UBC Electric Car Club

Well, as we suffered the Pacific Pineapple Express today here in rainy Vancouver, Ricky, Colin, Sparky and the eBeetle were sweltering in 33°C temperatures in humid Toronto. Apparently that hot weather is going to continue all the way to Quebec, and then as we enter the Maritimes, things are going to change. In fact the change may be more than we would normally anticipate for the rainy Atlantic coast at this time of year.

Hurricane Earl is currently out in the mid-Atlantic headed towards the US seaboard where it is expected to turn north and arrive in Halifax on Saturday. So it is a good thing we are now planning to arrive on Friday in advance of the onslaught.

We’re trying to figure out if the boys should leave immediately and try to race the winds and rain back to Quebec or simply hole up in a nice hotel and wait it out.

We’re not sure what strategy is best so why don’t we ask our readers to choose. Please leave a comment voting for one or the other option:

A. Stay in Halifax until Earl has passed

B. Race back to Quebec as fast as possible

Let’s hear what you think.

We will attempt to make Halifax by September 3 – a total of 14 days

Here is the proposed schedule which may be modified as circumstances beyond our control occur:

Aug 31
Day 11
Stage 1  286 km    Toronto      DEP  6:00pm
-                  Ivy Lea KOA  ARR  9:30pm
Over-night charging at the Thousand Islands

Sept 1
Day 12
Stage 1  175 km    Ivy Lea KOA  DEP  6:30am
-                  Ottawa       ARR  9:00am
eBeetle on Parliament Hill
Charging at ....  11am til 3:00pm
Stage 2  169 km    Ottawa       DEP  3:00pm
-                  Valleyfield  ARR  5:30pm
Overnight charging in Valleyfield

Sept 2
Day 13
Stage 1a  25 km    Valleyfield  DEP  5:30am
-                  Mount Royal  ARR  6:30am
Photo Ops on the Mountain
Stage 1b 253 km    Montreal     DEP  8:30am
-                  Quebec City  ARR 11:30am
Photo Ops in Old Quebec, General Assembly, Plains of Abraham
Stage 1c  20 km    Quebec City  DEP 12:30pm
-                  KOA Quebec City ARR 1:00pm
-                  St. Nicolas
Charging at the KOA Quebec City 1:00pm - 4:30pm
Stage 2  207 km    KOA Quebec City DEP 4:30pm
-                  Riviere de Loup ARR 7:30pm
Charging at the .... 7:30pm - 10:30pm
Stage 3  180 km    Riviere de Loup DEP 10:30pm
-                  Grand Falls, NB ARR 12:45am
Over-night charging at Falls and Gorge Camping

Sept 3
Day 14
Stage 1  213 km    Grand Falls    DEP  5:30am
-                  Fredericton    ARR  8:15am
Charging at Woolastook Park 8:15am to 12:15pm
Stage 2  177 km    Fredericton    DEP 12:15pm
-                  Moncton        ARR  2:30pm
Photo Ops at Magnetic Hill - 2:30pm - 3:00pm
Charging at Pine Ridge Campground 3:00pm - 7:00pm
Stage 3  256 km    Moncton        DEP  7:00pm
                   Halifax        ARR 10:00pm

We wish to pay tribute to our sponsors and affiliates. We could not have done this without you.

Current Sponsors and Affiliates

UBC APSC Professional Activities Fund
UBC Applied Sciences
Department of Mining Engineering
Norman B. Keevil Institute for Mining Engineering
UBC-ICICS
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
UBC Parking Office
Century Group, Tsawwassen, B.C.
UBC Thunderbird Robotics
Thai Kitchen Restaurant, Richmond, B,.C.
delta-Q Technologies
AVR Import Specialties
Tigon Systems
Blackspire Bike Parts
Koolance Computer Watercooling
Thomas & Betts
Penguin ASI
Toronto Electric
Vancouver Electric Vehicle Association
Domino’s Pizza – Dunbar St.

