Just the numbers

The Vue is now on the road. Over the weekend I was able to fasten some of the front batteries down. This allowed me to put the front end and headlights back on. So now I can drive the car without looking like a scene from "Mad Max" :-)

I still have lots of items on the checklist...fastening the remaining batteries and getting the speedometer to work are high on my list now.

Speaking of the speedometer I was able to track down part of the problem why it wasn't working. There was a bad splice in the sender wire that was easy enough to repair. I went ahead and hooked up my pulse generator (you remember homemade pulse generator I was using for the tach). Anyway I hooked it up and sure enough the speedometer started working. Now I just needed to get it working off the vehicle speed sensor.

Today I took the car for a bit more of a spin (19.4miles). I wanted to get an idea of what my "mileage" (energy use) would be so I could figure out the range. Based on this drive the max range should be in the 45-55 mile. In general you want to keep the average use at about 50% of the max range in order to maximize battery longevity. This is still well above my daily 15 mile roundtrip commute.

For those interested in the numbers:
Total pack energy: 32.5 kW
Usable pack energy: 19.5kW
Usable to prolong battery life: 9.75kW

Total pack amp hours: C/20 225 Ah
Usable pack amp hours: C/1 135 Ah
Usable to prolong battery life: C/1 67.5 Ah

Trip distance: 19.4 miles
kW used: 7.04 kW
Ah used: 52 Ah
Mileage 360W/mile

The last number is the mileage ("MPG"). It is important because it is a measure of the efficiency of the vehicle. It is a function of vehicle weight, aerodynamics, rolling resistance, etc. A very light, aerodynamic vehcile has a watt/mile usage of about 200-250 W/mi. A light truck about 350 W/mi.

Prior to the conversion I was basing my range calculations on 350 W/mi. The fact that I'm in the ballpark before doing anything to improve that mileage (driving habits, alignment, etc) makes me very happy :-)