Electric Yaris is here!

[cali yaris]

think of the savings and reduced toxicity of not producing and recycling or disposal of catalytic converters alone.

[freeridelectric]

Originally Posted by cali yaris

think of the savings and reduced toxicity of not producing and recycling or disposal of catalytic converters alone.

I hope they recycle cats but

Think about how complex a transmission and gas engine is. All those moving parts. Think electric car. Few moving parts even the transmission on my car has one speed and is a third size of a regular Yaris trans.

I still think car companies will always continue to market the ICE for service and repair revenue streams for as long as people can be duped into buying them. The only thing making the electric car cost prohibitive is the batteries. They love marketing Hybrids as they are even more complicated than just a regular ICE. Hybrids are at least a proving ground for better, lighter, more efficient batteries.

Having said the above I do admire the Yaris with it's little dependable, gas sipping ICE. I think it is amazing how car manufacturers make all these systems run together in unity and yet relatively dependable.

[freeridelectric]

Hey Astroman thanks for the heads up on your swaray at the Luck Lab. Sorry I missed it I was out of town and found out about it to late.

Well the E Yaris has a gear box leak. Trans fluid is bleeding out of it at a fairly good clip. Not very environmentally sound. The gear box never shift it is one speed.

ET phone home... EV go home... It is being shipped back to NC. From Oregon that is a long way. It is warranty work so I don't have to pay for it.
It will go a 100 miles at 55 and then needs charging. Since it is going back to where it was built I am inquiring about more batteries that would give it closer to a 200 mile range. 100 mile range is pretty good until I want to go dirt bike riding or snow skiing. Really a 100 mile range will cover about 90% of my driving if planned right. There aren't many places to plug in unless you know some one when you arrive like say at the coast.

This is what happens when your on the bleeding edge of technology. It has had other issues. The techs have flown out from North Carolina three times but this repair is to big for them to under take in my garage. They must remove the gear box and motor and put some gaskets in the gear box. The little EYaris has 6,700 miles on it since I brought it back from NC in mid January.

They wanted to know where the trans fluid was coming from so I put it up on jack stands and made a video using my motorcycle helmet cam. The leak is coming out a hole where the motor mounts up to the gear box. The motor is to the left of where it is leaking. Thread below.

[1NZYaris1]

Ouch ,it bleeds as well as sounding rather noisy too .

[TinyGiant]

what does it cost per month for the electricity you use charging it? better than the gas cost?

[freeridelectric]

Originally Posted by 1NZYaris1

Ouch ,it bleeds as well as sounding rather noisy too .

Yes it is a little noisy more so because I tried to take off one of the half shafts because originally I thought it was leaking from there. When I attempted that I pushed one of those thin sheet metal shields into the brake rotor and didn't figure out where that noise was coming from for a day or two.

Having said that the gear box is louder than on a regular manual transmission I think but I have not ridden in a manual transmission Yaris yet. I think there are quieter gear boxes out there and hopefully more dependable. Mine is the T 1200 from Solectra.

Originally Posted by TinyGiant

what does it cost per month for the electricity you use charging it? better than the gas cost?

My electric bill has increased buy about $20 dollars per month. It cost about $1.60 to go a 100 miles. Electricity is relatively cheap here in the northwest.

[TinyGiant]

thats pretty good .. it cost like 2.60 to go 35-40miles via gas.


too bad the cost of the car is high..

have you considered solar paneling the roof for extra oomph?

[freeridelectric]

Originally Posted by TinyGiant

thats pretty good .. it cost like 2.60 to go 35-40miles via gas.


too bad the cost of the car is high..

have you considered solar paneling the roof for extra oomph?

Yes the high cost is for the Lithium ion polymer batteries. The motor, gear box, motor controller are about $11,500. The batteries $18,000. The car $15,500. It is only a two seat-er too. The safety hwy commission would not let them put a back seat in, it has all the cargo room of a regular Yaris. Other components for the heat and air cond. also cost money, let alone the labor to remove ICE parts and put in Electric parts. There is a Nissan scheduled to come out the middle of 2010. It is a 5 passenger well 4 adults vehicle with a hundred mile range. The Nissan is more refined than my car as it is a oem car built from the ground up as a EV not a conversion. As a OEVA
board member I got to test drive it. It was very quiet compared to my car (gear box) for around $30,000. It qualifies for the $7,500 tax credit.

