News about the EV projects

Opening of new charging station in Kranj 9.12.2009

Bolt refuelling in Klagenfurt 4.12.2009 - two electric cars at the same time!

Both electric cars showed to public at the Institute Jozef Stefan in Lhubljana 8.10.2009

New EV "Bolt" has been finished on the 8th of september 2009 and has a range of 250 km and top speed of 150 km/h We dismantled the EEspace and the components were used in the new car - the Bolt

Bolt filling electricity at EV filling point in Ljubljana Kodeljevo

Electric km stand of The Bolt 4500 km (9.12.2009)
Electric km stand of R5 Elektro 12000 km (9.12.2009)
Electric km stand of E Espace: 13500 (20.4.2009)

20.4. 2009 We took LiPo batteries out of E Espace and put it in R5 elektro. It beame a real rocket and has an incredible range of about 250 km! E Espace will be dismantloed and the component used in a newer and more attractive car. The generator will not be installed as with LiPo it is no longer needed.

E Espace has made a 135 km trip to Austria over Ljubelj mountain pass and back. In Celovec we tested if the filling points for electric cars are really there or this is just a tale for the media. We found one at Wirtschaftskammer and filled in some energy.

PV has been finished, now starts the bureocratic battle to connect it to the grid.

11.3.2009 We are building a bigger  3,3 kW PV power plant equipped by sun tracers SAT Control. The power plant will produce enough clean energy to drive our E Espace and R5 20000 km per year

28.2.2009 More power for E Espace - Miro Zoric is upgrading the regulator to 400 A transistors that will feed the motor with more power. How much more and what will be the performances is still unknown as it has to be tested not to burn the motor.

We use both cars also in winter time. Winter experience: lead acid batteries of R5 lose 20% capacity at freezing point temperature (compared to room temp), LiPo of E Espace about 10%. Without auxilliary cabin heater it is impossible to survive driving -:) We must take care that LiPo are not charged below freezing point as it can damage them. As we live high and start our drive with descent, there is also a danger of regenerative braking when too cold. That's why we keep E Espace in a garage (non heated) during the night.

12.10.2008: R5 Elektro finished. It was the first Slovenian electric car built by Miro Zoric in 1993 and now "refurnished", improved and back on the road again.

 5.Sept 2008:Another electric car is almost finished - 192V 105 Ah lead acid Trojan batteries, 40 kW Stoja electric motor, range 30-65 km, top speed 140 km/h
                   

18.August 2008: Electric defroster/heater 100W installed as foggy and rainy days will come. Motor cooling has been improved, no more overheating under full power during hot days

23th July 2008: We drove 193 km on pure electric drive without charging the batteries and they still had 3,56V per cell what means about 20% of the total capacity!!! The rear part of the car with battery compartment has been refurnished and now looks like this:

14th July 2008: 4500 electric km done with E Espace till now (Diesel generator has not been used since we installed LiPo batteries). We use it for every day driving, no problems till now! We are working on a proper charger for Li-Po and till we do it, we charge them in series, check the voltage of each cell and every 10 charges equalize them half manually. We had some problems due to extremelly high temperatures outside while frequency regulator is temperature limited to 66 degrees Celsius and when outside is almost 40, the difference is very small. So cooling system had to be redone...

June 2008 Another car has been converted to electric - a small city car with cheaper lead acid technology. Actually this is not a new conversion, but the first Slovenian EV done by Miro Zoric in 1993 as a prototype for Renault factory in Slovenija.

18.5.2008 - EV car gathering in Austria was a good chance to meet other people developing the same idea and to show the people that there already are electric cars on the roads. About 30 different vehicles gathered and the organizer (Eurosolar) prepared many activities like evening meeting in WiFi hall, visit of Solar modul factory, Kelag power plant etc. E Espace did a non stop trip of 130 km passing a mountain pass Jezersko (1200m). Overall it did 300 km in 2 days.

Parade of electric vehicles in Austria 16.-18.5.2008

Those 4 boxes contain more power then 1000 kg of lead acid batteries! We bought excellent 200 Ah Li-Po batteries from KOKAM and they work perfectlly even without BMS (of course with manual control)

7.5.2008 - Kokam Li-Po batteries have arrived - 200 Ah 3,7 V cell with weight of only 4 kg!

May 2008 - E Espace is homologated and now has 150W of PV cells installed. Next week we expect Li-Po batteries 200 Ah 192V that will increase the EV range far over 100 km. Up till now 2500 km done without troubles, max.speed 120 km/h.