The Brammo Empulse Arrives…Finally
If you've read any of my posts on my Enertia, you know I love the bike. Of the few electric motorcycles out there, it was the absolute best bike for me. However, I knew it was far from my dream electric motorcycle. Brammo had to compromise too much in their quest to make it reasonably affordable and viable for urban transportation. To that end, it was a great success. But for the enthusiast that wants to carve some corners on their commute, there were a few shortcomings.
Specifically, the Enertia didn't meet my needs as a rider because:
- Cannot maintain highway speeds due to overheating.
- 40 mile range means I can't make extra stops on the commute.
- Non-adjustable and over-sprung suspension.
- Body position is poor for aggressive riding.
Some of those shortcomings could have been mitigated through some inspired modding, but deep down I knew I wouldn't be on the bike forever. Consequently, mine's still bone stock.
An [almost] No Compromises Electric Motorcycle
Brammo has touted the Empulse as a no-compromises electric motorcycle for the enthusiast. They're absolutely right...almost. You have to compromise somewhere, and in this case it was price. But that couldn't be avoided. Bicyclists have a truism that sums this up perfectly.
"Cheap, light, and strong. Pick two." - Wise Bicyclist
With the Empulse, Brammo went all in. They addressed all of the shortcomings with the Enertia and delivered a very serious motorcycle. Sure it's not going to out-handle or out-perform an ICE motorcycle that costs less than 50% of the Empulse, but that's not really the point of riding an electric motorcycle is it? The point is: It's an electric motorcycle that should be about as fun as an SV 650 with the brakes and suspension of a serious middleweight sportbike.
Liquid-Cooled Motor
Even though there are no little explosions going off inside the motor, it still gets hot. This one surprised me when I got my Enertia, because I thought it was a low-friction, brushless motor. Well electric drivetrains are still lossy systems and that loss manifests itself through heat. The Enertia has an electric fan that helps, but it's no match for highways speeds. The Enertia goes into a thermal cutback mode well before its battery is depleted when driven at a sustained 70 mph.
The Empulse tackles this problem by water-cooling the motor. There are plenty of high-end EV motors doing this now, but I never suspected to see one on a production electric motorcycle any time soon. They put a pretty large radiator on there too.
Notice the coolant lines running into and out of the motor? I wonder if there's a separate electric water pump or if they somehow use the power from the motor?
A Proper Transmission
If you look at the motor in the picture above, you can also see another great feature: there's a shifter! When Brammo delayed the launch of the Empulse, they stated that they wanted to include some critical new technology. They were already working with a 6-speed transmission with the Engage, and so the folks over at http://brammoforum.com knew straightaway that the new IET (integrated electronic transmission) was going into the Empulse. The transmission is a multiplate transmission complete with oil just like a standard motorcycle transmission. I'm sure the similarities stop there.
I, for one, applaud Brammo on this move. Stunning. As Brian Wismann so perfectly stated in this video, Brammo has put a critical tool back into the hands of the rider. While I'm no expert on electric drivetrains, I think this will be critical for efficiency. It's common knowledge that 100% of the torque of an electric motor is available at 0 RPM and that it drops off a cliff at the top end. Going to a two or three speed transmission would have solved the top-end problem, and so I was a little perplexed. I now suspect that they went a 6-speed to help the bottom end without relying solely on battery-destroying torque. Sure that torque's available, but using it in an inefficient gear means that the motor is going to draw a tremendous amount of current. But like I said, I'm no electrical/automotive engineer.
And in a dramatic turn of events, they offer regenerative braking! Well, sort off. On a motorcycle, a huge percentage of your braking power comes from the front wheel. On a v-twin race bike, I don't even use the rear brake because the engine braking alone is about all the rear end can handle without losing traction. Realizing this, Brammo has added a sort of regen-engine braking. I can only speculate about their motor control algorithm, but conceivable it might be sophisticated enough to deliver just the proper amount of regenerative resistance based on wheel speed, gear, and throttle position.
