Six Months Down the Road

It's over six months since we left Dunedin on our way home. 

Since arriving home we have covered over 1500 km, not a lot, but a strong indication of the short runs that we do.  Our energy requirements have dropped from 18+kW per 100km down to a mere 13.8kW per 100km and that is because over 40% of the power that we use is developed from regeneration.  All those hills on Waiheke have some use after all.

We only charge the eNV200 when the sun is shining, because we have solar panels and generate a modest amount of power.  As a result, when we compared the last six months electricity costs, which including all our charging, we were very surprised to find that it was $7 cheaper than the same period for the year before.  In other words, there has been no noticeable cost for us to travel over 1500km.

We are extremely happy with the eNV200 and Lynette really loves driving it, especially.  She is now calling it our "Forever Vehicle."

We have a few activities and trips planned in the next year.  Jim has a ham radio contest, from the beach, in the next couple of weeks, and then we are going to the Kumeu Agricultural Show.  (See http://kumeushow.co.nz/)  Later in the year. we intend doing a trip around Northland for a couple of weeks.

This stimulated Jim to design and build a raised sleeping platform, above the wheel arches, so that we could layout a double bed without sides of the bed rolling up over the arches.  Also being raised, we would have better storage, so that we didn't need to shift everything out of the van each night, before we can get into bed.

Jim found some construction ply at the recycling centre and built a robust sleeping platform.  (The paint cost more than the ply).  There are two parts.  Behind the rear folding seat, there is a platform to the rear door.  This will be a permanent fixture, although it is removable.   Removing four bolts allows the rear seat to come out.  The front section of the sleeping platform is made up of a number of pieces that slide together and then ten screws,  through the top, that  hold the whole thing together.  It's nice and strong and can easily support our weight.  Photos of the assembly are below.

For some reason we haven't been able to find the double airbed, but a couple of singles that we have work extremely well.

To keep the light out when we are sleeping in the back, Lynette has sewn magnets into curtains so that we can easily line the inside of the windows.

We had hoped to have a proper spare wheel instead of the air pump and can of Slime puncture repair, but we have not yet tracked down a suitable five stud wheel.  The standard NV200 has a four stud wheel.

Above and below - The permanent section.
A spare wheel will fit under the platform, on the left.

 Above and below - With the rear seat removed, panels slide in and the top ties it all together.

 The whole platform

 There's about 25 litres of space in each bay.

The little 12v cooler fits but will need better air flow 

Fit for purpose

A Month on Waiheke

Time certainly has gone quickly.

We had a few changes as we had planned to put the e-NV200 into the basement, but that was a tight fit getting the tilt door closed, so we had to put the Kia Sorento in the basement and the EV goes in the garage.  That meant removing the roof rack and storing it for some future trip to the mainland as there's less than 150mm clearance between the top of the van and the garage door.

We have fitted monsoon shields over the front doors and added plastic mud flaps on all four wheel arches.  The latter do stop a little dirt being thrown around and look fine.  

Jim also attacked the slight rust on the six roof rack mounts on the roof.  These were originally bunged up with a plastic bung and a paper washer.  Using a Dremel tool, he ground away the rust and etched primed the surface, then primed and painted the area.  To stop further moisture, he bought some 8mm screws and large washers.  He made some rubber gaskets out of a piece of old fish pond liner and coated the gaskets with silicone grease and screwed everything down.  The 20mm long screws did not need to be cut.

While he was looking at the roof, he noticed a couple of other light rust spots, one of which has already been treated by rust killer, so he is waiting for a few more fine days to resolve these.

Lynette has been driving the van and really enjoys it.  With the large mirrors and rear viewing camera, she's having no problem backing it.  And its turning circle is amazing.  It's far better than the Suzuki Nomade.

The tyre pressure has been dropped to 32 pounds and the Eco mode switched off.  It drives wonderfully.  With the hills we have here on Waiheke Island and the mainly 50kph speed limit, we are regenerating 40% of the power we use and our consumption is down to 15.3 kWH per 100 km. It was about 21 when we picked it up and dropped down to 18 kWH/100km by the time we got home.  

We really aren’t noticing the changing cost as we charge only when the sun is shining and we are generating power from our grid tie system.  We charge it after every two or three trips around the island and it doesn't take more than three hours.  

The worst complaint is the radio.  It's a Japanese unit which doesn't cover the NZ FM band, so Auto Court had a converter fitted.  Unfortunately, it misses a small portion of the NZ FM band, and that's where the Coast is, so we have switched to The Breeze for now.  The antenna is very small and therefore the reception is not the best.

Jim has a few other projects planned.  He should get the rust proofing paint in a month or so and then that has to be applied.  Installing his ham radio transceiver is also on the list but he has to sort out a folding antenna, so it can be lowered prior to entering the garage.  Further down the list are a new FM radio antenna and then a sleeping platform at wheel arch level, so that we can do a few more camping trips to the mainland.

