My electric velomobile
 

Pics of the bike:

https://i.imgur.com/1KvhZN8.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/fBOfwwl.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/j75uGn7.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/PuzRKBX.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/1aaEtdp.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/xo4KgC0.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/tzO209r.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/sPN7T9X.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/Jrz8rYc.jpg

So far here's the realized specs:

-46 mph top speed on flat ground on a full charge with the motor enabled
-1,500W peak power, plus rider effort
-7 watt hours per mile @ 30 mph w/light pedaling
-9 watt hours per mile @ 35 mph w/light pedaling
-12 watt hours per mile @ 40 mph w/moderate pedaling
-12 watt hours per mile in the snow with enough effort to do 30 mph on flat ground, but riding at speeds from 20 to 40 mph with a 20 mph rolling average
-While powered yields a consistent 40-50 mile range with enough effort to cruise at 30-35 mph on flat ground in freezing weather. I get about 8.5AH from the 46.8V pack in the cold, although it is rated to 10.5AH. This should improve to perhaps 60 miles range at the same speed in warmer weather due to reduced air density and increased battery capacity.
-With the motor disabled, I can pedal it to 35 mph in a sprint and cruise on flat ground around 23 mph. I lost a few mph unpowered after installing the motor due to its additional weight and cogging losses.

I tend to cruise around 30-35 mph and my lifetime average energy consumption is about 9 wh/mile.

At any operating speed with which it is capable, it feels stable and tracks straight. It has been up to 60 mph downhill before I motorized it and felt stable. It is very controllable at 30-40 mph in 30+ mph crosswinds with 50 mph gusts, although one will need a bit of effort to keep it straight in those extreme conditions. The brakes are good up to about 35 mph, but after that they are questionable and require careful modulation.

Regarding what specs this will eventually have, I'm in the process of building another battery pack. It's going to be 72V 21AH, capable of delivering 5 kW peak, and is liable to give me a 150-200 mile range @ 30-35 mph, acceleration like a car(simulation shows 0-30 mph in about 5 seconds with a 96A phase current, but a better controller and a 150A phase current could allow 4 seconds), and a 70 mph top speed. I’m also going to finish a set of wheel fairings, a windshield, roof, and rear wheel cowling to cut drag further. I also plan to add brake lights, permanent running lights, headlight, and turn signals, as well as solar panels and a charge port for electronics. Later upgrades may also include hydraulic disc brakes, thicker brake rotors, and perhaps a rear suspension.

Here's some additional specs:

-Weight: 82 lbs
-CdA: Unknown
-Trike Frame: KMX framekit
-Body shell: Custom corrugated plastic bodywork with aluminum ribbing, mounts, and supports
-Battery: 46.8V 10.5AH pack of 13S3P Panasonic NCR18650GA cells, 490 Wh rated capacity, 1,500W rated peak power
-Motor: Leafbike 1500W 4T wind brushless PMDC motor, w/10k NTC thermistor and 10-12 awg bullet terminals, laced to 26" rear wheel w/13ga spokes and double-walled aluminum rim
-Controller: Phaserunner v3, currently set to 1,500W maximum power output, 750W maximum regenerative braking
-Computer: Cycle Analyst v3 DP, currently set to 1,500W maximum power output
-Charger: GrinTech Cycle Satiator HV model
-Torque sensor: Sempu 2-wire w/115mm spindle width, no throttle installed at the time
-Front wheels: Velocity 20" 32-spoke w/13ga spokes laced to double-walled aluminum rims
-Front tires: Schwalbe Marathon Greenguard 20x1.5" @ 95 psi
-Rear tire: Schwalbe Marathon Plus Tour 26x1.5" @ 60 psi
-Front crankset: Suntour XCT Jr. with 152mm crankarms, modified with 26/39/53T chainrings
-Rear gearing: SunRace 34-11T 7 speed cassette
-Front derailleur: Microshift Mezzo
-Rear derailleur: Shimano Tourney RD-TX35 7/8sp
-Chain: KMC Z7, lubricated with Boeshield
-Torquearms: custom KMX torquearm designed and made by ES member dhwahl(left-side), GRIN Torquearm Kit v4(right-side)
-Right shifter: Shimano Revoshift 7 speed index grip shift
-Left shifter: SRAM 3-speed index grip shift
-Front suspension: EXA gas shocks on upper/lower swingarms at 65 psi, suspension designed and made by ES member adam333
-Brakes: Avid BB7 calipers with 165mm disc rotors, cable-pull operated
-Right Brake lever: Terratrike dual-pull lever with parking brake
-Left Brake lever: GrinTech ebrake, operated for regenerative braking in the rear

That's a beautiful machine.

