EVcast #198: EVcast Guide To Buying Your First Electric Vehicle

Interesting show today guys, even if it ignored those odd people who don't live in the USA. Ahem. Cough.

What about that electric car that "ST" mentioned a few months back - did you mention that as a possibility or is it not in production anymore?

Yeah, my car's off the road. I'm back with the gassed masses again. Just give me time, I'll go electric again soon. Actually more importantly, give me money and I'll go electric again soon. Hehe

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Gav,
   What, your EV is off the road.  After all I have heard about the reliability of EV's versus gasoline powered cars, now I hear that even EV's can breakdown.  Sigh.  Back to walking around to get places.
Later
John C. Briggs

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Thanks John, it's my old friend rust that forced the EV off the road. The EV components are as faultless as ever. I mean, how much can go wrong with one moving part?

Don't answer that by the way. We both know the answer is "heaps". :)

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Gav,
    Sorry to hear about the rust man.
Later
John C. Briggs

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John -

I've got an idea to put this into perspective for you! Go buy a production EV. Then strip out all the electric stuff and build your own gasoline parts into it. Cobble it together from mail-order parts. Bolt it all up and start driving it every day and let me know how the reliability is.  :)

(Yes, I realize you were poking fun, as am I!)

- Darell

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Reliability is a real challange for any piece of equipment.  It comes only with time and years of refinement.  I fear the first round of EV's in 2010/2011 will have some kinds of reliability issues.

    I know you have had good experience with your RAV4, however that fact that Toyota built it may have a lot to do with its reliability.

     But at least Bo won't have to worry about rust in his Tesla.

Later
John C. Briggs

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I wish you would have mentioned the fact that the range quoted by the car companies is NEVER what you will get. They usually drive the car at a real slow speed on level ground and no stops.

I have owned three diverent ev's and they usually run 50-60% of the range quated. And if you want to keep your windows from fogging up by running the defroster you might as well cut anouther 30% range.

So to go the 60 miles to work you would need a car with an advertised range of about 150.

My current EV (ZENN) Is advertised anywhere from 35-50 miles of range depending on where you look. The users group i belong to report on average of getting 24 miles per charge, and that is with heating the battery pac to get peak preformance. Without heating the batteries your range will be horable in cold weather. I was getting about 12 miles with temps in the low 40's before adding the batterie heaters.

The triac is advertised to get 100 MPH. I talked with them and they said that was at 45MPH. You do not see them advertising that.

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boppster,
   Perhaps you mean 100 miles rather than 100 MPH.

   I was a little worried that the real range might be significantly less than advertised range.  It would be cool to see more data on this.

    I found this information about the Tesla Roadster from Martin Eberhard

"And -- drum roll please -- the actual driving range "seems to be about 125 miles on the 'normal charge' setting and perhaps 160 miles on the 'max range' setting.""

  So perhaps 50% to 64% of the advertised 250 mile range.

Later
John C. Briggs

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Who cares about EVs anyway.  They are so last century.  What we really need is a flying car.  Check it out, 39 seconds

http://www.necn.com/Boston/SciTech/2009/03/18/-Its-a-bird-its-a-plane/1237378801.html

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Very much appreciate the fine laidback presentations.  Just wonder whether there is some sort of index so one might listen in on one which,say, hits on the Altera development, pro and con reactions, etc.

Thanks,  Gil Smith

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Gil,
   I think the short answer is NO.  Aside from the "show notes" there is no index.  However, if you are interested in Aptera and EVCast, you can put them into Google and it will show you links to shows where they are discussed.
Later
John C  Briggs

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This is a very interesting show. I learned a lot when buying your first EV cars what things you should consider. What I like most in how to maintain your EV parts like its oxygen sensor and the like.

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