So... a client of mine got a converted VW bug with the wilderness EV kit -- the kit#2, so it's a 6.7" series DC, 450 amp alltrax, 72 volt system with six 12 volt 100AH gel batteries, no DC-DC, very little instrumentation, crude offboard transformer 10A charger. Right now, the car can move itself around the yard, and that's about it. They said they did get it up to about 40mph on the flat before it died though. Only 20mph even on very slight upgrades.
Here's what I'm thinking of for upgrades.... they want a good solid 50miles range, and enough speed to keep up in city traffic (45mph, a few small hills, but not climbing big ones). Figure out if any of the current batteries are any good.... (some are brand new, so they should be). Better charger (not sure the old one is working at all, which could explain why the main bank is not doing well). Think about lithium batteries/smart charger/ and higher voltage DC-DC converter Is the Alltrax any good? or should I think about a better controller? It looks tiny for a roadgoing EV, no heatsink even. This one can't take higher voltage anyway. Lithium batteries? Not sure that getting solid 50 miles on lead is possible in this car without seriously overloading it. Is the 6.7" series DC motor enough for this heavy of a car? some sort of metering such as e-meter at least, aux battery voltage (it has main battery volts and current, which I'm not sure are even working). If I go with lithium the BMS will probably have a good amount of monitoring available. The bug was completely restored, so even if I have to replaced every single EV component, it was still a great deal for the price they got it for, just for the donor car. Also.... I got to test drive a ford focus EV yesterday -- just happened to run into Ford's traveling EV/hybrid show while grabbing lunch at the shopping mall. It is a sweet car. Being mainly a compliance car, it seems, I wasn't expecting much, but I was pleasantly surprised. It was quick off the line, good regen (controlled by the brake pedal, not the gas pedal), handled well, though it did feel a tad heavy for that small a car (but I've driven new ICE cars that felt really heavy for their size too). Dizzying array of gauges and screens inside. I like the concept of the butterfly gauge. If you drive more efficiently than average, you get butterflies that fly around one of the display screens. If you brake to fast (less regen captured) or accelerate too fast, and drive less efficiently than average, it takes butterflies away from you... kind of neat game to keep people from driving inefficiently. I thought that was interesting playing on people's emotions not to kill their butterflies rather than giving them a cold efficiency number that most non-engineers will just ignore. The biggest thing I was surprised by was the trim level and features were way nicer than my new prius -- though, for twice the price, it better be. Also had the C-max plug in hybrid (20 miles EV range) which I didn't even know existed... didn't test drive that one. They don't have an EV certified dealership in Denver yet so you can't actually buy one here, but soon, they said. Much nicer car than the iMiev, for those who can afford it. I haven't driven the Leaf or Tesla S, so I can't compare to that. Z -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20130523/4e278238/attachment.htm> _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
