Phev Insight

[richardh]

Pete,

Go for it, would be amazing to have a 100 LMGP!

Richard

[retepsnikrep]

I intend moving my cells into the ipu compartment to give be back my wheel well etc.

So I've been measuring up in IPU compartment and my 50 cells will fit just!

The space reqd is 550mm x 560mm x 180mm.

However the bcm/mcm and the control board from the end of the battery will have to be moved out of the compartment.

I'm going to put these behind the seats, there is a lot of room in the gap between ipu comp and the rear of the aluminium cover behind seats.

I'm going to get a nice aluminium box made which will bolt to the four IMA battery mount points. The cells will be strapped into the box and it will be fitted with a clear cover as now basically.

The charger will be moved to under the foam outside left hand side of ipu comp.

It looks like everything should fit but I will have to extend the harness a little bit in places. I'll do that on my spare one and then just plug it all in.

I need a spare car now as it will take a couple of weeks spare time to do the work, and I need to get to work and back!

[retepsnikrep]

Car is now pretty settled so I have just filled up with Shells finest VPower and started an excel spreadsheet to monitor various factors, fuel, mpg, mileage, kwh consumed etc.

I've been using loads of manual assist (max 50%) for last couple of days on my commute and pegged display at 150mpg for last 200 miles. I'm going for a full tank max!!

I find that Mima Mode 2 even with loads of assist set at above 125mpg means you still have to press the throttle a bit to get the assist and this is better when you want to pace the power drain to eek out the pack over a longer distance, when you inevitably have to use some fuel

Manual assist means engine is basicaly ticking over taking care of the pumping losses and the power to drive the car is comming from the IMA. Seems to work quite well.

Edit now 150mpg over last 207miles and 129.5mpg over last 1100miles

[Mike Dabrowski 2000]

Hi Peter,
Happy to hear that your experiences with the PHEV mode of operation is even better than mine with the much more limited 16.5A of boost that I have available.I am still undecided as to which method PHEV is better. Your full replacement of the battery is more elegant, and allows more battery for less weight, but the boost method has advantages in that the BCM and all stock systems remain intact and operate normally, so the boost battery can be removed with little effort, and allows flexible boost battery configurations. So many possibilities!

Too bad we can't figure out an easy way to add a second IMA motor, on the other side of the clutch, so the engine/IMA could be off for straight EV mode, and could be on, acting as an on board charger like the Chevy Volt, for EV range extension. It may be possible to switch the inverter drive to the second IMA motor, so a second inverter would not be required.

[retepsnikrep]

Thanks for that Mike.

Here are a few preliminary figures. I've just started logging data on a spreadsheet, fuel, kwh, miles etc.

Over the last 236 miles it has been doing an indicated 150mpg (it may be doing more than that, i'll see when fill up again in about a years time ) and it has also consumed 19kwh of mains electricity.

It's used 1.57 gallons of VPower at 96p per L so petrol cost is £8.85

Cost of electricity £2.85 at 15p unit x 19kwh. I don't have a cheap rate meter.

Total cost for 236 miles = £11.70 or 5p a mile.

Electricity is taxed but not at the same hideous rate as petrol.

So the more petrol I offset the better.

Battery depreciation is not included so call it 10p a mile to allow for that.

Figures are all Imperial/UK values.

[Mike Dabrowski 2000]

Very impressive!
Sounds like you need to get the charging system to run off of solar and/or wind, to minimize the carbon footprint.

[retepsnikrep]

I do buy all my electricity from green sources, but yes I need to move somewhere with a better wind/water power potential for my two wind turbines.

Homegrown Power: My Smartdrive 2 stage Savonius.

[Mike Dabrowski 2000]

I saw your drum wind turbine photos when you first posted them, and have since acquired 6 55 gal drums with the idea of making some units myself.
Thanks for posting the details.
I was considering using an insight IMA motor as the generator.

[IamIan]

Originally Posted by retepsnikrep

Over the last 236 miles it has been doing an indicated 150mpg (it may be doing more than that, i'll see when fill up again in about a years time ) and it has also consumed 19kwh of mains electricity.

What is the metric display of the fuel consumption ?

It goes past the equivalent of 150 MPG point...

[retepsnikrep]

Figures straight from display.

Trip A 1.8L last 401.9 km {I think this works out at about 157mpg Imp}

Trip B 2.1L last 1791.2 km

LMPG 2.9L last 173208 km



Mike

Not sure about the IMA motor for the wind turbine, still got the bearing problem and mounting it with suffciently close tolerances that is doesn't destroy itself by rotor contacting stator etc.

Very powerful no doubt but will need quite a few rpm to get a decent output. 500rpm min i should think.

Also cogging may be an issue as will starting torque reqd. I've never tried to turn one over by hand. If you bring load on line when it acually rotating that might work.