In the winter time January my record range is 114.7 miles on one charge. Today I went 143 miles. 80% at 55 mph. The batteries must like the heat, tempature was around 90-95 degrees today. With the air conditioner on for about 70% of the time. It is broke in now with 6,800 miles on it.

The truck driver called today and said he would pick it up tommarow to go back to NC. Looks like it's back to V-8's. Either the 4-door 4wheel drive 05 Silverado or the 01 Corvette or 99 1-ton Chevy cargo work van. Ahh back to oil.

They put solar panels on the newest generation Toyota Prius. All the panels can run is a fan to keep the interior of the car cool when not in use if it is parked in the sun. They say much energy via the air cond. is used to cool the car when it is very hot and left parked in the sun. (Green house effect) The fan is suppose to keep it cooler so the air cond. does not have to work so hard when returning to operate the car after being parked in the sun. Also you wont burn yourself on the seats if you are wearing shorts.

I will miss the Yaris.

[ellenbetty]

Since I do not have access to a place to charge a electric vehicle, I will just have to stick to gasoline powered Yarises for now. For $42,000 I could trade in my Ford Escort. Then I could trade in my dead brother's Ford Ranger. Next I could buy 2 Yarises to cut my gasoline CO2 emissions in 1/2. With the money left over I could put a white roof, with 2 inches of hard foam installation, on my Mom's home, where I live, to cut our home related CO2 emissions in half. O yes I already did that. LOL. Sorry to hear you are heart broken missing you Electric Yaris. At least I have the comfort of my second Yaris when my first Yaris needs to be put into the shop for the first time. ;)

It will be interesting to learn how much it will cost Toyota to build the Hybrid Yaris. It will be interesting to learn how much Toyota plans to sell each Hybrid Yaris. Then we will know if your Electric Yaris is as good a deal, CO2 wise, and cost wise, as a Hybrid Yaris.

[scape]

i'm for +1 on hybrid, but not the setups being sold at the moment!

to make ICE more efficient is to completely absolve the driveline componentry. call me crazy, but a generator plugged in instead off that stuff, plus an engine being driven at best efficiency torque powering up electric AC motors is much more efficient, granted expensive up front- it is much, much more efficient than an engine with some joe behind the wheel plucking away at the throttle.

[freeridelectric]

Originally Posted by ellenbetty

Since I do not have access to a place to charge a electric vehicle, I will just have to stick to gasoline powered Yarises for now. For $42,000 I could trade in my Ford Escort. Then I could trade in my dead brother's Ford Ranger. Next I could buy 2 Yarises to cut my gasoline CO2 emissions in 1/2. With the money left over I could put a white roof, with 2 inches of hard foam installation, on my Mom's home, where I live, to cut our home related CO2 emissions in half. O yes I already did that. LOL. Sorry to hear you are heart broken missing you Electric Yaris. At least I have the comfort of my second Yaris when my first Yaris needs to be put into the shop for the first time. ;)

You did the white roof but the 2 inches of hard foam went in the walls right? Or did the foam go on the roof too?

I would like to have another EV for when the E Yaris has difficulties. Hopefully it will run trouble free now. I have a order in to get one of the Nissan EV's in the fall of 2010 before they become available to the public. It is a fleet type thing for businesses, a program involving the DOE.

Originally Posted by ellenbetty

It will be interesting to learn how much it will cost Toyota to build the Hybrid Yaris. It will be interesting to learn how much Toyota plans to sell each Hybrid Yaris. Then we will know if your Electric Yaris is as good a deal, CO2 wise, and cost wise, as a Hybrid Yaris.

The Hybrid Yaris will be sold in europe from what I understand. Hopefully it makes it to the US. It will be more inexpesive than the Prius I am pretty sure.

Originally Posted by scape

i'm for +1 on hybrid, but not the setups being sold at the moment!

to make ICE more efficient is to completely absolve the driveline componentry. call me crazy, but a generator plugged in instead off that stuff, plus an engine being driven at best efficiency torque powering up electric AC motors is much more efficient, granted expensive up front- it is much, much more efficient than an engine with some joe behind the wheel plucking away at the throttle.

They have some examples of a small efficient turbine as a generator for parallel hybrids.