Mileage reports, 2007!

[aminorjourney]

Ladies and Gentlemen,

As our year comes to a close I thought it may be fun to summarise our motoring mileage and milestones for the year.

Okay, here goes:

Nikki and the Banana:

Good bits!: The Banana and I have travelled 3,020 miles in 2007, taken part in the London-Brighton and at 65 miles the most I've ever done in one day. We've travelled to six shows/bvs events excluding the regular local meets and taken part in two road runs. We've been on TV, starred in many YouTube hits and are scarily present on google! LionEl Banana is now upgraded with 43V of wonderful Lithium Ion goodness, which are proving much nicer than the horrid Lead batteries we had in 2006. We've also got the Banana three new tyres.

Bad Bits: We've (I've) got through two backplates and four wheel bearings, an entire roof (ooopsie!) and a set of batteries.

For Next Year? Hopefully a new charger, (one which will actually fully charge those lithium puppies) a new seat and a few upgrades in the motor/controller department. The hope is to have an El which will truly tackle even the steepest hills at 30mph, even after 10 miles or more of travel.





Kate and Nikki's Prius

Good Bits: 16,000 miles and going strong. Best MPG over one tank of 62mpg. Worst MPG over one tank (about) 43mpg. Travelled to numerous EV events, took part in the Electrathon, Balloon Fiesta, and even had a road trip to Scotland.

Bad bits? None really, other than the fact that it's not a PLUG IN!


For Next Year? I'd like us to have it converted to Plug In - but that's probably going to be wayyyyy too expensive. A hitch for us to tow the LionEl Banana with though is almost definitely going to happen.

[ChrisB]

Good post Nikki

Right well heres mine

ChrisB's Berlingo

Good bits : After one of the batts blew up 6 weeks after getting it in March 2006 and it sat around for nearly a year awaiting for a source of new ones, in April this year I fitted a new/second hand set into it an have since done 3k so far in it with just a set of brushes requiring to be changed.
In late October a 6.5kva desiel genny was purchased for it, this can be run on chip oil and is wheeled into the back for those runs that take me outside its range and where I do not know if there will be charging available.


The Bad Bits : Its a Berlingo EV and while its working there cant be any bad bits

For next year : Looking towards fitting a breaked A-Frame to it so I can tow it to some events if they are way outside its range, carry on looking into different batteries etc for it.


Had a great year or 9mths of EV'ing and I think the most miles I have ever travelled in my EV this year, other EV's have been more play type vehicles and show vehicles , the Berlingo has actually been used in anger and very regularly, I can say I will never go back to lead acid batts EVER again, the way forward is Nicad and Li-ion. The berlingo's NiCads have really shown me the light of what can be possible. ( you watch, one of the dam things will go wrong now )

Roll on 2008 and more of the EV Grin

ChrisB

[aminorjourney]

Completely!

3,000 miles for you too, eh?

I wonder who has done the most EV miles this year !:) I think it has to be John Lilly (JP) since he travels almost exclusively by EV doesn't he?



Nikki.

[MB]

Can I join in too?

My G-Wiz
The year started out with my wife Angela using the G-Wiz as her daily transport, taking the kids to school (a round trip of around 7 miles) and using it for her work.

Living out in Reading at the time, the G-Wiz attracted lots of attention. It was liveried with our company's logo and we received a number of sales leads as a result of people seeing it around.

In August we moved from Reading to Coventry and now I use the car as my daily driver, commuting too and from work (a round trip of approximately 13 miles). The G-Wiz does a fine job, although being only a dc-drive model, its a bit slow up the hills and on the country lanes: the extra 'oomph' of a G-Wiz i with its maximum speed of 50mph and significantly improved torque would make a huge improvement for me... if I can justify the additional expense.

Good Bits
The car still attracts a lot of attention and does a fantastic job. Because it's electric, I can use it inside our warehouse which has been extremely useful on a number of occasions.

Bad Bits
At 16 months old and with around 4500 miles on the clock, the batteries are struggling. Remote servicing costs from GoinGreen in London are very expensive.

2008
Thanks to a fellow G-Wiz owner who has written a piece of software in order to interrogate the Curtis controller, I am more confident that I can carry out routine servicing myself, which will save a significant amount of money.

I'm going to treat the G-Wiz to a new set of batteries - probably another set of lead acids, although lithiums would be very nice if I could afford them.

My electric bike
My current electric bike is a home-built special rather than an off-the-shelf model, built from a large wheeled folding frame bike that I constructed last year. The electric motor is bolted to the frame and powers the rear wheel through the chain. This gives me access to seven gears and ensures good performance - far better than any commercially available electric bike that I have tried.

Good Bits
Performance is excellent. I use the electric motor to help accelerate and to help push the bike up the hills. It gives me some exercise when I cycle the 6½ miles to work and I arrive feeling refreshed but not exhausted or drenched in sweat.

Bad Bits
The range on batteries is awful - currently about 6-7 miles. I'm currently using cheap lead acid batteries that I had hanging around and frankly they're the worst part of the package. They're currently mounted on a rack-mounted bag which means the centre of gravity is too high to be ideal.

I've also got a few bike problems as well - it needs a good service before going back out on the road.

2008
The bike will get a good service to get it back on the road and I have a friend who has some lithium-ion batteries sitting on a shelf. I'm hoping to be able to scrounge them off him. If I can, I'll aim to cycle into work at least two days a week to help loose a bit of weight and get a bit more exercise... watch this space.

My electric boat
My electric boat has not been used once this last year. It has sat in the garage and has gone nowhere. That will not be the same next year - we have a small lake next to the house so the boat will be out at weekends during the summer.

I have a 12v 12w solar panel (cost £35) that I intend to rig up to keep the battery charged up. Because of the short amount of use the boat gets, I am fully expecting the solar panel to provide all the power I need for my weekend boating.

[Peter Eggleston]

My electric truck has been my sole transport for the last 3 years. I use it mostly to go to work; a round trip of 16 miles. We used it for 2 car boot sales this summer when we looked like the Beverley Hillbillies loaded up with all our surplus stuff. We didn't make much money at the boot sales, but could have sold the truck dozens of times. It just runs perfectly now with no problems.(Hope this is not tempting fate).

My electric trike is still under construction. Frame, wheels and suspension are complete and handle bars and seat are fitted. I have mounted the motor and have had it running with the driven wheel jacked off the ground and a single 12 volt battery connected.
Next I need to connect up the brakes and design and fabricate battery boxes.
I hope to have it finished for Dilston car show in July which unfortunately was cancelled this year due to a water logged field.
Peter

[Peter Eggleston]

Oh and I covered about 3000 miles in my truck.
Peter

[ChrisB]

Does look like 3K on the milage is about normal, mind you I may actually end up doing more as my milage year is slightly different to the actual year end.

ChrisB