EV Show

My wife and I went to the Electric Vehicle Show on Saturday and saw some cools things. One of the best was the Vectrix motorcycle. This as a 20kw motor and really goes! They say it can go 62 mph, but unless they limit that speed I bet it can go further. However, it only has a range of 60 miles, and that is at 35 mph. This makes sense since it has a 3.7 kWh NiMH battery pack and scooters/motorcycles get about 0.05 kWh/mile at slow speeds. So it would be nice to see a larger battery pack in it, the Vectrix is really nice and available now out-the-door at $11,800.

As far as the scooter class, we were most impressed with the EVT-4000e from Electric Motorsport in Oakland. While the basic body and motor was similar to all the others, it had a 3000 watt motor and 2.4kWh battery system, which were both the best in their class, and was selling it for $2045! This was a special show price, and the normal price is $2400, but still it is a good deal. We are going to look at the Zapino (hopefully today) but then I suspect we will end up getting the EVT-4000e

I also went to most of the electric conversion talk on Sunday. There was some really good information. It was presented by Mike Brown, Electro Automotive, www.electroauto.com.

These guys sell a kit for a Porsche 914 with an AC motor that will reach speeds of 100 mph and go 150 miles and costs $13,500 (not including a couple thousand for batteries). It would take a few weeks to a month to put it together, or there is a guy in Santa Cruz that will put it together for $5,000. This sounds like a pretty cool car! They also sell a DC kit for the same car that only goes 85 mph and has a range of 80-100 miles. for $10,500.

They gave a handout which had a lot of useful and practical information. Here is some more information I wrote down:

- For same 22kWh of batteries:
  Flooded lead acid: $1,250
  Sealed Lead Acid: $4,200
  Nickel cadmium: $6,600
  NiMH: $11,000
  Lithium ion: $26,000

- 60 mile basic range of their VW goes down to 30 in traffic and climbing
hills

- Recharge current about 17amps at 110V

- Golf cart batteries (flooded) last about 4 years, then taper off.

- DOE numbers: Gas 11% efficient, Electric 17% efficient

- Converting hybrid to plug-in hybrid is complex and difficult

- DC gets 0.4kwh/mile, versus AC about 0.2kwh/mile

- Regen braking gives about 30% back going downhill

- Wheel motors are 20 to 30 lbs on end of each axle of unsprung weight, which makes handling difficult. Also hard to control 4 motors with one controller.

- Elec motor torque vs rpm curve is not flat: there is a 'knee' in AC motors

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