Level 2 Charging: 3.5 hrs from Zero to Full
Craig Bramscher and Brian Wismann have both explained several times thats they abandoned the lower-capacity battery packs and decided on one single option due to overwhelming pre-order demand for the 10 kWH packs. They settled in on a 9.3 kWH pack in the final configuration of the Empulse. It's what happened next that really surprised me. They included support for level two charging, and not with some supplementary part that you keep at home. They put the Level 2 charger on the bike.
Now the only downside of this is that they don't have a Level 1 cord on the bike. If this is anything like the Volt, then a Level 1 charge will likely be done with a separate adapter. That's going to be a bit of a problem for me. I plan to steal 120 V power while at school and charge at home overnight on 120 V. Where to I keep the adapter? I'll probably be fine at work since we have five Level 2 chargers...but I have to beat three out of the seven Nissan Leafs into the office. Great. There's gonna be a geek slap fight in the parking lot.
They Added Proper Motorcycle Parts
The Empulse R comes with fully adjustable suspension via a Marzocchi fork and a Sachs shock. While I doubt that fully adjustable includes all four "knobs" for high/low-speed compression/rebound dampening, I'm sure that it's got at least preload, compression, and rebound adjustments. And that's plenty good for the most agressive street riding. Heck, most expert amateur racers and a lot of privateers can get away with a simple Penke 3-way on the rear and a re-valved stock fork.
They've also included some proper sportbike wheels on the Empulse R. The Enertia has really narrow, custom wheels with a direct mount sprocket in the rear. The Empulse R has a 17" wheelset from Marchesini with a very respectable 5.5" rear wheel. And, I'm not certain, but that rear hub looks pretty large. I suspect they've moved to a cush drive which will really help smooth out some of the drivetrain noise and vibration that you get on the Enertia.
You can really tell that they've been doing some racing too. They've included mounts for rearstand spools on the swingarm as well as perfectly placed threads for frame sliders on the frame. Even the big Japanese manufacturers tend to screw up mounting points for frame sliders. And the poor street riders end up getting kits that relocate the frame sliders awkwardly so that they fit through vents on the bodywork without cutting. There's also plenty of room around the tank to put clip-ons under the top triple clamp, which was pretty much impossible on the Enertia. They also have proper foldable footpegs that I plan to promptly replace with some rearsets. I hope I can fab something to work out easily. Maybe they have some Empulse RR parts to spare. O_o
Anyone for a Two-Up Ride?
Finally, you can offer friends the experience of riding an electric motorcycle without having to trust your bike in their grubby little hands. I've already offered a ride to a buddy at work, and he promptly rejected me. I don't know what his problem was. Two of my fastest laps around Jennings GP were on the back of Jason Pridmore's GSXR. It was definitely special...and not that way.
In all seriousness though, this is one really nice looking tail section. The subframe is so thin and minimal. Razor edge tails have been trendy with sportbikes lately, but they tend too come out looking like sectioned serrated knives. The Empulse's tail looks like a katana (the sword, not your grandma's Suzuki). The original Empulse prototype had a misplaced tail that didn't fit in too well. Plus it still had that long, flat design found in the Enertia. That seat style is perfect for the Enertia, because it helps to accommodate differently sized riders. The Empulse has a proper, low seat at an angle that is going to feel much better when the bike is slung over in a corner. I can't wait!
The only thing I'm a little apprehensive about is the swingarm. It's hard to tell from the photos, but it looks a little flimsy. Part of that is probably an optical illusion since it's tubular. However, the pivot looks a little narrow and might suffer from some twisting. It's also interesting that the shock is direct mount and doesn't use a dogbone linkage to control the rate. At least the pivot seems to be pretty close to the chainline which should help with squat coming out of corners. The lower arm in the swingarm looks like it will probably be close to flat when under power too, which is apparently critical for traction when driving out of a corner. Not sure that traction's going to be a big issues with the R though. Maybe the RR. Anyhow, the comments on the swingarm are really pretty superfluous and shouldn't affect street riding in the least.
