Fun times: The Initial Drives

We like our parking TIGHT

So, so. how does it go?
Pretty darn good. Everything about this car seems to be a generation ahead of the other (red) one. Interior, fit and finish, doors, accessories, instruments. You name it. The powertrain in the other car is arguably more advanced, but this one seems to work better in the 'real world'. Well, excepting the loud klunk that happens no matter how you finesse the accelerator pedal. That's not what I'd call an improvement.

There are power door locks and one key works for everything. There is some motor whine but is's not real objectionable. Something is buzzing against the motor or gearbox, you can hear it rattling at certain speeds, but I'm sure we'll figure it out.
We went out for several drives with charging in-between. Getting the batteries broken in without damaging any of them. The pack doesn't look really balanced as yet. Hard to tell if it's real or just flaky results from the PakTrakr battery monitor (we've had problems before...)

With the Sean's high-zoot 84V system installed the car cruises at remarkably low current readings around town. You can get pretty decent accelation while still staying below 100 amps. This should lead to pretty decent range and battery life. Cool.

It's still voltage limited at higher speeds (above 35 mph) You can see the current drop off as the speed builds even with the pedal to the floor. Electric motors also act as generators. At a given speed there is a certan voltage the motor would generate. It's the difference between that voltage and what's available from the batteries that allows current to flow, and therefore torque generated to accelerate the car. As the 'generated voltage' (back EMF) gets higher as you go faster, the voltage difference drops until you can't accelerate any more, so you reach a steady state speed.
People tend to think that since the motor isn't all that powerful you should put smaller wheels/tires on the car to improve hill climbing ability. Kinda like with a gas car where if there isn't enough power available in second gear, you drop down to first and floor-it. DC Electric cars work exactly the opposite: The maximum torque is generated at the lowest RPM. To get the electric car to pull harder you shift up to third and floor-it, You get more power right up until you reach the maximum current limit on the controller. We're going to do approximately the same thing (gearing-wise) by putting taller tires on it. More on this later.