Saturday, February 2, 2013

Small Tank - Goes Long!

The Previous Tank - was draining a bit faster than I hoped for on the way to the Auto Show in Detroit, due to big, cold headwinds from the west on January 18th, 2013!

It was filled up in the Hamilton Area at Dundas & Hwy 6 Petro-Canada, after attending the Golden Horseshoe Electric Vehicle Association (GHEVA) meeting on Jan. 15th, 2013, at the North Wentworth Community Centre, and was reading a nice low figure of just 4.7 L/100 Kms (That is the reading on that tank of gas average) at the drive home (69 Kms on the tank, and 10:30 PM).

I used a bit of a blend between Coasting (big hill going down to Highway 403 from Hwy 6 & Dundas),  Gentle Driving, Route planning for the least hill climbing (took 403 to QEW to 427 to 401 - skipping the 403 north from the Ford Plant in Oakville), and Regenerative Braking to balance the battery and distance needs to get this figure.

By the time I got in 122 Kms on the tank, when I started the trip to Detroit - it was up to 5.5 L/100 Km (Short-Cold drives to work, and the like). We Stopped for a snack with a reading 5.6 L/100 Km and 266 Kms on the tank, at 6:54 PM on the 18th! I ended up stopping for Gas at Tilbury North OnRoute with 430 Kms with a reading of 5.9 L/100 Kms at 9:24 PM! We made it into Detroit and had driven 63 Kms by 10:56 PM, getting about 5.9 L/100 Kms.

I filled up in the Tilbury, Ontario, Service Centre, on my way to the opening day of the NAIAS - North America International Auto Show - Detroit, Michigan, and the same tank is still in use, after returning home and driving the last two weeks! (It is down to the last bar, but it is not yet flashing to tell me to fill up!)

A good thing - except - I could have filled up the tank when I got home and save about 8 cents a litre - since the price this last week popped up from ~ $1.22 a Litre to now at $1.30 a Litre (an increase of about 30.2 Cents per US Gallon in one week!)

The last shot I took of the Current tank when I got home, it was at 436 Kms, and reading at 5.2 L/100 Kms. With the Drives to & From work it has now risen to 5.5 L/100 Kms.


(An interesting aside - these On Route Service Centre Locations are designed by a Toronto Firm, Quadrangle Architects Limitedand Certified LEED Silver! No direct answers yet by any, on the aspect of installing Electric Vehicle Charging (level 2 or level 3) at any of the Centres. I would think - they could begin to justify adding level 3 chargers now with the CHAdeMO interface - if they take the new NISSAN QC Model - now available for a much lower price than previous chargers at this level! While the US is against the CHAdeMO interface and propose their own Enhanced J1772 Combo Plug, CHAdeMO is still the largest DC Level 3 quick charge player.)










2 comments:

  1. I think that's a great accomplishment Robert.
    however, as you noted we can't control the price of gasoline.
    You really squeezed all the klms out of that gas tank that you could.
    A little bit of planning goes a long way.

    Ben





    Ben

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think that's a great accomplishment Robert.
    however, as you noted we can't control the price of gasoline.
    You really squeezed all the klms out of that gas tank that you could.
    A little bit of planning goes a long way.

    Ben





    Ben

    ReplyDelete