This blog documents the restoration, and conversion, of a 1965 Humber (Singer) Vogue to a fully electric vehicle. The Vogue will be powered by an 11kW(modified), 3 phase industrial AC motor, controlled by an industry standard Variable Speed Drive (VSD) or Inverter. To be able to produce the 400 volts phase to phase the VSD will need about 600 VDC of batteries. A big thanks to the contributors on the AEVA forum: http://forums.aeva.asn.au/forums/

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

Warmer Weather - better Range

I think I have mentioned before but with the warmer weather my range has increased by around 10km.
The Vogue measures remaining range by figuring how far you have travelled on what fraction of the battery pack's capacity - then calculating how far you can go based on the remaining capacity. All this is done assuming only 80% of the pack capacity is available. It does this 3 times a second so the remaining range moves around a lot based on how you are driving. This technique would not work well in a commercial EV where people got an initial reading of a 33 km range after travelling 600 meters to the top of their street's hill (as I do almost every morning) - then the range esimate changed with every take off (as it does).

At just under the 10 km mark on my way to work I get a very optimistic indication. I only get a few seconds to take this picture before the lights go green and I missed a great picture few days ago in this spot where it was 91 km remaining range - a total of just over 100 km with 80% DOD.

It doesn't last long though. About 2 km later, after a substantial climb at 70 to 80 km/h, it is usually down to 72 km remaining. By the time I get to work it's around 77 km remaining (Range) after 15 km travelled (TRP). The trip home is always worse and I'm arriving home lately with 31 km travelled and about 54 km remaining range. The Vogue has a 12 kw/hr pack (20 AH at 600 VDC) and all dashboard calculations are performed assuming only 9.6 kw/hr (actually 16 AH) is available.

A note or two about comments - I really like getting them. I have to moderate what comments get published - currently I publish everything. You can leave me comments privately or publicly though. If you like, you can leave a comment and just mention that you don't want it published, "don't publish this John", and I won't.

To leave a comment just click on the "No comments" (or "'n' comments") at the bottom of any post.
Next line down from this one...

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Leading up to Christmas

Nothing much to report. I'm driving the Vogue every day and have passed 4200km of electric driving.
I have purchased a new set of rear shock absorbers (new, old stock Monroe 12-0060 - yes eBay) and will hopefully get them installed during the Christmas to new year break - plus a review/refresh of all rear-end suspension rubber components



I'll also make some time to further investigate the vibration issue that is still present - less intrusive but still there.