Jim went to the Auckland EV World Expo on Saturday 11 August.  The show had a range of electric vehicles from push bikes, motor cycles with electric motors, new and used cars from Series 1 Leafs to expensive new Teslas and BMWs.  There was a quad bike, and smaller ATV units plus two trucks.  

He meet Paul and Simon who supply the three pin EV chargers.  He also caught up with Carl from Blue Cars.  Carl also lives on Waiheke and Jim had met him before we picked up our van.  He reckons that they aren’t too far away from making add-on batteries to provide more range for vehicles.

The advertising 1957 Ford Fairlane, called Evie, that Mercury are using for EV advertising was also there.  The story of this vehicle can be found at https://www.mercury.co.nz/Evie/The-story-so-far

The most unusual EV was an aluminium fishing boat that was driven by an inboard/outboard drive.  The ICE motor had been removed and an electric motor installed in its place.  The centre of the hull was filled with a stack of batteries,  We couldn't see the battery cover, but looking at the floor, it must have been substantial and had a massive gasket to stop the salt water getting near the batteries.  One wonders where the boat gets charged.  

Apparently, EV numbers in NZ have been doubling every year.  It will be interesting to see if this year's 9,000 EVs doubles next year.  The Government's and Goff's fuel taxes are certainly going to give that some impetus.

Below are a few photos of some of the EVs at EV World Expo,

Evie and what she has under the hood.

The electric boat and Inboard/Outboard

Sorry about the quality of the battery photo

 

 An electric scooter above and an electric bike that looks like a 1910 Harley, below.

 Little Flick, the electric fire engine above.

 Electric trucks are coming fast.

The truck above can carry 5 tonnes on its 3 tonne chassis, and Palmerston North are using the electric rubbish truck below. 
Both have a range of around 250km per charge.

The trip summary

Buying from Auto Court was the right thing for us.  There were only two of this model of van around for sale in NZ and the one we chose was the lowest mileage.  The guys there have sold a number of electric vehicles and have a skilled EV mechanic on staff so they are very experienced with EVs.   Our vehicle came with a NZ dash, converter for the Japanese radio and an English manual.  They weren’t familiar with the onboard 100v AC inverter, but you can’t hold that against them.  

The only negative point about the van we bought was a slight amount of surface rust on the roof where the plugs that blank off the roof rack threads are located. Mind you, we found them only when we climbed a step to install the roof rack, and they should not be too difficult to resolve.

As a van, it’s pleasant to drive and travel in.  A definite improvement on the Toyota Hiace that we drove from London to Calcutta and then down the east coast of Australia, before coming home.

As a camper, it’s a bit of a squeeze. We brought down to Dunedin too much in the way of camping gear as we didn’t know how well the holiday parks are set up today.  The air bed allowed us to sleep in the back, but isn’t taylored for the space and as a result, you can’t pump it up hard.  That makes things difficult when getting in and out of the van, because the bed is not firm enough.  A simple platform at wheel arch level will provide a large sleeping platform and a mattress can be made to measure.  There will then be permanent storage under the sleeping platform that we can access.  Travelling with the bench seat removed will also help.  

Bubble wrap on the windows helped control the condensation but the front and back windows are large.  We will make some better ones later.  Lighting in the back, for camping, needs an improvement but is quite easy to sort out with all the LED technology that is available from eBay.

The roof rack and the piece of timber that Jim fitted, solved the awning issues and the awning was great at giving us a little more dry space.  Just a simple tarp and a couple of extendable poles from Bunnings.

As a rechargeable vehicle, the e-NV200 is very good in the cities, where you either charge at home or there are alternative fast chargers.  You can run at normal city speeds, including motorway speeds, without much concern.  From what we have seen, a city milage of well over 100 km should be the norm at 50kph.

For longer distances, 80km is a good range between chargers and most are placed closer than that, or there will be chargers there in the next year or so.  You need to be running in the Eco mode with B regeneration switched on.  Hills do make a definite difference, so slow down on them and enjoy the scenery.  Going up the hills at 60kph, instead of blasting up them at full speed, certainly extends the battery range.  We travelled between 60 and 80 kph on the longer and hillier sections and got through.  Most hills have a down side which, provided you are in the B Mode, gives a surprising gain in energy.  Our longest trek, between Kaikoura and Seddon, was at about 60kph to give us the battery capacity to cover 103 km and the hills.  

Range Anxiety does exist but if you take it easy and remember that hills generally do go down, you can regenerate quite a lot of power on the downhill run.  On our total trip, we generated over 50kWH of power, which is roughly five stops for charging.  