You don't ride on roads with traffic, do you ?

I feel unsafe even riding a conventional bicycle on the far right hand corner of the road.

It's my daily driver. I don't have a drivers' license. I have about 750 miles on it as an EV, but in excess of 50,000 miles on the frame in total. I put roughly 1,000 miles a month on it.

It will be even more beautiful once it gets a paint job. Thinking of rust-colored spraypaint with a sloppily-done red anarchy sign on the side. Make it look like something from a post apocalyptic sci fi movie and look even more dangerous to ride.

What limits regen?

Red oxide primer and gray hot-rod primer is one of my favorite two-tone color schemes.

I can't sleep - so I'm awake messing with the picture of your velo.

And one more :

For the nacelle, I used a NACA0023 from the top-down view and a NACA2820 with 2 degrees camber cut off at 87% length from the side view, and then transposed them. The shell width is 620mm and shell length is 2,695mm. Because I used coroplast, I was not able to have rounded cross sections, and instead turned what should have been rounded cross sections into 6-sided cross sections. Once I get the wheel fairings, windshield, derailleur cover, and roof installed, I'll do some tuft testing to see where the turbulence are generated. I'd like to do a compound-curved variant of this design if it shows enough promise to compete with decent commercial velomobiles like the Quest or WAW, although I do realize that outboard wheels are going to pose a major hindrance to that.

It's possible a redesign might be in order that does away with the outboard wheels with the tradeoff for doing so being the accompanying increase of weight and frontal area.

Controller setting. I can change it to whatever I want. However, I chose 750W because it gives a very light braking effect that doesn't risk losing rear wheel traction in inclement weather. I typically get 6-12% regen on a set trip according to the Cycle Analyst computer.

Hell yeah! I'm probably going to paint the entire thing iron oxide, leaving no white showing. But you had the right idea for placement and style of the anarchy sign!

Another possible color scheme is silver and black with a 3D printed Baphomet hood ornament, with pentagram decals on the front wheels. I could call it "Satan Bike" and put in a sound system so I can ride around in it playing black metal.

Lol, this just keeps getting better and better.

So I'd absolutely love to ride one of these things around, but I don't like the idea of being crushed to death.

How do you ride this on a public road without worry ?

It just seems so incredibly dangerous.

This may well be state of the art. Depending on state DMV regs it would be considered a motorcycle. Items to consider might be a wind screen, lap belt, lighting package, and a dynamic braking circuit. For those more concerned about crash testing use aluminum honeycomb instead of plastic skin. People are far too frightened by thoughts of riding on public roads. Learn the traffic rules and maintain a 3 sec. spacing. Pick a route and be polite. It's kept me alive for 60 years.

May I suggest a different layout? Instead of tapered gores, use a geodesic layout. You can choose a level of quasi-compoundcurvedness, The trick is to use an octahedral instead of icosahedral base. This gives three axes you can orient to longitudinal and traverse, the vertical gets locked in.

For seams you can use triangles, diamonds or hexagons. Diamonds can be chained into strips. A hexagon will have one seam running from one corner to the center.

https://ecomodder.com/forum/member-f...belly-tank.png

Cd: Consider the size of an F1 racer's cockpit. It's no larger. An open-wheel vehicle is safer in an offset frontal collision.

An I-can't-believe-i'm-seeing-this paint job reduces safety. A Baphomet hood ornament is begging. :)

It looks a heck of a lot better with that primer paint job.

It's much akin to driving a classic British sportscar from the 1950s or 1960s. If you wreck, you're ****ed.

I used to ride a normal upright bicycle on these roadways, so from a safety perspective, this trike is a significant step up. I am aware of the risks, so it isn't entirely without worry per se. The vehicle itself isn't inherently dangerous, it's all of the large vehicles on the roads operated by inattentive drivers that make it dangerous to operate.

