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The purpose of the car is to move you from A to B and if you have to slow it down a lot, you're accelerating too much. Too much acceleration already wastes energy, and then having to use regen to regain *some* of what you threw away - doesn't help! ;)

An important addendum is that aero drag is always happening; no matter what "mode" you are in. So, coasting has the smallest loss of the kinetic energy "stored" in the moving mass of the car. Regen increases the loss because the aero drag is still there (as is the rolling resistance) and the...

B = Brake is used for extended steep downhills when the car would go too fast otherwise. You will have already used much more energy getting up the hill, than you will regain with regen. We have had this discussion several times already, but I think that more regen does not yield greater...

Thanks for putting it in the right place, Joe. I missed this section. At the price, the over-capacity is no problem. I also like the energy used display, which would help a lot in getting accurate Wh/mile numbers.

This is quite interesting: http://www.plugincars.com/open-source-ev-home-charger-priced-offered-99-caveats-127763.html So, $119 for the base kit, $219 for the full kit, $319 for the preassembled full unit - all then need the cable of your choice, as well.

Thanks for the reply Joe - it's a bummer we just can't plug something in to get all that info...

I'm wondering if plugging a ScanGauge II or Ultragauge into the ODB II plug in the i MiEV would let you see the range remaining and the rate of energy use and the remaining charge, etc. - without having to scroll through the stock display on the dash? Has anybody tried this? If not, I can see...

I think the more EV's the better, but the price of the i3 prevents it from leading the charge.

Weight of Stella is 380 kg (830 pounds), and battery capacity is 15 kWh; according to Jelmer333 on their Youtube channel. That means the it is <41Wh/mile. Oh, and they are using Marand hub motors that are ~98.3% efficient. Think about that - that is about 44X less waste than a typical ICE.

Actually, a blunt nose is actually good for Cd - a pointy nose only is good above ~250MPH. A blunt nose helps by accelerating the air aside and the slightly increased localized pressure helps the air flow to stay attached. Most of the drag is generated at the *back* of the vehicle, and in...

I'm hoping to get some more details. I know now that it has two hub motors, one on each front wheel, and that the solar PV cells are ~20% efficiency and they have a typical capacity of 700-900W. This is surprising in that the SolarWorld GT car (that seats 2) had ~800W capacity of 30% cells...

This is excellent! A solar powered car that seats four people: https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=905HHucCkKI 905HHucCkKI The Solar Team Eindhoven (STE) of Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) presented the world's first solar-powered family car. "Stella" is the...

The 7.5kWh / gallon number came from Nissan. For tar sands bitumen, it takes the equivalent of one barrel of oil to get two barrels of oil. The energy overhead for oil is enormous and it grows as time goes on, as we see with tar sands bitumen. They have to dilute it with low grade gasoline to...

Does gasoline appear out of thin air? It takes about 7.5-8.5kWh of electricity to produce a gallon of gasoline. It also takes a lot of natural gas to produce a gallon of gasoline. And it takes a lot of water to frack oil and gas, and a lot of electricity to get the water, too. This "long...

These are more safe than any bicycle - you can't fall over, and there is some structure around you to absorb/deflect the impact. It looks like a car, with headlights, taillights, brakelights, turn signals and it has a horn. It is small for a car, but bigger than you think: I would wear a...

It is great to see this sort of vehicle coming onto the market. It is a reverse trike model called the Elf and it is built by Organic Transit: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqWeYsrfNK8 They also have a larger fully enclosed utility trike model called the TruckIt. They are pretty serious...

A white car will be cooler (less hot!) in the sun than a dark color car, all else being equal. The heat reflectivity (aka albedo) of the roof and the other metal panels has a strong effect on the heat gain on the inside. A low-e coating - which is a ultra-thin metallic coating that blocks...

Very nice! LED headlights in particular should be helpful for a bit more range.

Unfortunately, the Loremo is very unlikely to ever be produced.

The Honda Fit EV is now $0 down on a 3 year lease, $259/month with no mileage limit, and it includes collision insurance and all maintenance.