Your driving style also changes as you go along.  When we started out, we were using 20.8 kWH of power per 100km.  By learning to drive up and down hills at speeds that suited an EV, and accepting that you need to drive with the minimum amount of power consumption, while still keeping up with the traffic, at the end of the trip, we were using just 18.0 kWH for the same distance.

Charging at caravan parks is easy if you are staying overnight but can be a tedious if you have to charge to reach the next fast charger.  Compared to a fast charger you don't get much battery charge per hour but it's better than none.  We spent a couple of three or four hour sessions in caravan parks.

Only once did we encounter another EV at a fast charger, and we were there first.  He had experienced just three 20 minute waits at other sites in his 18 month experience of owning an EV.  New charging sites are coming on each year and more and more will be required as the EV numbers grow.  In Japan, they are often found outside convenience stores (dairies), but it will be a few years before we see that here in NZ.

When the chargers in Tokoroa and Taihape are installed, it will be much better getting from Palmerston North to Taupo, although we would still plan to go from Waiouru to Turangi via National Park, because of the hills.  

Note that these long distance range comments apply only to the e-NV200, as the Nissan Leaf has about 30% better performance due to its reduced weight and better aerodynamic design.

We travelled a total of 1737 km in 13 days and stayed in the same location on three separate days.  Our average speed was around 35kph, which suited us just fine.  We charged 45 times and almost half of those were slow charges.  We had 13 "free" charges where we either charged at friends or relations, or the cost of charging was included in the camping charge.  

To cover the same distance in the Suzuki Nomade that the EV is replacing, which averages around 10km per litre would have cost between $338 (cheapest price for fuel was $1.95 at one spot in the Waikato) to $475 (Waiheke prices.)  Just checked our ChargeNet account and it looks like we have a bill coming for just under $119, which if added to the $18 we paid for charging at caravan parks along the way, really does show the the difference between the two fuels.

It will be a lot cheaper from now on as today we topped up, while the sun was shining, with power that we generated from our own solar panels.  We are looking forward to the warmer climate changes because that means more sun and lower outgoing costs.

Home Again

It was a little damp when we started out from Hamilton.  We stopped at a supermarket and loaded up with cat food so that we had a few brownie points when we arrived home.  

We stopped off in Huntly for a coffee and a nibble. The chocolate eclair was monstrous and most enjoyable.   It's opposite the St John Op Shop and has a photo of the old Shands bakery that was there in the past.  Jim's support engineers, at Racal-Milgo, always made a point of stopping off at Shands for a cream bun in the 1980's.

The charging stop at Te Kauwhata was not difficult to find, but it was the first time in the whole trip where we have found another electric vehicle turn up while we were there.  They had to wait about 20 minutes until we had finished.  

Of course, we had a compulsory stop at Pokeno for a massive ice cream at discount prices.  The final mainland fast charging spot was at PaknSave in Takanini.

After that we popped over to Mt Wellington to see Trev before racing to the ferry and getting the last spot on the 4pm ferry, instead of waiting for the 6pm one that we were booked on.

The ferry trip home was very calm, but a little longer than normal, as it was a low tide and they had to sail around the north of Brown's Island.  

When we arrived home, Oscar, the timid cat, was inside and very pleased to see us.  Gypsy, the other cat, is probably out hunting for something nice and alive to show her appreciation of our return.

Tomorrow we will do a quick summary of the trip.

In Hamilton

Today was a good confidence booster.  The trip from Taupo to Tokoroa was mainly uphill, but a long and gradual rise.  We started out with 100% battery and arrived with 40%.  As Putaruru was only 25km down the road, we decided to push on and charge there.  The 88km, by GPS and road signs, took just over an hour, so we were doing good speeds even with the hills.  What was interesting is that the van’s speedometer registered only 77km.  We will have to check that on the way home tomorrow.

In Putaruru, it was very overcast with rain threatening.  We had brunch at the Wooden Farmer, on the north of town.  Be warned, do not order the Farmers Breakfast unless you plan for it to be the only meal of the day.  Luckily we didn’t have that, and still ate more than we should have done.  Jim found out, too late, that the Farmers Breakfast was the Sunday special at $15 per head.  No wonder the place was always busy while we were there.

It had really started to rain by the time we left the Putaruru camp ground and it was wipers and headlights on from there.  The road to Cambridge was busy but okay and we easily found the fast charger.  In fact it’s right beside the toilets but we didn’t find that out until we were walking back.  We had another coffee and within 20 minutes we received a text to say that we were charged to 80% battery. Not bad from 30%.

From Cambridge to the Hamilton caravan park, it was extremely busy and we belted along at over 100kph on the expressway.  (It’s one of the few roads in NZ that is speed limited at 110kph.)

At the caravan park we upgraded to a cabin so that we don’t have to take everything out into pouring rain.  It’s cosy and pleasant.