The state of the art may be designed by an aerodynamacist and typically uses a carbon fiber composite epoxy-bonded construction monocoque.

Mine is plastic on a steel frame, which is rather amateur by comparison. My financial resources are limited, so this has dictated my material choices.

In my state, it fits neither the definition of a "motorcycle", "moped", "autocycle", or "motor-assisted bicycle". It's had no actual throttle, and like an unmotorized bicycle, its top speed is "as fast as you can pedal it". It's just that in my case, I have it set up to where I can reach the limits of my motor at my current battery voltage. A random out-of-shape person given the chance to ride it might have difficulty exceeding 30 mph on flat ground. I am going to put a throttle with a 20 mph limit on it as backup though, in order to mitigate the risk of being stranded just in case something in the pedal drivetrain fails.

The next one I do is going to have all that plus a roll cage, hydraulic brakes, DOT wheels/tires, thicker axles/hubs with cotter pins, and hopefully improved aerodynamics. I'm going to set it up to do 100+ mph top speed, but still be perfectly pedalable with everything disabled. It will basically be a miniature Electrathon car with a pedal drivetrain, and the goal is to keep the finished vehicle ready to ride under 100 lbs. I want it to be capable of dynamically stable/mechanically reliable freeway cruising at 70 mph with the motor turned on, and with the motor turned off capable of sub 4-hour century rides and sprints to 40+ mph by a fit rider.

The idea is to build a 5,000+ MPGe "car" that is so efficient you can turn everything off and pedal it, but while operating with the motor on, for human pedal input to add a significant amount of motive force at all operating points. If it is sufficiently aerodynamic, 100 mph may be possible on only 5 horsepower, and a powerful rider could easily accommodate 20% of that requirement for a few seconds or even minutes at a time! And to make it better appeal to the general public, it needs some ass-hauling capability. If it can actually accelerate like a car, the size of its potential niche could increase.

It's the ones who do not pay attention or are even malicious while behind the wheel of a multi-ton missile that can ruin one's fun in an instant. There is nothing one an do to mitigate that risk. But what you listed is generally good advice and I've been following it well.

The Facet V1 coroplast-bodied velomobile does something similar.

https://www.instructables.com/Facet-V1-Velomobile/

I need access to some sort of CFD software that spits out some numbers before I devote the time investment into this. I'd like to get it right!

My opening was sized so that I can mount the computer and speedometer on the boom and still see them without having to lower my head from seeing the road. I intend to enclose the trike with a windshield and roof.

That's sort of the joke. It is a rolling coffinmobile after all. I do want random drivers to notice it's in front of them at least so that I don't get run down, and something outlandish like this will do that. Plus it will fit the theme and design-philosophy of the vehicle as "off grid" transportation.

I've got the stimulus money sitting in my credit union account; if there're no unexpected expenses in the next week, I'll throw down for a new Mac Mini. First new computer since 2002. I hope the ML Compute Framework in Big Sur will enable CFD, down the road, but at least I can picked up Blender again. The illustration above was done in Wings 3D.

In either program you can pick off the dimensions to incredible accuracy. The prolated spheroid with a 40/60 bias on the max camber follows the [denigrated/deprecated]Template for 3/4 of it's length.

Consider a 2v birdcarge inside a 4v shell. Polymetal instead of Coroplast.

Reminds me an awful lot of the one I built. Mine wasn't as stable at high speeds or in a cross wind, and there aren't a ton of good places to ride it around here. I might have to build another someday.


Trying to recall what motor I used. Might have been a Leafbike? I have a thread on it somewhere. I want to say I was pushing in excess of 6000w through mine for short bursts.

Let a friend ride it:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=1p8Llggs...ature=youtu.be

If you do so, try to focus on aerodynamic efficiency. The vehicle will improve in nearly all measurements by doing so. You could always use parts from your previous build to keep costs down.

I designed mine not only to be efficient, but also usable over bad roads at speed. My front scrapes the ground maybe once every 2,000-3,000 miles, and only when riding unpaved surfaces or on gravel roads. I have 4.5" ground clearance. It also has front suspension. Riding over rough roads generally does not cause the body shell to ever make contact with the road.

