July 15: Bars and potholes

Last night I wound up leaving the office around midnight. With traffic finally cleared off the Santa Monica Freeway I flew down the road at between 105 and 115 km/hr. That's 65 to 71 mph. I had no a/c on because it was cool enough. But the car seemed to eat the bars at what seemed like a 50 percent quicker rate. I got home 22 miles later having used up six bars (kWh) instead of the usual four or five for the 22 miles home, so that's less than 50 percent higher consumption, but still higher. Normally I would cruise at 90 km/hr or 56 mph, so an increase of 12 mph equals one or two more kWh per 22 miles.

I plugged it in and fully charged it overnight. Today the temperature outside is in the triple digits and the a/c worked like a champion. No worries there. Very impressive.

The front suspension is a skinny MacPherson strut setup and the rear is a DeDion setup with the trailing links giving clearance for the large rear-mounted electric motor driving the rear wheels. This doesn't handle potholes too well. It doesn't get the car out of line, just whangs those things pretty good and gets your attention. The i-MiEV is light, so it's affected more by pothole hits than a heavier car would be. The short wheelbase exaggerates it, too.

By Mark Vaughn