Peter Cook and Longo Developments

Entek Engineering Ltd.

We have reached the bright lights of Toronto.

After some major charging issues at the KOA Parry Sound RV Campground which delayed our departure until 11am, the team has arrived safe and sound in Toronto at 2:30pm. The eBeetle is parked at Toronto Electric Company just off the Don Valley Parkway for recharging, repairs, media events, and a well-deserved rest. We have decided to spend an extra day in Toronto for touring and pictures before heading out to Ottawa for an extraordinary event on Parliament Hill on Wednesday morning.

The two boys and Sparky deserve a real pat on the back for their efforts under difficult circumstances as we traversed across Northern Ontario and down to Toronto. In 10 tough days, they have completed 70% of the drive – a remarkable accomplishment with no support vehicle along side to assist. We have had tremendous support from so many people along the way who were inspired by what a couple of university students have been able to do with an electric car.

Deep appreciations to our host today and tomorrow – Steve Dallas of Toronto Electric.

So last time we saw some advantages – this time let’s examine some limitations - Charging

One of the biggest issues with EVs today is the time it takes to restore the on-board energy. We can fill up our gas tanks in minutes but to recharge batteries we can’t yet compete with that time and we lack the infrastructure to support quick charging. Thet doesn’t preclude EVs, it just means we have to change how we use our vehicles. Even if it takes 4 hours to recharge, this can be done at night or even at work during the day while the car is parked.

Here are some options (not all of them – there are other ideas)

Charging Options

Batteries

- Li-Fe-polymer are the state of the art.
- about 500 kg of batteries can store about 40 kWh of electric power.
- enough to drive an 1,800 kg vehicle at least 250 km on a single charge at 90 kph and 500 km at 60 kph.

1. Stop to Charge

- The eBeetle uses 220V/50amp RV services to recharge in about 4 hours using conventional $500 chargers (can deliver 40 kWh total in that time).
- So 4-hour charging is currently available across the country in existing infrastructure.

- Mitsubishi is demonstrating that the Eaton Quick Charger can recharge a 120-km range battery in 30 minutes.
- that’s impressive but requires service stations to install the Eaton unit.
- there are some available in California.

2. Replace battery pack at service stations

- an Israeli company is pioneering this concept.
- charging is done at a service site without the vehicle being present
- just pull into the centre, slip out the current battery and replace it with a new fully-charged one and drive away.
- time is likely similar to filling up a gas tank (5-10 minutes).
- downside is the incredible inventory control costs and meeting the escalating demands
- as more and more EVs appear on the road, this method strikes me as being infeasible and impractical.

Ultra-capacitors

- not yet there but coming

- The ZENN car company from St. Jerome, Quebec is partnering with a Texas company called EESTOR to create the first commercially available ultra-capacitor

- charging will be very quick if materials can be developed to hold the charge and dissipate it in a controlled fashion

The boys and Sparky (aka Bandit) left the Sault St. Marie KOA campground at about 9:30 AM when the car was fully charged.

On the road just west of Espanola Ontario, Ricky, Colin and Bandit saw the Mitsubishi  iMiev headed west. We aren’t sure if it was Sparky or Zippy. They have us very confused.  No one knows for sure if they are trying to go across Canada with one car or two cars.

The trip to Naughton was slow but steady and we arrived on a single charge at 1:49 after a 290 km run. The Sudbury area did not have a campground suitable for the fast charge we need. Fortunate for us, the good folks of Penguin ASI were able to help us out with the 50 Amp circuit we needed. John had a great  connection in Dr. Greg Baiden, a grad student of his from 1986 days at Queens who founded Penguin ASI after a distinguished career with Inco directing a research program on mine automation. Greg had to attend a NASA event in the U.S. but he arranged for one of his colleagues, Dr. Yassiah Bissiri to assist us with the recharge. Yass happens to be a Ph.D. graduate of UBC Mining of a few years ago and is also a great friend of John’s. Thanks much to Greg and Yass and others with Penguin for coming out to help us!!

