OwnerMike Greig
LocationVictoria, British Columbia Canada map
WebWebPage
Vehicle1990 Geo Metro
Picked up the car for free from a friend.
MotorAdvanced DC 6.7 Series Wound DC
Picked up the motor and controller for
$1000 used!
Drivetrain5 speed manual transmission
ControllerCurtis 1231C
Batteries8 Deka Dominator Gel, 12.00 Volt, Lead-Acid, Gel
Bought the batteries from a friend of a
friend. His boss has several EVs and I was
able to get a good used set for scrap
value....$10 each!
System Voltage96 Volts
ChargerSoneil 12V
I am very happy with these chargers
although
they get COOKING hot when they're plugged
in. Even after the batteries are charged
they continue to produce heat. I'm going
to
have to set up a fan to cool them.
HeaterI have installed a ceramic heater core
into
the stock heater core and run wires under
the hood. I now just need a fuse and a
switch to get some heat. I'll probably get
to that sometime in mid-November.

Update: 96v and a ceramic core produces
almost no heat. Next is a fluid heater.
DC/DC Converter
Never bothered, just charged my 12v
accessory battery with the traction pack.
InstrumentationMultimeter
Top Speed65 MPH (104 KPH)
Still has lots to go but it really drinks
amps at high speeds so I try to stick to
secondary roads.
AccelerationAbout what it was stock.
Range30 Miles (48 Kilometers)
30 miles is no problem at all. I wouldn't
push it much farther than that until I get
the rest of my batteries in.
Seating Capacity2
TiresStock
Conversion Time18 months of part-time effort. The odd
evening and weekend and I took the winter
off.
Conversion Cost$2570
November 2012

Electronics now mounted under the hood.
Battery racks built
and secured. Won't be long now.

UPDATE July 2013

I have been driving the car full-time for
around 3 weeks now
and am thrilled with it. I'm currently
running 96V as the car
just won't handle 700lbs of batteries
without at least
upgrading the rear springs. I will get
them all in
eventually. Haven't really had any issues
with it other than
the clutch slips a little when the motor
heats up. Lesson
learned about cheaping out and re-using an
obviously worn-out
clutch disk.

Update May 2014: My battery pack suffered
a sudden and unexpected death. As I need a
new pack, I'm going to start hunting for a
new donor car as well. This car has been a
great project but has a few to many issues
and things I would have done differently.


code by jerry