Regarding efficiency, I still have a massive amount of room for improvement. Outboard wheels are terrible for drag.

You initially used a MAC geared hub motor and switched to a Leafbike direct drive.

Fantastic job on this - congratulations.

Do you have flashing lights on the back? I notice flags sticking up on the back of bikes too but that would look out of place on this machine. Maybe consider a programmable light show that would really grab driver's attention. Maybe that would be a bad thing though.

Thanks for posting this!

My PEBL is not nearly as efficient or as fast - or as stable in turns, etc. But is a bit easier to get in and out of, I imagine, and has m0re storage capacity, and has a roof, and is possibly warmer in the winter.

I have one flashing red LED light on the back. It is placed on top of the turtledeck.

I intend to eventually have that as part of a running lights feature for both day and night riding, as well as a permanently integrated headlight, brake light, and turn signals.


A roof and windshield are going to soon be installed for riding in the rain. The outboard wheels splash water and road grime into my face between 7 mph and 18 mph.

The PEBL is a heavy thing. How hard is it to pedal with the motor turned off or with a dead battery?

Mine is the way it is to allow operation independent of the electric drive. If the battery is ever run dead or an electrical component necessary to drive the vehicle fails, I can still do 20+ mph on flat ground for an effort that could be maintained for hours at a time and sprint to 35+ mph for brief periods, even with the motor's additional mass and cogging losses slowing me down.

In the long run, I plan to build a 100 lb "car" inspired by Electrathon racers that can be similarly operated, except that the rider will be able to add pedal input at all operable speeds including what may be a top speed of 100+ mph, but will still be able to turn everything off and hopefully the machine will be efficient enough to pull sub 4-hour century rides or sprints to 40+ mph on human power alone. The plan is to make a full suspension roll cage on wheels that uses light-duty DOT 16" motorcycle rims on all 3 wheels with Mitas MC2 low rolling resistance tires, hydraulic brakes, and a Schlumpf HS drive on the pedal crank with a sufficiently wide gear range to allow anything from slogging up steep hills at 3 mph with a 60 rpm cadence to careening down the highway at 100 mph with a 140 rpm cadence, and everything in between. Having both a human power drivetrain as well as an electric hub motor will also greatly reduce the risk of ever being left stranded. I think a 100 mile range @ 70 mph and 300 miles range @ 30 mph is possible in such a thing with a very modest 1.5-2 kWh battery pack. Performance would only be limited by downforce/lift and the type of hubmotors available on the market. There are no synchronous reluctance or synchronous reactance hub motors of appropriate size with bicycle cassette/freewheel compatibility on the market, but a 7 lb motor of this sort could make 50 horsepower peak and 6-8 horsepower continuous if it were made, which would allow Tesla-like acceleration. In such a low mass vehicle, it would be difficult to design it for stability at much of anything over 100 mph, so that would be a good end point for ultimate top speed, no matter the peak power. Given the state of the ebike hub motors available on the market being behind the technology by a decade, I have to make due with a cheap Chinese Leafbike 1000W or 1500W PMDC that can make about 10 horsepower peak and 2-3 horsepower continuous. A Leafbike motor should be good for 0-60 mph ~ 10 seconds and a cruising speed until drained battery of 90 mph if set up properly, without overheating. Throw some solar panels on it and it would be a very versatile vehicle. If tiny microturbine generators of < 2 lbs or diesel fuel cells ever become affordable/available, it will become even more versatile still, and get the equivalent of thousands of miles per gallon when running on these things. There's also the tantalizing prospect of solid state batteries of 500+ wh/kg that could turn that 100 mile range @ 70 mph into 200 miles, and allow a design that will last longer than the operator without major/expensive repairs.

With improving technology, so many interesting design possibilities are opening up...

The most beautiful soapbox derby car I ever saw was fiberglass over expanded metal. Shape the expanded metal to the desired shape drape the fiberglass satin weave over it and saturate it with polyester or epoxy resin. Let that cure and add closed cell styrene foam (Like the Dow blue foam insulation) or balsa wood cores and add a layer to the inside. Aluminum or fiberglass window screen would work too. A downside to using foam for cores is you have to use epoxy with it and that is more expensive. 0.007" thick aluminum newspaper lithography press plate is another material to consider for 2D sections.

