Kiwi in Slovakia

[JoeS]

Hello Gavin, and welcome to the forum. As you can see, your adventures have been followed with great interest!

My wife and I are still amazed that you were able to de-scent the carpet!

Looking forward to your continuing videos about the air heater, as that provides yet another alternative for all our cold-weather friends.

 

[KiwiEV]

I just posted this in the Heating section, but as it's a video I'll chuck it here too. Mods, feel free to remove either to prevent oversharing. I don't want to become the site's resident attention whore.

https://youtu.be/7NBMq5o_UJU

 

[Don]

Very interesting! - I LOVE your detailed videos . . . . we all learn so much

I'm wondering how much money you saved vs the permanent mount diesel/water heating units many others have installed? . . . . and was it worth the price difference to have that extra noise inside the car, losing some cargo capacity, having the nasty smelling diesel inside the car, needing to find another way to keep the windshield defrosted and having to install and remove the heater as the seasons change??

If you had it to do over again, would you still go with the air parking heater?

Don

 

[KiwiEV]

Thank you for the kind words. Choosing the air heater over the water heater was more a case of not being able to afford the water version, not so much about saving money. The average wage in Slovakia's only €850 per month so I'll be paying for the diesel air heater for some time yet. No nasty smells to speak of so far, but I've been careful not to spill any horrible diesel. I don't use the boot for anything so I haven't noticed any loss in space yet. I like that it's easily removable though. That'll be good in about 12 weeks when it comes out again! Might be able to use it in future EVs too.

 

[PV1]

Wonderful video. Glad it's working well.

Sometimes we forget how fortunate we are to drive without dangerous chemical fuels.

So, what's the average fuel economy?

 

[KiwiEV]

Allo allo, PV1! Good question! I measured about 110 millilitres of fuel used in one hour of heavy use. I'm guessing I'll have to refill the tank once a week, which feels awfully familiar...

 

[JoeS]

Wonderful! I enjoy the humor in your presentations. Looking good so far - have you measured the noise level at the various blower settings?

 

[Phximiev]

Another Ion in Slovakia:

https://youtu.be/bAzoRjGoAI0

 

[Phximiev]

Ion in Slovakia out of 'gas':

https://youtu.be/tjWPYkq-OkE

 

[KiwiEV]

Good news! I finally figured out how to make my little diesel heater remote controlled, although as you can see, it's a little bit crude!
I also fit an entire Christmas tree inside the car. It's surprising how much you can fit inside these little cars.

https://youtu.be/UU7MLGBK960

 

[Phximiev]

Marvelous!

 

[KiwiEV]

Hi folks,

I wanted to share this here before I share it with the rest of the world tomorrow: http://kiwiev.com/taking-the-electric-car-skiing/

In this 'episode' I look at my battery condition and a replacement battery cost (I need a drink after getting that email back). :lol:

Then, ultimately, we took our little city EV skiing to the mountains. It may not have been the most fun journey I've ever made in the EV, but it was an excellent test of the car under the pressure of the elements. I'm finishing up the video later today with luck.

Can't wait for the extra range of summer. I have some much more fun trips in mind!

 

[JoeS]

Wow, wonderful - that was a very long trip, especially in winter! Congratulations, and sorry you didn't get more time in skiing. Looking forward to the video.

Question: what is the noise level of your diesel air heater? At the end of winter, I hope you'll have a video segment assessing the attributes, negatives, and overall performance and your satisfaction with your unique diesel heater installation.

JoeS (from California - no snow where I live, but record-breaking flooding just down the road and wonderful snowfalls in the Sierra mountains, finally breaking our drought).

 

[Phximiev]

Hi folks,

I wanted to share this here before I share it with the rest of the world tomorrow: http://kiwiev.com/taking-the-electric-car-skiing/

In this 'episode' I look at my battery condition and a replacement battery cost (I need a drink after getting that email back). :lol:

Then, ultimately, we took our little city EV skiing to the mountains. It may not have been the most fun journey I've ever made in the EV, but it was an excellent test of the car under the pressure of the elements. I'm finishing up the video later today with luck.

