On May 14, several of us met at Imiloa Astronomy Center in Hilo for the Regen event. This was an opportunity to get EV and sustainability enthusiasts together, to exchange experiences, and to tackle the challenge of Saddle Road (a good elevation change from Hilo). Here’s the event promo from organizer Cody Osborne:

“I’m excited to be hosting a first of it’s kind (that I know of) REGEN EVent!! It’s a friendly competition amongst us fellow Big Island EV owners. When I first mentioned the idea I thought maybe 2 or 3 of my EV friends would join me for the mountain drive, but we’re up to 6 cars and a few co-pilots to help log data for the 6500′ climb. One of the 3 LEAF’s attending is a ‘9 bar’ 2011 LEAF, I’m only fairly confident at this point that our group will be able to crest the mountain pass, but even still that’s not a deal breaker. We’re going to go as far as we can and turn around and begin the competition!

The whole point of this EVent is a Regen Competition, wherein the vehicle with the most regen (at the ocean) wins. I’m totally energized and excited to be doing something fun while helping to prove/disprove the that even the 72 mpc LEAF can make the journey up and over Saddle, and that you’ll arrive at the coast with ~6 kw left on the 70 mile drive. 🙂

I’m glad that our club is doing our part to foster education and add data along the way.”

We had a good showing, with several EV owners from as far as Kona (Eric) and Kau (Tom) making the trek to our rendezvous spot above Hilo. The weather was overcast with showers/mist meeting us occasionally on the climb up the Saddle Rd (Daniel Inouye Hwy – Route 200) but our spirits were high.

The approximate 38 mile drive was fun and we made a couple of stops along the way to regroup and take measurements. The 2011 LEAF (with 9 bars) started to drop too low in charge at some point and it determined our turnaround point – our rule at the start of our ‘competition’ was that we would return to Hilo when the lowest range EV ran too low.

And as for our “regen competition”, here are some relevant details:

• Nine cars competed (3 LEAF’s, 3 Volts, 2 Tesla MS, 1 Kia Soul EV).
• Our elevation at turnaround was approximately 4830 feet at the 18.5 mile marker, and our ending elevation was sea level.
• We drove about 38 miles in total, of which about 20 were downhill miles (the basis for our regen competition).
• Our average speed was about 35 mph.
• Our average regen was 3.3 kWh.
• We had great results from every EV that competed, but we have to declare a winner for the EV that regenerated the most energy on the downhill descent. That winner was Eric in his 2013 LEAF with 4.2 kWh regened! Congrats Eric – good work!

Importantly, it was great to see a long string of EVs on the road on that day. We had a few thumbs ups from passing vehicles and it was great to see the community spirit and passion in our group. We also learned a few things that can help us with future meet-ups, e.g., smaller events will allow us to get together more often, incorporate the opportunity to grab a bite to eat, and end the event in locations that allow for needed breaks.

Gary Miller (Chevy Volt owner) took several images and compiled a nice slideshow for us. You can view it here. (Thanks, Gary!)

Thank you to those who joined: Cody, Tony, Emily, Ed, Julieta, Stephanie, Rico, Gary, Paula, Lorn, Tom, Eric, and Julie.  I’m sure I’m missing one or two (my apologies in advance).

– Noel