Our “new” electric pickup came with a 240 volt twist-lock connector where the gas cap would be. This is great for plugging into a 240 volt outlet, such as used by an electric range or clothes dryer, but we are primarily charging it with a 120v convenience charger. (So called because 120v outlets are more convenient to find. It actually takes about twice as long to charge using 120v so from a time standpoint it is less convenient.)

I decided to add a second 120 volt plug behind the fuel port door so that I could plug in either voltage cable. Continue reading →

The electric pickup truck uses a vacuum pump to generate vacuum for the power brakes (and move vents in the HVAC system). It has a pressure switch that turns on the pump when the vacuum drops to under 15 inHg and turns it off once the pump has raised the vacuum to 25 inHg. The current system has a small 3″ by 1.5″ PVC cylinder as the vacuum reservoir. As soon as you press the brake the pump turns back on, and cycles on and off relatively frequently. I wanted a larger vacuum reservoir so that the duty cycle on the pump would be longer (it would stay on longer, but also stay off longer) and so that even when the vacuum drops to 15 inHg I could still operate the brakes several more times while the vacuum pump was working.
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We have driven our electric S-10 pickup for a month now, putting 187 miles on it and charging it 20 times (averaging around 9 miles per charge). We used around 132 Kwh of electricity to re-charge it (13% of our total household electricity usage for the month) which cost around $13.20 (or 7 cents per mile). The truck is averaging around 700-720 Wh of power per mile driven. If we were paying $3.75 per gallon of gas and getting 20mpg on an equivalent vehicle, the energy price comparable MPG rating of the truck would be 54mpg. The chart above displays the watt/hour per mile calculation for our first 20 charges. As you can see, the numbers jump around depending upon where we drive, what route we take, what speed we drive, etc. We are also in the process of breaking in a new pack of batteries).
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The S-10 electric pickup has an analog voltage gauge in the instrument cluster which is useful to get a general picture of how the battery voltage is changing while you drive, but hard to read with any real accuracy. The previous owner had also wired 12v and 120v wires into the center of the dash in an attempt to set up a digital volt meter on the traction batteries. But the 12v supply burnt out his volt meter, and when I purchased the truck it was dead. I bought a 200 volt LED panel display from a surplus supply house for $12 to replace it. I also added a 1A fuse on the 120v supply line in the engine compartment as a safety feature.
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