stored by the charger's computer during recharge I used 3286 Wh yesterday afternoon to drive 16.9 miles. At that rate I was using slightly more than 1Ah per mile. The car can do better than that and it can do much worse.

Regen becomes better on the Force as the batteries deplete so in the right situation the further I drive the more efficient the car appears if the right stopping conditions exist. You might equate this to the warm up of a ICE engine. The SP-68 batteries seem to be especially good at this. Lower resistance results in quick efficient recharging.

The Force uses a AMC325 controller with a max output of 34KW, nominal 22KW. Some Hybrid's out there have that kind of power to supplement the ICE engine.

The Tesla and Ebox use a motor controller combo that can produce something around 150KW. Nearly 5 times the power of the Force and because it is electric virtually no downside on efficiency. Just money. You have to love AC induction motors. They are the backbone of industry world wide.

I log trips for the fun of it and overall efficiency is so predictable. I don't often hook up the computer and look at the Wh numbers.


EVDRVR

[TomEV]

You're doing better than you think - 3.286 kW / 16.9 miles = 194 wh / mile.

[rmay635703]

Its nice to see another EV driver, oddly enough there are far more of us silently driving around inconspiculously than you probably realize, except for those of us driving a Commutacar like mine or a Citicar like TomEV up there. Most though don't say much about their EV and it isn't marked well, there is a guy down the road with an electric buick (96) but you would never know unless you were told.

Oddly enough I am happy to announce I have your Geo's 14" spare tires on the rear of my commuta, quite strange looking but they work on my stock studs. (actually I have junkyard spares) 115/80r14's I got tired of trying to find tempo spares and deal with the troublesome remounting.

[bennelson]

Anyone here NOT have a small yellow EV as their avatar?!?

Doh, me too!

[EVDRVR]

The requested pics of my 97 Force and the trunk "emblem."

I'm not anti EV sticker I just had a hell of a time getting all of the previous owner's company info off the vehicle and "clean" is a good look these days. He removed the original Solectria badging.

EVDRVR

PS
And to answer the #1 question in regards to the solar EV emblem. "Where are the solar panels?" They are on the house roof where they belong, sun shines a lot better up there than it does in the garage or on the road. And a 3000 DC watt PV array really is a tough fit on a family car.

[bbjsw10]

EVDRVR, you ever think of badging it? Say like big letters on lower section of doors "Electric Car" I think it is a fine example of a Metro very good shape. But why not announce to the world that "Hey cars can run on electric" get people thinking. Just my .02

[Ryland]

Originally Posted by bennelson

Anyone here NOT have a small yellow EV as their avatar?!?

My small EV is Blue... maybe I should put the one of my green commuticar that I drive every day up...

EVDRVR: how did you go about finding your car? I have a news paper interview later this evening about electric cars and I'm sure they will ask how others can find these cars.

[EVDRVR]

I was reading EVTrader
EVTrader.com :: View Forum - Buying a New or Used NEV

Like everything else ebay & craigs is worth a look these days.

I had opened the page virtually moments after the owner had posted it. It was a fast sale at a good price. This was 4 years ago and gasoline was by today's standards really cheap, suv sales where up, Metro's were dropped and all was good in Camelot.

I was looking for a EV to turn some of my PV (photo voltaic) investment into money well spent by offsetting most or at least some of my local driving costs. I was a pretty early adapter of grid-tied solar.

It turned out for 3 years I was giving a big unused electricity credit back to the power company (still do but not as much.) A lot of EV owners have done this in reverse. They buy an EV and then buy the PV. For me both have been a very good investment and it has some feel good "green" kickback to go with it.

Nice shape EV's trade pretty quick these days and some like the Toyota Rav4EV well above their initial selling price. Probably closer to their actual production cost. Having your car run cheap and appreciate at the same time, pinch me.

If you want "eco", electric can be a fast route. My local miles driven on our gas burner is now about 1500 miles per year. We do some of that just to justify still owning it.


Sorry for the long answer,
EVDRVR

[Christopher Jordan]

[QUOTE=EVDRVR;58903
Like everything else ebay & craigs is worth a look these days.[/QUOTE]

Craigslist was terrific! I bought an odd homemade trike, next month I thought "this is neat!" so wanted to see what else I could find and looked up 3-wheel scooter. Up popped the City-EL EV. MAN! Am I in heaven??

Ain't Craigslist grand??