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/

Sunday, July 28, 2013

Only One Fuseholder Remains - Economy Figures

I didn't post it at the time, but last Tuesday night I removed three of the last four inline charger fuseholders. I have one left and it's only there because I ran out of 4mm black heatshrink and it was the only one that looked to be in perfect condition. I'll do it as soon as the heatshrink (from eBay) arrives. With the fuseholders gone the Vogue was completely trouble free for the commutes last week.

Figures for week ending 26th July 2013
Monday: 8.84 AH for 39.2 km => 135 Wh/km
Tuesday: 6.68 AH for 31.9 km => 126 Wh/km
Wednesday: 7.20 AH for 33.6 km => 129 Wh/km
Thursday: 9.81 AH for 43.4 km => 136 Wh/km
Friday: 9.38 AH for 42.9 km => 131 Wh/km

(All battery to wheel)

As a curiosity, I usually make it to work at about 3 AH consumed - that's around 1800 Wh making the economy about 120 Wh/km (my record so far is 2.8 AH). The trip home is a lot worse and I have generally racked up over 6.6 AH by the time the round trip is completed. The difference in altitude is about 20 meters so doesn't explain it - but driving style does. Going to work I am generally not hassled by any other drivers so I can accelerate slowly and slow down at my leisure taking full advantage of regen braking. Driving home is a relentless wrestle with other road users to use as much regen as possible but not get in their way. The nett result is that driving home is less efficient. Accelerating up hills costs a heap of capacity.

My observation is that not many drivers are in a hurry to get to work, but most road users are in a hurry to get home.

I could improve this situation with more regen. At the moment it peaks around 25 Amps (battery) which is 1.25C. Headway (battery manufacturer) recommend a continuous charge current of of 1C (20A) and maximum continuous charge of 2C (40A). Perhaps I'm being too conservative. I really haven't had much time to mess around with configuration in the past few weeks.

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