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274 Build Your Own Electric Vehiclevehicles, the energy is stored in a battery or bank of capacitors for later use. Other formsof energy storage which may be used include compressed air and flywheels.Many now have experienced coasting in a hybrid electric car. As with a hybrid andby definition, an EV is designed to be as frictionless as possible, so take advantage ofthis great characteristic. Learn to pulse your accelerator and coast to the next light or tothe vehicle ahead of you in traffic.Hybrid electric car owners (especially NYC taxi owners) understand this concept.When you accelerate, you do not need to floor it and then coast. You can slowly step onthe accelerator and then take your foot off of the accelerator to coast. When you coast,you use the regenerative braking. It is much smoother and a more efficient use of thevehicle since it is moving forward and charging at the same time. While there are plentyof people who own converted EVs who like to floor it and coast, regeneration can be avery big help in most stop-and-go driving.Determining RangeUse the battery voltmeter as a fuel gauge in conjunction with the odometer to tell youhow far your batteries can take you. Tape a note to your dashboard or use a notebookto keep track of the elapsed mileage between full charges and voltmeter reading (forexample, the voltmeter reading was x after you drove y miles) and you’ll quickly get anidea of the pattern. Keep in mind that your battery pack will not reach its peak rangeuntil you’ve deep-cycled it a few times.Running Out of PowerBefore you totally run out of power, get off the road! If you totally run out of power andcannot find an electrical outlet, turn off your key switch and allow your batteries to restfor 20 to 30 minutes (shut down everything else electrical at this time also). Amazingly,you’ll find extra energy in the batteries that may just be enough to take you to thepower outlet you need. The convenience of an onboard charger is welcomed most of allin this particular circumstance. It is not good to be stuck in the middle of the busyfreeway without power. You should understand that there is a significant power lossjust before the no power condition. You should also know that a full discharge greatlyshortens battery life.Regular Driving(Please note the equations are based on $4.50 per gallon. See Preface for more details.)Drive your EV regularly—several times a week. Remember, the chemical clock insideyour lead-acid batteries is ticking whether you use them or not, so use them. Better yet,think of how much money you are saving by using your EV. The 20 6-volt 220-AHcapacity batteries gave Jim Harris’ 1987 Ford Ranger conversion of Chapter 10 an onboardcapacity of 26.6 kWh (220 AH 3 120 volts).If Jim got a 60-mile range out of one charge, his average energy use would be 0.44kWh/mi (26.6 kWh/60 mi). At an average of $0.15 per kWh, that works out to be 6.6cents per mile (0.44 kWh/mi 3 $0.15 per kWh).If you compare that with gasoline at $4.50 per gallon and a typical 25 mpg for theinternal combustion engine pickup before conversion, that works out to 18 cents permile (1/25 gal/mi 3 $4.50 per gal). That’s almost a three-to-one savings—take advantageof it. (Note: When we updated this to 2008 prices, the price ratio was better for electricvehicles versus the 1993 ratio that held steady for the past 50 years!)