Hi--
Purchased a Zapino from Small Planet E Vehicles late Friday afternoon (9/12). I find it a bit intimidating, but so far so good. :) Tom was great to work with, very patient and insightful.
Does anyone know if ZAP is coming out with the Lithium battery upgrade anytime soon? I've looked around ZAP's website and elsewhere on the internet and found no information.
Thanks so much,
Jerry
Loveland, CO
I asked a Zap technician about the batteries on 2008-09-03. He said that he expected them to be available in a 4 to 6 month time frame.
Can anyone speculate on the cost of a lithium battery replacement for the Zapino including the appropriate charger? What about a BMS to go with the battery?
Steve Tanner
How much are you willing to spend ?
The LiFepo4 BattMan www.falconev.com
This is a posting from the Yahoo! group: zapinoriders · Zapino Electric Scooter Riders (http://autos.groups.yahoo.com/group/zapinoriders/message/71)
My Zapino has been powered by Thunder Sky Lithium-Ion batteries for a
month or so--I am delighted. My Zapino behaves more like a car in the
traffic flow. In fact, my scooter has soooo much pep that I have to
relearn when to cut the throttle and coast.
Maximum distance traveled on one charge: 40 miles. I probably pushed
the envelope almost too far, but I did it. Not only did the Zapino go
40 miles, but it was running at 40 much of the time and there were
frequent stops. Unfortunately the scooter was crawling the last couple
miles.
The only disappointment is the top end. The Zapino's top end on
lithium-ion is 41mph. The top end with the acid jell batteries was
43mph. Go Figure. I have to assume that there is a limiter setting in
the controller. Anybody know how to change that?
The cells are 40 amp-hour. There are four cells per
battery, and 5 batteries in the scooter. 20 cells total. Looking at
the ThunderSky website ( http://www.thunder-sky.com/home_en.asp )
there is only one 40 amp-hour cell listed:
MODEL NO：TS-LFP40AHA
Nominal Capacity ：40AH
Operating Voltage：2.5V～4.25V
weight：1.5kg±100g
Dimensions：116×190×46（mm）
Charging is the same but there is a beefier charging unit that came
with the batteries. Interestingly enough it says that it is for up to
19 cells, but does not mention AH. There is no charger listed on the
company website.
The Electric Green Showroom in San Carlos, CA (
http://www.electricgreenshowroom.com/ ) performed the installation.
They said that there was some slight modifications to one or more of
the metal pans the batteries sit in to fit the batteries in. The
batteries are a bit larger, but weigh less than the gel batteries that
came with them.
Maybe just maybe since the charger is labeled for 19 cells you are not getting a full charge and that is why your top speed is down. I would expect with the lithium batteries that your top speed would be a little higher. Hope this helps. God Bless :)
You can get Sanyo Li-ion batteries or pacs from this guy allanbull [at] sbcglobal.net real cheap and he is nice to work with. He made up pacs to my needs and sizes and boy am I happy now. Just thought I would share my happy interest.