{"id":1405,"date":"2010-04-29T18:49:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-30T01:49:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/?page_id=1405"},"modified":"2022-11-07T07:54:37","modified_gmt":"2022-11-07T15:54:37","slug":"plug-bug","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.corbinstreehouse.com\/blog\/plug-bug\/","title":{"rendered":"The Plug Bug – 1969 Electric VW Beetle"},"content":{"rendered":"

In April of 2010 I purchased a 1969 VW bug with the intent of converting it to run on electricity. In May I ordered parts. In January 2011, it finally moved!<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"Plug<\/a><\/p>\n

154 volts, 200 ah cells, 30.8kw-hr battery pack. Roughly 80+ mile range when in the Santa Cruz mountains. Up to 100 miles if not driven in the hills, and maintain 55mph.<\/p>\n

Components:<\/strong><\/p>\n

* Netgain<\/a> WarP 9 DC Motor<\/p>\n

* Netgain Controls WarP Drive Controller (1000 amps) [No longer available]<\/p>\n

* 48 3.2v 200ah Thunderksy<\/a> Lithium Iron Phosphate batteries, in series for 154v nominal. 192v fully charged. 200ah in each cell.<\/p>\n

* Elithion<\/a> Lithiumate BMS (Battery Management System)<\/p>\n

* Belktronix DC-DC converter<\/p>\n

* Manzanita Micro<\/a> PFC-30 Charger (NOTE: I don’t recommend it; mine failed twice. See this post<\/a> and this post<\/a>).<\/p>\n

* Stock transmission, with standard clutch<\/p>\n

* Front lowered 2″ with drop spindles<\/p>\n

* Disc brakes all around<\/p>\n

* 2″ shortened adjustable front beam<\/p>\n

Range:<\/strong><\/p>\n

* Roughly 220-350 watt-hours consumed per mile<\/p>\n

* 100+ mile range in theory (to 20% State of Charge), but acceleration and the hills take a lot away. My typical driving seems to give about 70-80 mile range to 20% SOC. That would be roughly 100 mile range to 0% battery (which I won’t do).<\/p>\n

* Longest drive so far: 70 miles, and the battery was at 38% State of Charge. In theory, that is a 113 mile range to 0% battery level. This included driving over highway 17 twice (but lots of hypermiling).<\/p>\n

* Update: another mileage test<\/a> indicates about 120 mile range at 55mph on flat.<\/p>\n

Performance:<\/strong><\/p>\n

* Better than a stock bug<\/p>\n

* Lots of low end torque<\/p>\n

* Drives 55-60 mph up  highway 17 (> 5% grade at some places) and I can still accelerate<\/p>\n

* Top speed, in theory 95 MPH (based on the gear ratio, and 5000 max ratio RPM of the motor)<\/p>\n

* Top speed I’ve actually gone: about 85+ MPH<\/p>\n

* Over 40,000 electric-only miles!<\/p>\n

Check out some of my Cool Pictures<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Plug Bug – first drive video:<\/p>\n