Can't wait for the extra range of summer. I have some much more fun trips in mind!

Marvelous! Lookin' forward to the video!

 

[blackheart]

Excellent write up as always!!!

 

[phb10186]

Hi folks,

I wanted to share this here before I share it with the rest of the world tomorrow: http://kiwiev.com/taking-the-electric-car-skiing/

In this 'episode' I look at my battery condition and a replacement battery cost (I need a drink after getting that email back). :lol:

Then, ultimately, we took our little city EV skiing to the mountains. It may not have been the most fun journey I've ever made in the EV, but it was an excellent test of the car under the pressure of the elements. I'm finishing up the video later today with luck.

Can't wait for the extra range of summer. I have some much more fun trips in mind!

Marvelous! Lookin' forward to the video!

Actually thats quite a good deal compared to the £11,500 replacement cost of my wifes Honda Insight Gen 2 CVT gearbox, that contains nothing other than cogs, sensors and a rubber band!... significant pain in the butt, as the dealer missed the failure under the extended warranty, and now that's up- but I'm dealing with that at the moment via a legal route.

Replacement battery cost is a bit of a strange one, because you may never need more than a cell or 2... to that end (and I know what a task getting the pack out would be - but it makes sense for someone to purchase a totaled car and distribute the batteries. I would personally be happy to pay for a couple, and ensure that the dismantler was adequately reimbursed... working out how to tackle the job would be another issue.

Also, I had thought that the individual circuit boards would be more of an issue than a pack failing in general... one dry joint and...

Dare I say that the pack is badly designed - it should have been installed upside down, to enable the bottom to be pulled off and replacement cells changed out - but that's an aftermarket care issue that Mitsu likely wanted to avoid for many many reasons.

 

[KiwiEV]

Thank you for the kind words, everyone. You know, I still don't know why I keep churning these videos out.

Here it is, by the way:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tBaHExHwrbs

JoeS, regarding the noise of the heater. I haven't measured it, but the fan does make a "fan noise" when running at 100% which is probably the same in volume as the car's existing fan when set to Max. Once the car's up to temperature, I normally dial the diseasel heater back down to about 50% which is fairly comfortable in terms of noise. It's about the same as the road noise when you're moving at a comfy speed.

The biggest problem with the diesel heater is keeping my feet warm. I've been meaning to install a duct from the back to the front footwells with a little computer fan in the middle but my laziness gland is too powerful.

 

[Phximiev]

One question, how much diesel is used per hour by the air heater?

 

[JoeS]

KiwiEV, thank you for the very-nicely (as-always) produced video, and for answering my question. Enjoyed the video!

Lesson learned, following marine and air navigation (belt+suspenders) methodology: don't trust a single nav source - in this case, another GPS/GoogleMap or an old-fashioned paper map - you'd have had at least three hours of skiing.

Second lesson learned (to stay warm) is to either carry more spare fuel or (horrors) pull into a petrol station.

Otherwise, glad all went well on this extremely LONG trip, which I'll wager set some sort of a record for the i-MiEV (need to research the back files on this website to see if there's anything comparable). I'm very impressed by the DCQC infrastructure in Slovakia!

Congratulations, and thank you for sharing.

 

[JoeS]

KiwiEV, I added your accomplishment to the record books:

Maximum Miles Driven in One Day -
http://myimiev.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=494&start=60#p31984

Reviewing your video again, must say it was quite an adventure, fueled by the uncertainty of charging station availability and the winter conditions. Wonderful that you have a partner who is such a good sport!

I smiled a bit as I saw some conservatism creeping into your charging habits - but best not to take unnecessary chances in winter.

Question: on CHAdeMO I saw you charging up to 95%. Do you do that in one shot, or does the car stop charging at 80% and you have to plug it in again to keep going? The reason I ask is that my North American 2012 i-MiEV always stops charging at 80% using CHAdeMO.

Also, I'm curious what your electricity costs were for this trip?