Making a Kangoo slippier

[caillou]

I've made a few mods to a Renault Kangoo ZE 33kWh

- Change tire from Michelin energy saver to Michelin e-primacy
inflate 2.9bar instead of 2.5
By far the change which improves the most ...

- Flat wheel rims from 1990 Citroen XM (already same rims attachments as today)

- Front grill block with rigid plastic, except for a small square
The initial grill openning is the same as the ICE kangoo... way too big for this EV version
Not sure the small square is enough though, for coldest or hottest days with heat pump/AC, but cabin temperature was ok for 1 year

- Front grill block above licence plat with duck tape

- Hood rubber seal to block the gap

- Wheel arch gap filler with duck tape, front and rear

- Front tire spats: increase size of existing spats with duck tape

- Rear tire spats: reuse and resize a mud flap

- Smoothen Front bumper side with duck tape (pretty useless mod...)

- Remove spare wheel located under the trunk

Under consideration:

- Flat underdoby in the middle where there is a tunnel for ICE kangoo exhaust
Would be easier with a car lift

- Flat underbody in the rear where the spare tire was located, not sure how to secure it to the car from battery pack to rear bumper

- Partial Kammback ?

- Hide wipers behind a hood extension

- Side mirror delete ? There no inside mirror, so I requires camera mirrors that can be found on aliexpress for ~$150 ... not very ecofriendly
I need to do a ABBA test first with and without the mirrors

Any advice appreciated, even if I need to remove a bad mod!

[Piwoslaw]

Hi Caillou!

With those mods it looks like you have the low-hanging fruit.

I saw some specs somewhere that your model should use an average of 154Wh/km. Have you been tracking energy consumption before and after the mods?

And yes - smooth underside and especially a short Kammback would give you more savings.

I assume that with an electric cargo minivan with a range of 200-300km you probably tend to drive in the city more than on expressways, but still the Kammback would give a noticeable improvement even at speeds up to 50 km/h.
The issue you might have would be legalizing the Kammback if it were fixed to the car itself, but you could try to make a hitch-mounted Kamm, like Theo22 did on an Audi A2:


Threads for this:
DIY hitch-mounted boat tail on Audi A2 3L (photos)
My Aerotail on Audi A2

[freebeard]

Thanks. I hadn't seen those threads [from 2011].

An alternative to the full boat tail would be a boxed cavity.

ecomodder.com/forum: Still trying to learn stuff.........box cavity?

[caillou]

Very approximatively, original consumption was 160Wh/km, now down to 140Wh/km
Driving between 70 and 90km/h mostly, sometimes 110

Tow hitch + boat tail + 2nd licence plate with lights ... not a cheap mod!

[freebeard]

That's why i suggested a boxed cavity. [Ecomodder's database is working again so I can get to my albums]

[Piwoslaw]

Start with a shorter Kammback or box cavity, which will already give you benefits.

Later you can make a hitch-mounted boattail, which will extend the lines of these, to use during longer and/or higher speed trips.