Four seater not possible for 80 miles to 100 miles at 65 mph and running A/C or Heat simultaneously unless you have a much better battery than today's Trojan T145. And this did not include terrain. It would definitely be impossible in the hilly northeast or any other mountainous terrain, but might be possible in the flat lands of southern states along the coast, midwest, and southwest if you don't run the AC and cruise at just 50 mph. There is a dramatic increase in energy consumption for wind with increased speed and climbing hills as most EV'ers know. Aerodynamic light weight two seat inline (tandem) commuter would have the best chance of making 80+ miles at 65 mph with lead acid, but not a four seater. Four seaters would just have too much frontal area and weight. There was a two seat inline electric commuter in Electrifying Times Preview 2000 called "Luciole" from Japan. Specifications: 0-40 mph 4.3 sec, 1/4 mile 17.9 sec, max speed 150 km/h (90 mph+) Range 140 km @ 80 km/h or 80+ miles @ 50+ mph Weight 2002 pounds 10.8 feet long, 3.94 feet high, 4.36 feet wide Battery Sealed lead acid: 224 volt x 40 amphr. 600 pounds of AGMs "Only 30 percent battery weight." "Performance specs with 40 or even 50 percent battery weight" ? Two permanent magnet AC Motors, one in each rear wheel for a total just shy of 100 horses. There were no specs on a transmission or speed reduction from motor to wheels, wheel size, drag coefficient or time to 50 mph or 65 mph or hill climbing capability. No mention of effect of AC or Heat on performance. No mention of Air Bags. Nothing about passing crash tests or cost if sold in US. No mention if it would pass US auto standards as an import. No mention of chassis and body construction types.
WHY HASN'T THIS POCKET ROCKET BEEN OFFERED IN US ? OTHER Japan EV'S such as Honda EV+ and Toyota Rav4 have been. I would definitely be interested in such a commuter car. On Sun, 22 Sep 2002 00:47:03 -0500 Mike Chancey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > Lately here have been several threads about Insight conversion, EV1 > replacements and other such semi-hypothetical EVs. It got me > thinking, > what kind of EV could be built to meet the following: > > Assume a total budget of $20,000, including the donor vehicle > (used). > > Expected service life, 10 years, 100,000 miles, average about 30 > miles per > day, or about 3500 charge/discharge cycles at about 30-40% > discharge, > though there would be occasional deeper and shallower cycles. > > Initial investment to cover all battery replacements required during > > service life. (Economics of high cost long life batteries vs low > cost > short life batteries will come into play here.) > > Sealed service free batteries an asset, alternatives to be > considered. > > Able to carry 4 passengers. 4 doors preferred but not required. > > Capable of ranges of 80 to 100 miles at highway speeds. > > 0-60 acceleration no more than 14 seconds fully loaded. > (Minivan/Large SUV > performance equivalent.) > > Able to charge from both 120 and 220 volt sources. > > Air conditioning and heating a must, power steering probably needed, > as > this would likely be heavy. > > As much as possible, this should be a "plug and play" vehicle, once > converted it should not require extreme effort to keep in service. > > Now the question. Can this be done? Is it possible with today's > technology? What would such a conversion be? Too much to ask for? > Any > thoughts? > > Thanks, > > Mike Chancey, > '88 Civic EV > Kansas City, Missouri > EV List Photo Album at: http://evalbum.com > My Electric Car at: http://www.geocities.com/electric_honda > Mid-America EAA chapter at: http://maeaa.org > Join the EV List at: http://www.madkatz.com/ev/evlist.html > > ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/.