Something like this?
https://kronfeldmotors.com/specs/

https://ecomodder.com/forum/attachme...1&d=1614286391

Although it's a series hybrid, your pedaling just goes to charging the battery and there's no direct connection to the wheels.

The Golden Zepplin is a reverse trike. ...of sorts. It's made of perforated metal over welding rods. All that needs would be a vinyl wrap (over 30x stainless steel. :))

https://content.instructables.com/OR...XY.jpg?frame=1
https://content.instructables.com/OR...XY.jpg?frame=1
I was thinking about this to enable regen.

Sort of. The difference between that and what I want to build is the following:

1) The linked vehicle has far too high of a frontal area and given its specs it's overall aerodynamics aren't on par with those typical of a commercial velomobile. I seek to build something with the form factor and drag of a velomobile. This is built to offer a large rider plenty of room and a tall ride height, whereas I'd build a low-slung vehicle to fit the rider like a glove.
2) The linked vehicle is extremely heavy. It is built closer to the safety specs of a car than those of a velomobile. Because of its oversized motor and battery pack, it requires more pounds of battery per mile of range. To me, this is greatly extraneous. Lightness and efficiency beget more lightness and efficiency, and this thing is built to be so heavy that its components all must be heavier to compensate for it. This thing is as heavy as a high performance motorcycle, if not moreso.
3) If the battery runs out of charge or the EV drive system fails, the above vehicle is stranded. I intend to make a vehicle that can still function as a bicycle and be independent of the need for an EV drive system to move, which will require keeping it sufficiently low in mass that a fit rider can still pedal it up a steep hill and sufficiently low in drag that on flat ground and downhill it yields a significant advantage over a normal upright bicycle.

This all said, the Raht Racer is an interesting and cool concept. But the pedal generator isn't going to contribute much to its total energy use, probably on the order of a percentage point or two. It is reminiscent of the Twike designs in that sense. It's much too bloated for the application I have in mind, and the pedal drive system seems to be a gimmick from a purely functional standpoint, if the function is reducing electricity usage.

What I want to do is make a vehicle that can perform like a car, but still function purely as a bicycle whenever the need arises. This in turn will assure that it reaps the benefits that come with that, such as phenomenal energy efficiency. With the design I have in mind, it is conceivable that even careening down a highway at 100 mph, a fit cyclist could still conceivably account for 10% or more of the load for a few minutes at a time, and at freeway speeds of 60-70 mph, maybe even 20% of the load for hours at a time, or turn the motor off entirely and account for 100% of the load riding it at 25-30 mph in the city. The 450 city/230 hwy MPGe of the Raht Racer could EASILY be beaten by a wide margin. Mine gets between 3,000-4,000 MPGe as it is, even though unlike the Raht Racer it has zero crashworthiness nor is it nearly as fast, but I intend to improve upon that. There are electrified Milan SL velomobiles getting 5,000+ MPGe in city riding and if made mechanically reliable and dynamically stable for high speed riding, with their aerodynamics could easily get 2,000+ MPGe highway, and like most commercial velomobiles, they have some rudimentary degree of crash-worthiness designed into them. A modern velomobile is not anything close to as safe as a modern car, but it's greatly safer than a bicycle or motorcycle, and I think that is a reasonable degree of safety to design for when coupled with robust enough wheels/tires/axles/hubs/brakes/chassis to handle 70 mph freeway cruising, and all of which is possible within the maximum weight limit I have in mind of 100 lbs.

To achieve your goals will likely require component designs optimize by adversarial generative
AI and 3D printed parts with gradient gyroid infill.

Maybe. But consider that there are light duty motorcycles of ~130 lbs made to handle 60+ mph, made without that tech, such as the Mountain Moto FX5, and they have heavy IC engines and 4-speed transmissions and exhaust systems and fuel tanks to be removed from them. And they have large 19" motorcycle wheels. And they're built for the rigours of offroad riding, and not smooth pavement.