 This is probably a volcano core, like the Devil's Monument that we saw in the USA

The artists have been busy in Putaruru

The Napier Taupo Rd

It didn’t rain or freeze at the Eskdale camp and we had a good night’s sleep.  We set off for Taupo just before 9am. There are two fast chargers on the way and plenty of hills to suck the battery dry.

We cruised along between 50 and 80+ kph, depending on whether we were going up or down a hill. Jim tried to keep the power demand to two or three power bars and regenerated whenever possible.  The display on the e-NV200 has a horizontal power bar, which on the left shows maximum regeneration, then a little to the right is the zero regeneration/zero power marker, then further right are the power consumption bars where the more power you burn, the more bars are displayed.  Keeping to just two or three power bars is like driving in an fuel economy competition.

A typical e-NV200 display where the horizontal line shows the power coming or going.

There are a number of hills to burn up the battery capacity, but we regenerated plenty too.  We were down to 37% battery capacity at our worst, but were sitting at 50% by the time we hit our first charging point at Te Harato.  The charger there sit about 100 yards/meters up a side road and is well sign posted.  It’s owned by a power company and is right under their transformer.

The power companies charge 40 cents per kwh unit, which is a great rate compared to ChargeNet, who charge by the unit and time and we have paid more than a dollar per unit when we have charged over 80%.  At home we pay less than 30 cents per unit.

It took 30 minutes to charge from 50 to 90%.  Ideally we should only charge to 80%, for optimum battery life, but we need the range, and the battery will enjoy the 80% retirement home, when we get to Waiheke and pamper it with all slow charges to 80%.

Then we headed to the Tarawera Cafe about 25km away where we were going to charge off a caravan plug, for an hour.  However the cafe people were so hopeless and so busy, that we never did find a charging plug and continued on to the Rangitaiki Cafe.  We had been through the worst hills, but didn’t realize it and it was a good run with a reasonable amount of battery left over (30%).  

While we charged up, we had morning tea/early lunch and coffee.  From Rangitaiki to Taupo, it’s basically all down hill, so we made good time and regenerated along the way.  We arrived at the camp just after midday.  Jim asked about a cabin because we thought it might rain, but they were all full.  We found out that there is very little accommodation anywhere in town, but don’t know what’s on, other than it is the school holidays.

We set up camp and went for a 10+ km walk around the block.  Stopped for a low calorie jam, cream and scones lunch, then staggered up the hill to the Aquatic Centre. Along the way we browsed through some charity shops.  The Family Store here has a large space and lots of stock.  At the Aquatic centre we had a pleasant spa in a thermal pool and then staggered back to the van.

As this is being written, there is the gentle sound of rain on the roof, so tomorrow could be a damp start.

From yesterday.

Can you see Woodville? 

It's somewhere down there in the fog.

At the Te Harato charger and, below, across the road.

The start of the Waikato River as it leaves Taupo.

To Eskdale

We left our relations’ place around 8:30am.  We had charged up overnight and put the bubble wrap on the windscreen, however we took it off too soon and ice quickly reformed.  It must have been -2C.  

We headed back over the Saddle Road to Woodville and used 13% of the battery to climb to the peak.  This was the same amount as yesterday but the climb looks longer.  When we were at the peak of the climb, we looked down to Woodville and all we could see was fog with a few hills poking through.  (Check back tomorrow for a photo.

At the charger we had just 15% to bring the battery up to 80%.  We plugged in and walked down to the Cafe 88 and ordered a croissant and coffee.  Then the text came through that the charge was over, so Jim put his order on hold for five minutes and walked back to the van and brought it up to the cafe.  The outside temperature was now 0C.

After breakfast we went down to the Untamed possum factory and brought a couple of pairs of possum fur mix socks.  The worst thing about the EVan is the lack of engine heating, and in these cold temperatures your feet get icy.  We put the socks on immediately.  After leaving Woodville, the fog disappeared and we had brilliant blue skies all day, with the temperature hitting 12C. The Dannevirke charging station is in a back street car park in easy reach of the supermarket so we bought a couple of items.

 At Waipukurau, we charged and had lunch, then went on to Havelock North to see friends before charging in Hastings.  We provided a bit of light entertainment for a couple of people who had never seen an EV being charged.

Getting from Hastings to Napier was a drag.  The main highway has some significant roadworks going on, with no diversions.  It was stop/start for over 3 km and took more than 30 minutes.  Some people were complaining that it was taking over an hour to get through.  There had to be more than a thousand vehicles being held up. We were amazed at the number of cars etc on the road.  

We arrived at Eskdale around 4:30pm and quickly set up camp.  We are getting more practiced with the process.  The camp is a bit basic but is fine for us.  The skies above are fine and clear, with brilliant stars in all directions.  Hopefully there won’t be a frost.

At Eskdale