Sparky, The Electric Vehicle (EV)

Electric Vehicle Project: The Driving Experience

Summary: It's not a sports car, it was never designed to be one. It is, however, a dependable commuter vehicle. The hills in this area are tough. Sparky is hauling ~1300 pounds of batteries up some long hills. I have learned to avoid them if possible. I can still go about 30 MPH up some of the worst hills. If you want an electric sports car check out Tesla Motors. Bring your check book, they cost $100K.

Once Sparky is rolling it can move. It cruises nicely in 3rd gear and out on Powers Boulevard (A main traffice artery here in Colorado Springs) I had it going 60 MPH (I had it in 4th gear). However, most of the time I don't need to go any faster than 40 as that is the speed limit on most of the roads I use. In most cases it is less.

An interesting phenomenon I have observed in driving to work is the number of people racing between stop lights. Sparky is slow out of the gate, and I drive it that way to extend the battery life. So most people blow past Sparky. However, in the end, he catches up to the same cars from the previous light. So in this age of $3.00/gallon why do we waste the gas needed for that jack rabbit start? Remember the seventies?

I am finding that it is very enjoyable to drive something that you have created. When cruising about I am reminded of the Springsteen song, Thunder Road: "Hey what else can we do now except roll down the window And let the wind blow back your hair". It is very exciting.

Aug 2008: 5000 Miles!!! and still going strong! Gas has been around $4.00/gallon. I am sure glad that I have Sparky to drive to work every day.

I did overheat the other day and had to pull over. It was 96 out and it was the first time this season that I had this problem. I will be looking into a larger heatsink for the controller.

Spring 2008: Started driving Sparky more in April. To get the batteries (and myself) back in shape I drove only 5 miles to the park-n-ride and then rode my bike to work (8 miles) from there.

I did this 2 or 3 days a week. In May I started driving Sparky full time again, saving my bike rides for my lunch time work out.

Winter 2007/2008:I didn't do much driving this past winter. I don't have an insulated garage and I don't have battery heaters. So my range is greatly reduced in the winter. The cabin heater is not so good either. I really need to work on this if I am going to do any winter driving.

September 2007: Motor Coupler comes loose! I was driving out of my office garage and heard an unusal noise. I got the car home but didn't feel comfortable driving it.

I inpsected the vehicle from the underside but didn't see anything. The noise was coming from inside the bell housing of the transmission. I finally decided to remove the motor to see what the problem was.

Upon removal of the motor I found that the motor shaft had become disconnected from the motor coupler! There are two set screws and a key that aligns the motor coupler to the motor shaft. Evidently one of the set screws backed out and allowed the coupler to slide up and down the shaft.

I removed the loose set screw and drilled a deeper "seat" for it in the shaft. When I replaced it I also used some thread locker. Back on the road!

August 2007: Autoshow!!! I entered Sparky in a local auto show. It was fun being there with all of these clsssic hot rods around me. I was the only the electric. I spent the whole day answering a lot of questions.

August 2007: Overtemp!!! Driving home one day the controller went into thermal overload. This means the controller is overheating and will roll back the current available to drive the motor. I found I had to pull over and let the controller cool down before proceeding. Fortunately it happened when I was close to home. I mitigated the problem by adding two fans that sit on top of the controller and blow air over the heatsink fins.

May 2007: Sparky went for a new suit of color. The local Maaco shop was very helpful in getting the job done. Sparky needed some minor body work done. I also changed the color to blue. It really shines now!!!

April 2007: I took it to work for the first time. I live between 10 and 12 miles from work, depending on which way I go. Round trip can thus be no more than 24 miles. It performed great. Going to work I take the shortest route, and it is mostly downhill. Coming home I take a little longer route but the hills are less dramatic. Total round trip is 22 miles.

Jan-Mar 2007: Due to the unusual cold and snow here in Colorado I haven't been able to drive Sparky as much as I wanted. Since I was new to the whole EV thing I wanted to make sure the conditions were somewhat ideal. (i.e. no ice or snow on the street.) We got dumped on in December and had snow in our neighborhood until early March. I drove it mostly on weekends using it for small errands. As instructed, I would gradually increase my range between charges.

Learning to drive Sparky has been an interesting experience. I find I am using second gear to start out in all situations except for steep hills. Above 30 MPH I am usually in 3rd gear. I find it is better for the batteries to gently press down on the accelerator rather than floor it.

Dec 2006: Took Sparky over to Jiffy Lube to have it's last emission inspection. I needed to have it re-identified as an EV for the state of Colorado. As of December 8, 2006 sparky is now a registered electric vehicle.