Electricification of Vehicles Conference

Today PHEV Spirit of #76 attended the UC Berkeley Electricification of Vehicles Conference. There were at least three Plug-In Hybrids as well as awesome all electric vehicles from Green Motors, Zap Motors, and Phoenix Motorcars. There were many high profile guest speakers including CARB Chair, Mary Nichols.

We’re Driving on Electric Now!

Today was a happy day. It’s official! PHEV conversion #76 is 100% fully functional. When we left the Austin Maker Faire, we had a few minor issues with charging and battery monitoring that, while functionally it was a PHEV, prevented me from operating the vehicle as a PHEV on a regular basis.

Wednesday afternoon/evening was spent at Carolyn Coquillette’s Luscious Garage in San Francisco and together with her help and support, I got it all finished. Thanks Carolyn. I left her garage and filled up the gasoline tank and reset the Prius computer. 22 miles later and including a good stretch of freeway, I was already averaging 80.8 MPG. Now that the car is back in the neighborhood, I expect it to get even better mileage since here I will have greater opportunities for driving in EV mode and for opportunity charging.

Thanks again to the whole CalCars gang (especially Jim Philippi, Ron Gremban and Robb Protheroe) for support and guidance.

Spirit of #76 Returns Home

After a long and somewhat agonizing wait, my car is returned to me today in time for the San Francisco Green Festival. Over the next few days I plan to get a Pentametric Battery Monitoring System installed and troubleshoot a problem that was never addressed in Austin related to the charging system. Once these items are done, I will fill the tank and fill the batteries and begin using the car as a full fledged Plug-In Hybrid.

Shown is a picture of the completed conversion since I realized this has not really been shown on the blog before.

Flagstaff EAA Showing

Here the car is being shown to the Flagstaff Electric Automobile Association Chapter.

Las Vegas Electric Vehicle Association

PHEV Spirit of #76 being shown at the Las Vegas Electric Vehicle Association meeting. Russ Lord of the Free Energy Store sent along this picture. He indicated the vehicle will be featured in  Two of the “Watts Happening” newsletter article.

University of Arizona PHEV showing

Another photo from Jerry Asher’s PHEV around America Southwest tour. According to Jerry, there were many interested parties looking at the car throughout the day. Shown is Professor Joe Simmons, Solar Energy student Lon Huber and others, plus EVJerr.