About that Compromise
Similar to the Enertia's release, they're producing the first thousand or so Empulses as the R model only. I get the impression that it's a limited edition model, but I'm not 100% certain.
Empulse Base Model - $17k
Empulse R Model - $19k
The Empulse R has the following advantages over the regular Empulse:
- Marchessini wheels
- Fully Adjustable Suspension
- Carbon fiber bodywork parts
- And a 2012 delivery date
Personally I'm excited about all of the above R extras, save for the pretty carbon fiber parts. Hopefully the wheels are nice and light, since losing unsprung weight it critical for handling, acceleration, and braking.
Overall the R package seems like a good deal. High-end sportbikes like Aprilia, Ducati, and MV Augusta do the same thing with their racier models and often charge way more. However, you have to consider that those other manufacturers also tend to offer better brakes, exhausts, racing ECUs, etc. Personally, I like the Japanese model of just offering one version and making it as nice as possible. The Japanese can get away with that due to their economy of scale.
$19k was a bit of a shocker for me, but the way I look at it, I've been saving for this motorcycle since October 2010 when I pre-ordered mine. The only sad part is that I plan on owning it until it depreciates to near zero. I typically buy used bikes and only lose about 20% of their value to depreciation when I sell them. Who know what the secondhand market for electric motorcycles is going to look like. Anyone interested in a well-kept Brammo Enertia?
Murdoch Might Just Break Into My Daily Routine
I'm a typical Gen X geek when it comes to news consumption. I get my news through online outlets only. Easily 3/4 of that news is through what I refer to as semi-pro blogs and the rest is through sites of traditional media companies. I don't read local newspapers, at all. I don't watch the news on television. I even eschew local radio for satellite radio (save for our local NPR affiliate on occasion). I subscribe to one magazine (Roadracing World)...and I'm riddled with guilt over the paper it's printed on.
Longing for the Old Days?
However, like many other Gen X'ers, I still fondly remember getting the comic section from my parents' Sunday paper and hiding away with it. I've spend many mornings sharing coffee and a doughnut with my grandmother over the morning paper. I'm pretty sure she still watches the local news too, and then promptly switches back to Fox News. 
I have a morning routine myself, it just involves flying through my myriad RSS feeds and trying to consume as much as I can. I feel I have to stay on top of them to make sure I'm staying relevant amongst my geek cohorts. And even though these articles are merely byte-sized, I can't even seem to retain them. I'm constantly half quoting articles, that themselves only half cite their sources. How many times have you read an article that is effectively a layperson's weak attempt at drawing a popular conclusion from a scientific study that the scientists themselves refuse to reach conclusions about? It's sloppy, pseudo-journalism.
Micro-Attention Spans
The Internet and mobile computing have made us more plugged-in than ever. This leads to a barrage of interruptions that has wrecked our attention spans; though you might argue that MTV started it. Or was it the remote control that allowed us to channel surf during commercials?
The constant connection and micro-attention spans ultimately mean one thing to publishers: There is no time that's more important than this very instant. They have to deliver their content quickly, and make that content just as quickly consumable.
Semi-pro blogs have mastered this. They publish numerous articles every hour of every day. They are short and often devoid of much human interpretation. A screenshot and a short quip is often all that's needed...oh and of course there's the requisite "[via JoesBlog via TechMunchismo via SomeGuysAss]".
I'm Not Saying Blogs Are Evil
In the defense of semi-pro blogs, the larger players are often staffed by journalists with traditional publishing experience. This has led to a great improvement in their practices and credibility. These blogs provide an undeniably great service too. Their light-weight style of journalism is efficient and somewhat reckless, but they're breaking stories and scooping the old guard. I think it's pretty amazing every time I see an article on a traditional news outlet that is reporting on stories that broke in blogs, and they're citing the blogs.
While I am being critical of semi-pro blogs, I'm not trying to paint them as some sort of scourge on civilization. What I am saying, is that I'm looking for deeper, slower, and slightly more responsible news reporting. I don't need to stay up-to-the-minute. Sometimes, I want a few more details, maybe some backstory. And I don't mean I want to search myself for all of the past blog posts on a topic. This is where I'm starting to miss a daily newspaper. They publish daily, and spend days, even weeks on articles. They go out and hit the streets, not just the tubes.
