EV Trans Am

Granted, all it did all day was sit there, but it did at least go.

After last night’s unadventurous drive to dinner I opted to fill ‘er back up and make the slightly longer trip to work, about 15 miles round trip. I took the back roads to keep it under 45 since I was engaged in traffic.

Went 15 miles, voltage when complete was 154. Starting was 168 so it did pretty good as far as range. Charging back up now. It’s been about 3.5 hours at 13.5 amps so we’ll see where it is.

Tonight we went out to a pizzeria that is 5.8 Google miles away. The pack wasn’t quite topped off from a quick lap around the neighborhood the other night so we started at 166 V. Finished voltage was 155.3 so we used 11V to go 11.6 miles, about a volt per mile which is easy to remember. I don’t understand why everyone says 300 watts per mile, I suppose because pack voltages vary.

So instead of saying I need 300 watts of power to go 1 mile, to me it makes more sense to say I’ll consume 1 Volt to go one mile. Voltage is potential so I like the idea of saying I’ve got 30 volts to use at 20% discharge so at 1 V/mi I can go 30 miles. Less as the pack is depleted, but about that.

Besides, who has a meter for watts installed in the car to tell them how much fuel is left, seems everyone uses a voltmeter for “fuel” and an ammeter for instantaneous use.

So after the clunk videos we opted to be brave and took Trans Amped to dinner at Route 46, about 2 miles away with backroads we could take.

For those without a Trans Am, when the weather looks like this you take the t-tops out and go cruising. Just like the good old days but all electric.

Now I’ll get technical. We figure we went about 4 miles. The batteries weren’t fully charged because of the earlier testing in the neighborhood (I did that about an hour before dinner) so the pack voltage was about 172 while charging, so probably 168 resting. After the 4 miles the measured voltage was 162. so if we used say 8 volts to go 4 miles I can take the pack down to 125 (80% of 156) that means I have about 45 volts worth of safe go juice. At roughly 2V per mile that means I’d be able to go 22.5 miles. I’d expect the mileage to decrease along with the pack voltage though so probably a little less. Yay onboard charger! This is the lowest the pack has been so I’m interested to see how long it takes at 13.5 to recharge. I need to get that 220 line installed. I do have an anniversary coming up soon…

Keep in mind the speedometer and other gauges don’t work (only the ammeter) so I’m guessing at the distances and even the volts. But it’s inline with what I’d expect. Speeds were probably 25-40 mph which is typical for my driving, maybe closer to 45 though. Amp draw in 4th at ~35 mph was a pretty stead 75 to 100. Pushing the pedal a bit more and the amp draw would increase to 800 at the highest I saw. Still haven’t tried full throttle, I’m enjoying it working after a year and a half of build and don’t want to break something just yet.