First I needed an idea of how long the range would actually be. In the planning of the car I had used a calculator to try and determine the range through weight and battery type, Ah, and a whole lot of other factors such as air drag etc. And the planned range I believe was around 70 miles, and someone who was helping us the calculations told us we would be lucky to get it past 60 miles with our gross vehicle weight.
http://youtu.be/OVB65SJZ6BE
So yesterday I took the license plates off another one of the cars we have and I took the car onto the road (It is street legal) and drove it around Jamestown, off the bridge, and I really tried to take the car up any hill possible to see if it could handle the challenge. The car did have a top speed of around 75 mph which is much more than I expected it to be (although it was mostly downhill).
And the car made it to around 107 miles (I drove it another four after this picture). So a big success since we were told it was possible the car wouldn't even go 60 miles.
And I don't remember if I mentioned it before, but my Dad blew out our 12kw charger which would charge the car to a full charge in around six hours, but since that needs to be fixed and we just couldn't wait to get the car onto the road, we got a temporary 2.5kw charger that can charge the car between twelve to thirty hours - it depends what it's plugged into.
(The 2.5kw charger mounted in the engine/motor compartment. Not pretty but practical).
And I finally managed to get the BMS (Battery Management System) working with the car, but when I floor the pedal it still max out at 400-600 amps, and the charger is still having some problems.
So we still have some work to do on the car, but the end is fairly close. If I manage to figure out why the car won't floor to 400-600 amps and fix the problem, then I think the car will be ready to take onto the highway.
So yesterday I took the license plates off another one of the cars we have and I took the car onto the road (It is street legal) and drove it around Jamestown, off the bridge, and I really tried to take the car up any hill possible to see if it could handle the challenge. The car did have a top speed of around 75 mph which is much more than I expected it to be (although it was mostly downhill).
And the car made it to around 107 miles (I drove it another four after this picture). So a big success since we were told it was possible the car wouldn't even go 60 miles.
And I don't remember if I mentioned it before, but my Dad blew out our 12kw charger which would charge the car to a full charge in around six hours, but since that needs to be fixed and we just couldn't wait to get the car onto the road, we got a temporary 2.5kw charger that can charge the car between twelve to thirty hours - it depends what it's plugged into.
And I finally managed to get the BMS (Battery Management System) working with the car, but when I floor the pedal it still max out at 400-600 amps, and the charger is still having some problems.
So we still have some work to do on the car, but the end is fairly close. If I manage to figure out why the car won't floor to 400-600 amps and fix the problem, then I think the car will be ready to take onto the highway.
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