Well, it was tough, but I have the car under the car port now! U-Haul messed up my reservation plans, so instead of leaving at 5:00 AM to get it and be back before work, I didn't leave until almost 11:00. We got back at about 9:00 PM and it was too late to make the video then. I made one today but the lighting was poor and the video didn't come out well. I'll do it again tomorrow and show off the Geo.
Right now, it's in need of a little love. The dash is quite cracked and there is a small rust hole on one side, a bit of rust on the wipers, but not too bad. The main problem is that it is filthy. I hope to get it washed tomorrow and maybe drain some of the fluids, but I also have a home renovation project I have to get done as well, so we'll have to wait and see.
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hey there. i stumbled on this blog cuz i was curious about electric cars cuz the gas prices just keep going up and it's really aggravating. i know nothing about electric cars though. and i didnt get a chance to read your entire blog thru, so maybe u answered this question i have already...but what's the estimated cost to power up one these babies? will the electrical bill be equivilent to just purchasing gas? and furthermore, how do you charge it? does it plug into a regular outlet? one of those 3 pronged outlets for electrical clothes dryers? does it require it's very own receptacle? or am i totally clueless here and it's charged up by something else entirely. do tell. i'm very curious. thanks.
ReplyDeleteIn no particular order:
ReplyDeleteEstimated cost of the conversion is $6,000-10,000, including the donor car and batteries, tools, towing costs, paint, etc. etc. If you already have the donor car, there's a good chunk of that off, and more if you already have some of the tools.
The answer to how do you charge it is, it depends. Charging is done by running an extension cord from your battery charger to the outlet, or from your car to the battery charger, depending on whether you put the charger in the car or not. It can plug into a 120 Volt outlet (a regular electrical socket) or a 230 Volt outlet (dryer/range outlet). The 230 charges roughly twice as fast naturally, but the charges can be more expensive. It all depends on how you wire it. Most people seem to be in favor of 120 V chargers here in America so they can plug into any old three prong socket. Overseas they're more fond of 230 V, as that's what their wall sockets use anyway.
As for the cost to charge, the short answer is, it depends. If you have the battery life to make your trip without depleting the batteries to the point that they need a full 10 hour charge, you can spend much less on gas. If you are driving to the edge of your vehicle's ability each day, it will cost about the same as gasoline, depending on a few factors.
Here's the long answer:
Some quick math shows that if you are running a 144 volt system, you will get about the same cost as a mid perfromance gasoline vehicle.
A typical EV runs on 8-12 batteries of 12 volts each. It takes about 10 hours on average to charge it. That's 12V x 12 = 144V (max) x 10 hours = 1440 vh. Given that these are typically charged at 15 Amps, this means you're using 1440 vh x 15 Amps = 21,600 watt-hours, or 21.6 kWh. Electricity here (N. Carolina, USA) is about $.08/kWh.
Bottom line, you're talking $1.728 for a full charge. I had to fill up my car every three weeks or so at ~$28 when gas was at ~$2.40/gal. In that same $28, I'm looking at around 16 days of charge. Given that I only drive to work and back, five days a week, that's 3 weeks, give or take a day.
However, most cars don't run at 144 volts. I would say 120 is the norm. That brings the cost down to $1.44 per day, or 19.4 days of driving, essentially a whole month. If you can use a smaller pack, such as 96 volts, or if you can get the electricity cheaper, or charge less (i.e. you're not depleting your batteries fully each day and do not need a 10 hour charge) you can save a lot of money over gasoline.
It all depends on how much you want to put out on batteries up front, how expensive your electricity is, and how much you're depleting your battery pack. The more battery life you pay for up front, the less you have to charge, the more money you save over time. The lower voltage you need, the less electricity used, the lower the cost. The lower the cost of electricity, the lower the cost! And of course the less you deplete your batteries, the lower the cost.
In general, you can expect a mild cost savings when gas prices are < $2.50/gal. The higher gas goes, the more the savings. During the last hike gas got to $4.85 here, so I would have been saving roughly 50% over a gasoline vehicle even under the worst conditions, and up to 75% under nominal conditions.
Hope that helps!