The World Leader In Battery
Maintenance Technology
Clare Bell, electric vehicle technician/specialist for Green Motorworks and the editor of Current EVents, stands next to an electric-powered Ford Escort using a PowerPulse® to improve battery performance.
PowerPulse® Increases Electric Vehicle Range 42%
According to a recent survey, at least 25% of the population in the U.S. would buy an electric vehicle (EV) today if it were available at the same cost as a conveniently powered internal combustion driven car or truck. Currently, every major auto company in the world is developing its version of an electric vehicle.

General Motors and Honda have already begun leasing EVs in California in 1997. However, as EVs develop and become the standard on the roadways, a few concerns need to be resolved. One of these concerns is an effective power source which currently meets battery-performance and cost targets. Currently, lead-acid batteries are being used in the General Motors/Saturn EV1 plus a wide variety of electric fork lifts, golf carts and other electric applications.

Lead-acid battery technology is still the most cost-effective and reliable energy storage system available. Yet, in many cases, these batteries can have a limited range and take hours to recharge due to sulfation buildup and related issues.

Although advanced battery systems like nickel-metal hydride and lithium-ion are being developed, their commercial viability for the mass-market is still years away. In the meantime, an electric vehicle development firm in California has proven a solution is available to enhance EV battery performance right now. It’s the PowerPulse Battery Maintenance System from PulseTech.

Green Motorworks Inc., has been involved with many phases of electric vehicle development over the past seven years. Lead-acid battery performance has always been one of its main concerns. So GMW decided to run a control test with the PowerPulse system since PowerPulse is specifically designed to optimize battery performance and increase the life of battery systems.

What were the results of the test? PowerPulse increased overall battery range by 42%! The test was performed by Clare Bell, an EV technician/specialist with Green Motorworks. Clare has been working with EVs for over seven years and is editor of Current EVents , the official newsletter of the Electric Auto Association.

Clare originally tested a 12-volt PowerPulse on a single battery. The results were encouraging enough that she tested a 48-volt model on the traction battery pack of a Kewet E1-Jet 3 neighborhood electric car. The Kewet battery traction pack consisted of eight Trojan 30 XHS modules in a series/parallel string. "This vehicle should provide a range of 25 miles with these batteries," explained Clare. "However this car has fallen off to less than 15 miles of range due to non-use and infrequent charging.

After one week on the PowerPulse unit, I put the car on charge prior to range testing it. The batteries behaved significantly different under charge after PowerPulse treatment. Before installing PowerPulse, the batteries would gas vigorously at 55.6 volts and would not go above with the charger current remaining at 19-20 amps without tapering off. After PowerPulse, the charger operated properly. The charge current began at 24 amps and stayed stable until the pack reached the gassing voltage of 58, then it began to taper off."

Next Clare performed a range test of the Kewet at average speeds up to 35 miles per hour. The vehicle traveled approximately 25 miles until 80% depth of discharge was reached. Previously, in a similar range test on the same terrain, the vehicle traveled only 14.7 miles to 80% depth of discharge. This means PowerPulse improved the overall range of this pack by 42%.

Clare and GMW are continuing to use and test the PowerPulse battery maintenance system. They also see immediate applications throughout golf cart, fork lift and other electric vehicle industries.
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