Enter The Daily
The Daily could be just the crutch that helps keep traditional, quality journalism alive. I read RSS feeds on my iPad every morning. I've tried a fews news apps, but none held my attention. So far, The Daily has good, deep writing, while still being a little brief to ensure that the issues holds your attention. The longer articles still hold your attention, because they mix in enough distractions such as slide-shows, in-page video, animated panoramic photos, and audio clips.
Their mixed-media approach works well to provide those said breaks, but they also enrich the experience. For instance, Friday's (Feb. 4, 2011) edition had an article on Egypt that talked about the surprising organization of the protesters. It talked about the how they maintained a central office, patrolled looking for Mubarak supporters ("thugs"), and were seemingly humanely interrogating them to gain intelligence on their movements. They even have a doctor on site to take care of their detainees. I'm sure that their interrogation practices are far from simple Q&A, but I was surprised at how well the protesters are focused on the public relations aspect of their efforts. They're quire careful to ensure that they're viewed as the good guys, not falling back on the harsh tactics that the secret police have reportedly used to subjugate suck unrest previously.
While that level of reporting was certainly deep, the thing that set this article apart was the embedded audio commentary from the reporter himself. The tone of his voice was enough to instantly discern the tone of his article and to remove any chance of misinterpreting the article. Furthermore, it provided an insight to the emotion of the situation and to the humanity of the protesters that was then reinforced through details in the article, such as their practice of protecting the detainees in the central office by using a human chain to shield against less civilized elements of the protests.
But Will I Subscribe
The first two weeks are free. I think I'll subscribe for another month or two after that, but the verdict is out whether or not I'll make the $40 yearly commitment. As much as I'm pulling for professional newspaper journalism to survive and morph into something more current, I'm a little worried about getting so much of my news from one source. I mean, Rupert's the same guy that owns Fox News after all. 
What I really hope, is that The Daily's format is duplicated by other news outlets. Actually, I'd love to have a single, standards-based, newspaper reader app which can download issues from a variety of papers.
Office Charging Stations: They’re Live
The roads have been nasty and it's been pretty cold. I'm tempted to ride into the office anyhow, because the charging stations are live!
Glowing ChargePoint
Office Charging Stations: Winter Update Edition
While I was on vacation last week, they finished the physical installation of the charging stations. Looks like the contractors let a little snow get in their way, because they're still not wired up and operational. Hopefully we'll have some clear weather in the weeks to come. I can't wait to use them.
Snow Delay
Office Charging Stations: Breaking Ground
I've mentioned before that the facilities manager at my office is a true-blue believer in EVs. He's had a long career working with industrial electric motors, and understands them to their very core. He's really supported me and the Enertia from day one. He even putting up with its charging fans blowing right outside of his office inside of our shipping and receiving area. He's dead set on getting a Nissan Leaf too, because its got the range to suit his commuting needs.
They're Here
He's been giving me progress reports on the company's initiative to install Coulomb Charging Stations at work. There have been some delays with the contractors, but I'm happy to say that they've broken ground this week. From the looks of it, we should have five posts serving ten spots with Level 1 and Level 2 charging.
Progress for Day 1
They made a little more progress on day two. There are trenches behind the ledges and some electrical utility boxes installed.The boxes are kind of ugly, so I hope they do something to disguise them. The last thing that I want to hear is people condemning them because they're ugly. As it is, the location is already taking up exterior spaces where the car worshiping d-bags double park their cars like it's some sort of Grease era car show.
Progress from day 2
I can't wait to see them operation. From what I've been told, they'll be open to the public too. So anyone with a ChargePass Card (like me) can use them. I'm not sure if that policy will be permanent, but I can't imagine that there will be too many non-employees using them. When they go online, hopefully they'll show up on Coulomb's Awesome Webapp.
Of course, when they do go online, it means the end of my indoor parking. Oh well.
