I've driven my ZAP for about 4500 miles. The six 12-A 144AH Discovers have degraded to the point where I need to replace them. At this point, after I drive 9 miles 4 of them drop to about 6V under a load of more than 50A. When the cold weather arrives, this will get even worse.
My 7th add-on battery, a Trojan 1275 for my 72V to 84V conversion done 1000 miles ago is working fine. I just ordered six more Trojans which hopefully will give me a range of 20 miles although I seldom drive more than 10 miles before recharging. My daily weekday commute is about 9 miles each way, and I recharge at work.
Note that my ZAP PK truck was almost a year old when I bought it from the dealer, so even though it only had 50 miles on it, there is no telling how the Discovers were treated in that year before I bought the car. It's possible brand new Discovers can last longer than my 4500 miles if they are treated properly, but I am getting Trojans due to their lower cost and 150AH rating (of course, now I will need to add water periodically given the 1275's are floodies)
I wonder how many miles I will get out of a Trojan 1275 pack, 150AH/84V assuming I drive 10 miles at a time, then recharging.
I'd love to get a set of Thunderskys someday, but it would seem a waste to put those into a ZAP when they could instead go into a more drivable name-brand conversion car, like a small Toyota pickup donor, etc., but the Thunderskys are pricey, and I don't have the energy to do a full-on ICE-EV conversion.
My 7th add-on battery, a Trojan 1275 for my 72V to 84V conversion done 1000 miles ago is working fine. I just ordered six more Trojans which hopefully will give me a range of 20 miles although I seldom drive more than 10 miles before recharging. My daily weekday commute is about 9 miles each way, and I recharge at work.
Note that my ZAP PK truck was almost a year old when I bought it from the dealer, so even though it only had 50 miles on it, there is no telling how the Discovers were treated in that year before I bought the car. It's possible brand new Discovers can last longer than my 4500 miles if they are treated properly, but I am getting Trojans due to their lower cost and 150AH rating (of course, now I will need to add water periodically given the 1275's are floodies)
I wonder how many miles I will get out of a Trojan 1275 pack, 150AH/84V assuming I drive 10 miles at a time, then recharging.
I'd love to get a set of Thunderskys someday, but it would seem a waste to put those into a ZAP when they could instead go into a more drivable name-brand conversion car, like a small Toyota pickup donor, etc., but the Thunderskys are pricey, and I don't have the energy to do a full-on ICE-EV conversion.