There are hobbyists who have modified velomobiles to handle 45 mph cruising speeds and get 200 miles range at said cruising speed while keeping the entire package under 100 lbs. It's not inconceivable to trade some battery weight for more robust mechanicals/chassis to handle higher speeds.

And even if it goes 10-20 lbs over the 100 lb weight limit, it's not exactly a deal breaker either, as it will still be of a pedalable weight, if only barely so, especially considering it would primarily be intended to operate with electric assist.

I think it's achievable.The AI is just software, you can probably submit your requirement somewhere and have it iterate it's way to a solution in the cloud.

Suspension arms is what I was thinking of, but that may be out of reach.

I've been watching Youtube videos on 3D printing, and you can do things like print in PLA and then use an auto-catalytic bath instead of electroplating to plate the part in copper and nickel. It doubles the strength. For brackets and suchlike.

Urethane foam can accept polyester resin.
 

And you can use a skim coat of TiteBond glue over styrene foam before the use of polyester resins.

This thread just tickles my fancy.
 

Living in Southern California makes a vehicle such as these a year round practicality.

I just posted one of these in a thread in the Aerodynamics subforum:

http://www.dailyicon.net/2009/02/dym...isamu-noguchi/

http://www.dailyicon.net/magazine/wp...1dailyicon.jpg
http://www.dailyicon.net/magazine/wp...2dailyicon.jpg
http://www.dailyicon.net/magazine/wp...3dailyicon.jpg

The Dymaxion had a Cd of 0.25. I think that the upturned nose on it is responsible for a lot of frontal lift and increased drag, given the slippery profile used as the basis for the design.

My next design is going to do away with the outboard wheels altogether for sure, now that I figured out how I might do the wheelwells. I plan to keep the same front track so that it can fit through bollards on a bike trail, but extend the wheelbase. I want to eventually be able to corner around 0.8-0.9G without tipping.

Mine is practical enough to use in the winter with 1-2" of snow on the ground, with VERY careful attention to the vehicle's dynamics while in operation. It did slide around a lot at 30 mph and I need to have a wheel repaired because some snow/ice may have damaged it. Although I DID have to walk to work when there was a foot of snow on the ground. The rear wheel had insufficient traction to plow it through the snow and the snow would get caught in the footwells.

I also ride it in the rain, albeit the front wheels like to splash water in my face. I'm planning to install a windshield and roof for it when I get the chance, and will be designing a wiper system.

Who's tunnel?

I've always suspected the same, But if you look at the 3/4 front view you can see the 'air keel'. It's actually a [Luigi] Colani-esque move, massive front wheel spats feeding a central jet.

Lots of negative camber and a high roll center. :thumbup:.

Good question. The sources where I read of that 0.25 figure didn't say.

But under what conditions will it actually work?

I think the foot holes on my velomobile are helping to prevent some of the expected frontal lift. Mine is surprisingly stable while careening at 60 mph down a hill!

That is part of the plan. 3 degrees negative camber should do it justice, which is what I have now. A higher roll center will require a custom design of chassis and suspension versus what I have now. I think a wheelbase extension of an extra foot or so would also greatly improve things, as well as a more reclined seat to reduce center of gravity AND frontal area. Maybe even 1G cornering or more is possible. If the traction limits of the tires are exceeded, then it will be almost tip-proof, which would be the ideal.

I think a frontal area of ~0.45 m^2 may be possible with the current 980mm(39") front track width while having the airflow going passed the sides of the body remain tangent with the front wheels. That design might necessitate a large front greenhouse area like the Go-One EVO-K velomobile or the Versatron Vector in order to see in front of my knes/feet while pedaling, which would not be pleasant in the summer, but there are mitigation strategies to help with that such as a tinted polycarbonate to filter UV light, NACA ducts, and a PLC-controlled thermos filled with ice water. It would really take some building and experimentation to see what is needed, as it may be possible to still make such a reclined setup allow my field of vision towards the road visible over the kneebumps.