First 2500+ Miles on the Enertia
Finally turned 2500 miles on the Enertia.
I haven't posted about my Enertia for a while. At first, I feared that the novelty had worn off. I really haven't been riding it much...until this last weekend. And with that fresh seat time, my enthusiasm for the Enertia picked right back up where it left off. Coincidently, I passed the 2500 mile mark too.
Extra Leg on the Commute
A few changes in my circumstances have led to my lessened use of the Enertia. Firstly, I'm commuting from the office to school two days a week. Parking on campus is a nightmare. You basically have to park in a commuter lot and hop a bus in.
However...when I ride a motorcycle in, I can park right next to my building. This is exactly the time savings I was looking for to reduce my time away from the office, so I've been happily riding a motorcycle on those days. Unfortunately I haven't found a place to charge the Enertia on campus. Furthermore, in the spirit of saving time, I take the interstate. All of this means that I ride my V-Strom gasser instead of the Enertia.
Weekend Passenger
I've reduced my Enertia riding on the weekend too, which is a shame, because the Enertia is perfect for running errands around home. I've got a roommate now, and we do a lot of things together. Unfortunately there's no room on the Enertia for a passenger.
Empulse?
My changed circumstances have highlighted the Enertia's range and capacity issues and affected the utility of the Enertia somewhat. At the same time though, riding my bulky, stinky, and loud V-Strom have made me appreciate the Enertia even more. It's a bit of a conundrum.
Enter the Empulse. This bike could will directly solve two of my three problems. I should easily be able to commute on this, even on days when I'm on campus too. Even though I can't easily charge on campus, the extended range will mean that I likely won't need to. Furthermore the liquid cooled motor means that I'll be able to sustain highway speeds on the Interstate and avoid taking a circuitous route at lower speeds. This will prove to be a huge time saver.
Unfortunately, there still isn't room for a passenger. But riding two-up is for old folks anyway...except for the time I took too laps at Jennings GP with Jason Pridmore. We definitely didn't lap like old folks. Although I nearly lost control of my bowels like a grandpa.
Online Shopping Costs Carbon
Like many people, I find myself doing more of my shopping on Amazon and other e-tailers. I just can't justify the brick-and-mortar tax at my local big-box retailers. Besides, who has time to go shopping anyhow?
Am I just being lazy? More importantly, what's the environmental impact of my laziness?
Extra packaging
When goods are shipped to big-box retailers, their retail packages are boxed up on pallets. Hopefully they box them up better than this example. They are generally handled with care, so this seemingly crude boxing isn't usually a problem. However, when that same retail packages is shipped to you through an e-tailer, it's repackaged into a larger box filled with packing material. Hopefully you have a an option to recycle that corrugated cardboard and packing material, but regardless, it's still rather wasteful.
An example of a pallet packed with electronics
Lots of Extra Fuel
These pallets are loaded onto trucks, freight trains, and cargo ships with finite storage volume. Therefore, it's advantageous that the pallets are packed densely. They're transported to your local big-box, at which point you typically make small trips to pick up your favorite items.
In the online space, e-tailers receive these same pallets at their distributions centers. There are far few distribution centers, so for the final leg on board semi-trucks, this saves on fuel. However, that's where it ends. The e-tailer must open the pallets and put the individual retail packages into their bigger boxes and those big boxes are picked up by your favorite carrier services.
Each package is bundled tightly into something similar to a pallet, but at this point they are taking up way more space. More space means more trips by the carrier. Furthermore, a lot of these trips have long portions by air since we just can't seem to wait a few extra days.
Study Confirms My Intuition
I'm really starting to thing that it's more efficient for you to shop at a big-box. And it looks like I'm not the only one. This study seems to confirm my intuition.
Shouldn't Shipping And Handling Cost More
Unfortunately, shipping and handling is way to cheap. Especially with services like Amazon Prime. These carriers are awfully efficient, but in a sense they're being subsidized in the form of cheap fuel. I'm not saying that they pay less for fuel (although they likely do because they buy it in bulk). I'm actually saying that fuel in America is way to cheap for everyone. If it was more appropriately priced to account for the environmental damage of fossil fuels, then clearly e-shopping would be more expensive and we would all get our lazy selves to our favorite big-box.
