And the verdict is...

Success! I rolled into the driveway with juice to spare, and I even stopped at Starbucks on the way. According to my trip odometer, my truck has seen almost exactly 70 miles today, almost all of it in 55 mph zones. No trouble there... Talk about a money saver!

Later folks... This is a very pleased EV driver, signing off.

Fun drive to work...

Well, so far so good. I got to work without any problems and plenty of charge left. Having never driven my truck in heavy traffic, I was impressed how well it kept up. And now: will I make it back home??

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Range test results

I did an informal range test on my truck yesterday. The official test track consisted of several miles of open, 55 mph road, and several miles of slower stop-and-go driving.

The results (drumroll please)? A very comfortable 45 mile range over a period of about an hour and 10 minutes, with the truck still comfortably maintaining 55 mph when I pulled in the driveway.

I was, needless to say, quite pleased.

Next up: The 70 mile roundtrip commute to my summer job, in rush hour traffic. I hope to undertake this expedition tomorrow morning, and I should have the results sometime tomorrow afternoon. I'm excited. Stay tuned!

Breaking news!

Well, not quite, but whatever. My latest "media event:" ABC came over and did a feature story for today's news. I didn't get to see it, but reports indicate that it turned out well, and the transcript looks good. Not a bad day!

Stay tuned for more after these very important messages!

144v upgrade

Here's a pic of the 144v upgrade on my truck. I added four more batteries above the motor. The other four that were already in the engine compartment kept their original position. The component board was turned on edge and mounted against the firewall, and the charger and vacuum system were scattered all over the place to make room. Everything else stayed exactly the same.

Up and running

Wow, I'm quite the procrastinator... I'll try to post updates a little more often now that I have (slightly) more time!

Anyway, here's the big news: the Tercel is up and running! I've had it on the road for a few weeks now and I love it. Lemme tell you, this thing is FAST! It has no trouble breaking the tires loose in 2nd gear, and I have yet to reach the top speed (so far I've had it up to around 70). 2nd gear is fine all the way up to redline at 55.

I do have to say range isn't so great (so far it's about 20-25 miles), but I guess that's what I get for building a car with cheap marine batteries and a huge motor.

In other news, I've just finished upgrading my truck to 144 volts, which seems to have helped out a little bit in terms of speed and acceleration. I'll probably do a range test sometime this weekend, and I'm optimistic in my expectations. Anyway, more on the later.

Oh yeah, happy Independance Day everybody!