You may have heard people saying that most electric vehicles have plenty of range for an average driver's daily needs, but ... how does that apply to you? It would definitely be disappointing to purchase an EV, only to discover that your driving habits are significantly more taxing that what is considered "average." What would be good is if there was some sort of device that you could attach to your existing car, that would observe your driving habits, then tell you how a certain make and model of EV would stand up to those demands. That device, it turns out, exists in the form of the EV Profiler driving data recorder.
Instead of having to buy a Profiler, the idea is that prospective buyers of electric cars will rent one either from the EV Profiler company itself, or from a local auto dealer.
The gadget itself mounts with a suction cup to the inside of the windshield, and plugs into the vehicle's power port. Utilizing a variety of internal sensors, it then proceeds to log how far you drive, how fast you accelerate and cruise, the amount of time you spend going up- and downhill, how much you stop-and-go, and other factors that would influence the range of an EV. It actually started out as an app, but it was found that the sensors in smartphones were insufficient for its purposes.
The Profiler uploads the logged information to the company's servers every night, where an online profile is maintained for each user. Along with daily reports, at the end of a predetermined test period (typically about a week), you will receive an emailed final report outlining how the EV of your choice would be able to handle your driving needs.
Not only would that report tell you much juice the battery would have left after your daily drive, but you could also use it to determine how often you would need to charge the battery, what strength of charger you would require, how varying factors such as traffic might affect your range, how much money you would save on fuel, and how other models of EV would compare.
The EV Profiler will reportedly rent for US$25 a week, or $82 per month.
Source: Dvice