Here's my favorite.
First 1500+ Miles on the Enertia
1500+ Miles on the Odometer
Mother Nature has been working against me somewhat lately. Summer's here, and it's been raining quite a bit. That means two things: I've been riding the Enertia a little less, and I've been caught in the rain a few times.
More on the Gulf Spill
I think it's remarkable that the Gulf Oil Spill was the subject of my last 500 mile installment nearly three weeks ago, and that they've just stopped the leak a few days ago it's still flowing countless barrels of oil. Everyone talks barrels of oil lately, but how does that translate to something more tangible. Media outlets are using square footage comparisons like US states and volume comparisons like gynasiums. Personally, I have a hard time understanding exactly what a barrel of oil means to me. Like any scientifically minded geek, I started researching a crunching some numbers.
So here's how much diesel I've saved by commuting on my Enertia.
1510.7 miles / 14.5 mpg = 101.9 Gallons of Diesel
Now what exactly is a barrel? Hint: it's not 55 gallons.
1 barrel = 42 US gallons
I originally thought that you could turn crude oil into any type of fuel to suit your needs. But upon reading up more on Oil Refining at HowStuffWorks.com, I discovered that refining oil isn't as much of a process of transforming crude to a particular fuel as much as it a process of separating the various hydrocarbons and using groups of those different hydrocarbons to make the fuel. Diesel is made primarily of alkanes with 12 or more carbon atoms.
Of the 42 gallons of crude in a barrel, an average of 9.21 gallons of diesel is refined. So here's the number of barrels of oil that haven't gone to diesel production for my truck because of my 1500+ miles on the Enertia.
101.9 g diesel * 1 barrel / 9.21 g diesel = 11.06 barrels of oil
This clears up a lot of my misunderstanding of the wildly fluctuating diesel prices. It's cheaper to refine diesel, but you only get so much of it per barrel of oil. Then when you account for the dramatic increase in demand (partly from the military campaigns in the Middle East), you start to understand why the price would go up more than the price of gasoline.
Barrels of Chain Lube
The next thing to figure out is how many barrels of oil have gone into lube for my chain. OK, that's mostly a joke, but I am having problems finding a light-weight chain lube that will still last and not sling off. I've been getting a lot of chain noise as well as physical knocking. This, of course, is exaggerated by the fact that the Enertia is quiet, low on vibration, and doesn't have cush drive or rubber mounts on the motor. I can actually feel when the master link goes around the super small front sprocket. I can alleviate this with a heavy application of lube, but it only lasts 1.5 days.
Brammo has been more than accommodating to my compulsion to fix this irritant, and has emailed me advice on proper adjustment and lube. They even sent me a new chain. I should have time to swap it out this weekend, so I'll comment on this thread if it makes a difference.
Hypermiling: It’s Good for Hybrids Too
Drive it like a Prius, please.
Perhaps a psychologist can help me understand this. Why isn't everyone hypermiling? I don't mean the extreme sport aspect of hypermiling. I mean the common sense side of hypermiling during your everyday commute? Is it a persistent sense of urgency? Are they perpetually late? Are they just too selfish to impact their way of life? Well folks, hypermiling doesn't cost you much time, it saves you money, and it actually helps keep you more calm and relaxed in traffic. Heck, it can even be fun.
Your Prius is Worthless by Itself
OK, I've turned into a bit of a BEV (Battery Electric Vehicle) biggot purist lately, and the heavy number of Prius hybrids on the road has really started to irritate me. It's not the cars themselves, but rather their drivers. More specifically, it's the driving habits of those pilots. Maybe I'm going out on a limb here, but I get the idea that owning a Prius is a way for some people to get their Green Merit Badge and alleviate a little environmental guilt. It's almost like owning a Prius gives entitles people to keep driving like monsters. I'm going a little overboard here, perhaps, because hybrids draw more attention to drivers that operate them like a 1978 Camaro. To my defense though, I never see Prius drivers even mildly hypermiling.
