Cohousing-L Mailing List: Re: electric vehicles

[Stuart Joseph (stuart]

Muriel,
Please send me the PDF file.
It might be good to add it to the archive and/or the WIKI as I am sure 
that a lot of us are interested in the subject.

i would love to own one, but once we are living at Caer Coburn, I 
couldn't use it for getting to town as the only way to get there is via 
a State highway with a speed limit of 50 MPH.

Thanks.

Muriel Kranowski wrote:
> I posed the question about electric trucks to a friend here in town, David 
> Roper, a retired physics professor at Virginia Tech. Dave owns a ZAP Xebra 
> pickup and has made himself into the most public Electric Vehicle champion 
> in Blacksburg.  Here's his reply (not speaking to shared ownership but 
> about the vehicles).  He said I could include his email address: 
> roperld [at] vt.edu.
>
> He also sent me a 2-page PDF file containing more information, his 
> recommendations about dealers, etc., which I'll forward to anyone who asks 
> for it.
>
> ----------------Dave's message--------------
> The ZAP Xebra PK pickup starting selling in the U.S. in Sept 2006. There 
> were lots of things that needed to be improved, some of which I found with 
> mine. There is a summary of those items at
> http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/Xebra_EV/files/Xebra%20Breeders%20Digest
> / (click on the Xebra Breeders Digest).
>
> I am told that many of those items have been fixed in the 2008 model.
>
> See:
> http://www.roperld.com/science/ZAPXebraPKRoper.htm
> http://www.roperld.com/science/zapxebrapkreview.htm
> http://www.roperld.com/science/ZapElectricCars.htm
>
>
> A log of my experience with the ZAP Xebra PK is
> http://www.roperld.com/science/RoperPKLog.htm .
>
> For any electric car with lead-acid batteries, the batteries will last much 
> longer if they are not discharged all the way down, even though they are 
> called "deep cycle" batteries. The most life-time energy can be gotten out 
> of them if they are discharged only about half way.
>
> I hope to move to lithium-ion-iron-phosphate batteries in a year or so
> (http://www.ewidistribution.com/batteries.html); right now they are about 3 
> times or more expensive than lead-acid AGM batteries (the best lead-acid 
> batteries), which I now have. Their price should go down rapidly in the 
> next few years.
>
> The GEM can go only 25 mph, whereas the Xebra can go 40 mph.
>
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--
Stuart Joseph, 802-463-1954
Project Director
Caer Coburn, a traditional village based upon cohousing  and intentional 
communities in
Rockingham, Vermont, USA
http://www.caercoburn.org
Mail to:
36 Front St.
Bellows Falls, VT 05101 USA