Thread to talk about EVs

Arch trivia of the thread: I am reading a bicycle book my in-law sent to me for my birthday. Apparently Eddy Merkx (?sp) put ~ 35,000 Km yearly on his bike during his racing days.

Makes me want to take a nap just thinking about it.

Regarding the EV limit of a Prius-Plug: I take it from your post that the limit is a power drain limit ? Steady state 55 mph on a level road is probably not much more than 10 kW, assuredly much less than the battery can provide. I wonder if this is a heat dissipation aka safety factor to prevent the bad publicity that might accrue should the LiIon battery go up in flames ?

If that is the case, as the battery tech matures, the quasi-limit will improve.

 

Yeah I don't know where the prius limit comes from (I agree with darell this should be a separate thread). But that is the limit I've heard. I assumed it has something to to with the CVT but I guess that is not true. I don't think it has anything to do with the new batteried but rather limitation on the current prius.

 

Go down to your local car dealer (any one, your choice) and scream that. Once per day. If we all did that, maybe something would change? Hey, a guy can dream.

 

Just checking to see if I'm not TOTALLY out of the loop here. The current Prius still uses NiMH if I'm not mistaken? I know of no production car that is using Li-Ion at this time.

 

Yep, NiMH in stock Prius, LiIon in the EnergyCS modded one.

 

At work, we get demo cars to try out so the RAV EV was just a loaner car. One other comment on the FORD Pickup EV - in Seattle with cooler temps, it only had a range of about 40 miles before needing to be plugged in for a recharge.

 

Ah, thanks. THERE's where I got confused.

 

Li-Ion is used on Toyota Vitz "Intelligent Package" in Japan.
It is not EV nor hybrid, but the TOYOTA INTELLIGENT IDLING STOP SYSTEM has regenerating brake and idling stop capability. The Li-Ion also drives A/C system when the ICE stops.

Ken@Japan

 

Cool! Any use of advanced chemistry battery is a good thing. I guess I should stick with saying "production cars in the US"

 

I've been remiss... here is my X1 page for the fans of FAST.

http://www.darelldd.com/ev/wrightspeed.htm

The videos do not do the experience justice, and are just full of wind noise.

 

I see.
However, if you only watched things in the US, you"ll be late.
Have you ever visited ELIICA's site?
http://www.eliica.com/

Ken@Japan

 

Ken - please don't mistake my comments for a US-centric mindset. I put my effort toward making EVs available here in the US, yet I certainly do follow EV development all over the world. Heck, it would appear that the Indian company Reva is the likely to be one of the first to offer an EV here in the US.

Yes, I've followed the Eliica for several years now. Still can't figure out the whole carzy eight wheel thing though.

Ken... do you know any good Toyota (TDM) parts guys in Japan? We're looking for one part for the 2006 Prii to complete the EV switch mod for us poor, behind-the-times guys here in NA. If you can help, please drop me a line!

[email protected]

 

Just for a bit of closure, I thought I'd better mention that my Ford Ranger EV is finally up on Ebay as of a few minutes ago.

click

This thing has to sell before I can afford the Prius!

 

Thanks! Yeah, it went in just half a day, and for the buy-it-now. Yikes. Now it will be shipped across the country to the new buyer.

Indeed... where IS my Prius!? I've actaully been trying for two days to get hold of my sales guy. This "sellers market" really sucks.

 

No clue. My only involvement will be in convincing the shipper that the truck is indeed running.

Negative. And if you think the Rangers are getting some good money, you should see the market for the Ravs! One sold recently for over $53k. This was a 3-year-old vehicle with 40k miles and dents and scrapes.

For a while there, I didn't actually want to get it TOO Fast. But that time has passed (now that the other vehicles are sold, and I actually have money again). Now it can't get here soon enough!