The car was back on the road by 7:00 PM with sufficient charge to reach Parry Sound . We have a friend in Michelle and Diane ahead at the Parry Sound KOA campground a distance of 183 km away.  The team made it to the campground at a decent hour of 9:30 this evening.

Other than being frustrated with another poor communications day, we did well. Toronto is now in site.

Tomorrow morning the EBeetle is headed to Toronto Electric for a pit stop to install an additional charger and meet some media. Steve Dallas is our gracious host and has offered the crew his facilities to do a bit of work as well as take care of the team.

While the team is holed up at Penguin A.S.I. in Sudbury getting recharged, let’s talk a little bit about the advantages of All-electric and the differences in the approaches being taken to driving electrically.

First of all, a big advantage of an electrically-powered vehicle is that no energy is used (or loss) while idling (in fact, there is no idling!). So if an electric car get slowed down because of a traffic jam, road construction or a red light, the efficiency of energy use doesn’t drop. In mathematical terms, the trend line  of energy versus velocity (which is a squared relationship not accounting for friction and wind losses) passes through the origin, and so no energy is consumed at zero velocity unlike an Internal Combustion Engine (I.C.E.) unless the I.C.E. is turned off every time it stops. Now if air-conditioning is installed, this will change, but there are ways to design air-conditioning to minimize electrical use by dumping heat into the cooling system and then exchanging the heat to the atmosphere. (more…)

Ricky, Jerry Asher and I visited the REV facility this summer to see what they were up to and went away envious of the quality of components they were putting into their conversions. We caught the Global News report on their recent success and now better understand their focus. Congratulations REV!!

When we left that facility…Ricky was very proud of the fact some of the REV team members are former members of the UBC Electric Car Club team as well. Jonathon is part of both teams and has been working with REV this past summer. He accompanied Ricky on a shakedown trip to Whistler. We look forward to his return to the team at UBC when classes commence.

Check out REV at http://www.rapidelectricvehicles.com/

Jerry Asher is the North American Coordinator for the Zero Race.

For those of you not aware, the EBeetle was the lone Canadian entrant for the Zero Race which left Geneva Aug. 16, 2010. The car was engineered to meet the criteria set out by the race organisers. We could see it would not be ready in time to be a contender so we bowed out of the race early this summer.

It’s a fascinating project…check them out at http://www.zero-race.com/

The boys and Sparky (aka Bandit) left the Penn Lake campground in Marathon at about 11:30 AM when the car was fully charged. Again, much thanks to Harry and wife Lorraine for taking care of this leg of our journey.

The trip to Wawa was impeded by windy conditions off the lakes and lots of hills. The 195 km took about 3 ½ hrs by the time they arrived at the intended rv campground. As suspected, this campground could not accommodate a charge because the lone site with the required 50Amp was occupied. Our fallback was to use the community hall. The car was not connected and charging for another couple of hours until a receptacle could be wired. (more…)

The UBC Thunderbird Robotics eBeetle did a record run today driving from Dryden to Marathon on two full charges: a total distance of 652 kilometers – a record distance for the trip (and for an electric vehicle in a single day).

Just to remind you, our first 5 days performance relative to the planned schedule was as follows:

Day              Daily (km)                   Cumulative (km)
Number   Actual  Planned        Actual  Planned  Difference
Day 1         405        405            405       405            0
Day 2         507        507            912       912            0
Day 3         288        398         1,200     1,310       -110    charging problems
Day 4         334        692         1,534     2,002       -468    charging problems
Day 5         607        563         2,141     2,565       -424    back on track

The past two days have been phenomenal and we have made up almost 300 km of our offset mileage:

Day 6         561        492         2,702     3,057       -355    Winnipeg to Dryden
Day 7         652        471         3,354     3,528       -174    Dryden to Marathon (more…)