The new(used) batteries arrived. I was tired of having only a 50 mile range and ordered two used Greenway 46.8V 15.6AH packs. I've recently obtained a new job as an electrical engineer and have been using this vehicle to visit job sites, getting reimbursed $0.575/mile, and needed a plug and play range increase that didn't require me to take the trike out of commission and re-do some of the electronics to accomodate the 72V pack I've been working on. So the plan for the near future is to run two 46.8V packs in parallel and increase peak power to 3 kW, improving range and acceleration, but not top speed. A printout of their delivered capacity during testing from the seller was provided. They were 15.51 AH and 15.35 AH respectively. This means 30AH when I parallel the two together is a given. I charged both of them up to full.

I hadn't had much in the way of free time so I didn't get to fully install them. I need to make a wiring harness to parallel them together AND I need to make a custom enclosure to fit both of them lengthwise underneath the boom with their narrowmost dimension placed between the rotating pedals. Being a holiday weekend, all the places I could get the needed parts were closed, so I decided to devote the free time I had after 3pm yesterday to testing the vehicle.

I was able to fit ONE of the battery packs underneath the boom. I used the higher capacity pack of the two for a total capacity of about 726 watt hours. It was held to the boom with zip ties, a temporary solution but one that works. To say I was pleased with the results would be to understate things. I rode it 83.6 miles, with cruising speeds of 30-35 mph plus pedal input. At the end of the ride, I had used 15.5 AH, and had consumed slightly under 8.7 wh/mi, the equivalent energy consumption of almost 4,000 miles per gallon! The battery wasn't yet dead, but it was on the verge of being empty. I plugged in my charger for about 20-30 minutes at an outlet at a pavilion in a park, got a few AH back, and then rode it another 20 miles.

I now have a decent range EV! As an aside, all of the comments I got from random ghetto dwellers while riding it around East St. Louis were hilarious. This thing certainly attracts attention.

Once I put both packs in, a 150+ mile range @ 30-35 mph is assured, and there is a possibly of a 100 mile range @ 45 mph. Plus it's still very pedalable with a dead battery. When operating purely under pedal power with the motor off I can leave lycra fetishists on roadbikes behind in most settings. I won't have any range anxiety using it to visit job sites anymore and won't have to charge it every day, and can opt to just change when it is convenient instead.

An actual car with accelerator and brake pedal instead of bicycle pedals with this sort of form factor and efficiency that is usable on the road in traffic is very doable. In mass production, such a thing weighing in at under 150 lbs, with seating for one, an integrated roll cage, micro AC unit for climate control, enough trunk space for 2 weeks worth of groceries, weather protection, all wheel drive via inexpensive e-bike hub motors and controllers, better aerodynamics on par with a Milan SL velomobile, a 3 kWh pack for a capability of 100+ miles range @ 70 mph, 0-60 mph in under 4 seconds with a 100 mph top speed, enough solar panels for it to cruise indefinitely @ 35 mph in direct sunlight without draining the battery OR recoup about 30 highway miles range a day sitting in a parking lot for 8 hours, could be built for much LESS THAN $10,000. I could buy all the parts off the shelf for such a thing except for the chassis/body(which would have to be designed and made) for under $3,000. The battery pack required for these specs would be so small that any 110V outlet is the equivalent of a CHAdeMO charger for a normal full sized electric car and any run of the mill 220V 50A outlet can function as a 15-minute fast charger, and if you destroy the pack doing something stupid, you'd only be out a few hundred dollars instead of tens of thousands of dollars. Operating costs would be expressed as a fraction of a cent per mile.

It's a travesty that no one is thinking outside the box and making an actual car like this for sale to the general public.

Arcimoto/Tilting Motors (150lb, $2K). All that's missing is the human-hybrid part.

Do you have a link? On the Arcimoto website they list their vehicle as being 1,300 lbs. It also doesn't have the aerodynamics needed.

That would be the FUV family.

Platform 2 This chart shows 3kWh, 35 Wh/mi and 8sq ft footprint.

150lbs? That's scooter/moped weight class. And on the light side even there.

I suppose an enclosed 3-wheel electric bike/velo could easily be in that range.

I wonder is that 8sq ft footprint a rectangle or a T-shape?

On the light side isn't surprising, since they have associated with Sandy Munro and XponentialWorks.

In avaition the 8 sqft is a flat rectangle piece of plywood equivalent. A T shape would have more drag because it would be physically bigger with more edge.