Prius owners should not stop at ownership in their quest for that Green Merit Badge. They need to understand the embodied energy of that brand new Prius and it's large battery packs. They need to understand how the drivetrain works. And most importantly, they need to understand how to drive their Prius efficiently.
Understanding a Hybrid's Benefits
Today's small hybrids use a drivetrain where the wheels are driven by a combination of the internal combustion engine (ICE) and electric motors. The ICE is designed to turn on and off quickly and efficiently, which enables the most obvious advantage of hybrids.
1. The ICE will usually turn off while coasting to a stop and while at that stop.
Unfortunately, most people don't commute in stop and go traffic, and so they don't really spend that much time stopped. Consequently, this advantage really doesn't pay dividends to a lot of drivers. Luckily there's another major advantage of hybrids.
2. The ICE will usually stay off if you accelerate slowly until you reach a certain speed.
This is where hybrids really shine. If you accelerate smoothly with only moderate pressure on the accelerator pedal, then you'll cruise along under battery power until you get up to speed. This is important, because an ICE engine has an optimum operational RPM, and they're not efficient at all while reving through their powerband and shifting gears. So if you can do that acceleration using the battery, then you'll be saving a lot of fuel.
3. Most hybrids have regenerative braking, so some of your breaking force is used to charge the batteries.
When you use your brakes, some of that energy is used to charge your batteries back up. Unfortunately, a tremendous amount of kinetic energy is lost while braking simply because today's batteries cannot be efficiently charged at a high rate. It's simply too much current to be feeding them at once. Therefore, when you press the brake pedal hard, the electric motors will charge the battery a little, but the cars traditional disc brakes will also engage, turning that kinetic energy to heat.
Hypermiling Your Prius
This is the part where you really earn your Green Merit Badge. You can't just own a Prius, you have to learn to drive it properly. Here are some common sense hypermiling tips.
DO NOTs
- DO NOT accelerate away from a stop like you've got a HEMI.
- DO NOT wait until the last minute to stop or slow down and then jam your brake pedal.
- DO NOT tailgate as it impedes your ability to coast without rear-ending the car in front.
This next set of suggestions is the flip side to the above.
DOs
- DO accelerate slowly.
- DO look far ahead for changing lights or traffic that might cause you slow down, and then start coasting.
- DO try to coast into red lights, giving them a chance to turn green so that you won't have to stop.
- DO brake lightly and early if you know you'll need to stop. This will ensure that you get the optimal impact from your regenerative brakes.
Warning: pay attention to traffic around you and especially behind you when you hypermile. Most people don't drive like this, and so you could really disrupt their poor driving patterns causing them a little road rage or even causing an accident. For instance, if you're being tailgated by someone beating their kids in the third row backseat of their Suburban, then you probably don't want to start coasting early for a light that you just saw turn read a half of a mile down the road.
Your Prius is not a Drag Car
I implore you, follow through with your purchase of your Prius and drive it like a Prius. Don't make the purchase some sort of empty gesture. For more information on hypermiling your Prius, please check out this article on HybridCars.com. They also promote the pulse and glide technique, which I can only recommend if there's no traffic around. The pulse and glide method is best employed on highways, but I feel it's more important to minimize speed differentials on highways for the efficiency, safety, and sanity of the other drivers.
ChargePoint Charging Station Demonstration
I got a little caught up while filming some video on the Enertia this weekend, and I let the battery run down a little further than I planned. Luckily, I knew the perfect place to top off. A nearby McDonald's has a pair of ChargePoint EV charging stations...AKA Prius Parking Spots. I figured that I would swing by and be forced to squeeze my Enertia between a Prius and the ChargePoint, but when I got there, I had it all to myself.
Here's the edited footage from the demonstration. The audio was junky, so I just threw in some explanatory text and put a soundtrack on it. Feel free to drop a comment if you have any questions.