Also replying to several at once. And no, I don't think you have to give up your quest just yet. Rather I think you need to quantify how steep the steep hills are and then take a hard look at the costs for "advanced" batteries versus your budget. I'd shy away from any designs that would cramp your lifestyle by not visiting friends, etc. as this would lead you be disappointed with the vehicle. More comments inserted:
> I haven't heard of any nicad recycling operations in my country, > but I'll investigate. Talk to SAFT - somehow I thought that they include a recycling plan at the time they sell you the NiCads? > ... unfortunately I don't know the grade. I think I need > to borrow a GPS unit and measure it. Just a carpenter's level and tape measure is all you need. OK, people may give you strange looks as you stop by the side of the road to perform the measurements, but it only takes 60 seconds. Ideally repeat a few times up the different hills to get an idea about average and maximum grades. > > one way to go with this range would be to start with a > > small pick-up truck, which would provide the space under > > the bed for TWO separate battery packs. You could drive > > to work on one, and drive home on the other. > > Wouldn't it be just as sensible to put those batteries all into > one extra-large pack, and spread the load across all of them? > > The main problem with a pickup for me is that I don't want to > drive a pickup. I have no need for the carrying capacity, and > I want to drive a "normal" looking car. Yes, there is the possibility of something like the "Red Beastie" - see http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/037.html where you pack a small pickup with 40+ lead acid batteries. But depending on how steep those hills are, this may be self-defeating as you then need to pull all that extra weight up the hill. If this method would work, I'd stay with all the batteries connected in one large pack (i.e. "buddy pairs"). As for normal looking... I drive an S-10 and consider it perfectly "normal" :-) but if that's not what you are looking for, then that pretty much ends this idea regardless of the hills. It is very important that EV be something you really like as you will put a lot of effort into getting it. Now if you could just walk into the dealership and buy an EV1... _________ Jim Coate 1992 Chevy S10 1970's Elec-Trak http://www.eeevee.com
