Re: electric vehicles
From: Judith Rosen (heyokasnowcrest.net)
Date: Sun, 9 Dec 2007 12:37:39 -0800 (PST)
I'd very much like the PDF and any add'l relevant info.


----- Original Message ----- From: "Stuart Joseph" <stuart [at] caercoburn.org>
To: "Cohousing-L" <cohousing-l [at] cohousing.org>
Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2007 8:12 AM
Subject: Re: [C-L]_ electric vehicles


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

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