| Owner | John Loveless | ||||||||
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| Owner's Other EVs | 1992 Toyota Pickup - RETIRED 2007 Black and Decker | ||||||||
| Location | Kaysville, Utah United States map | ||||||||
| Web/Email | WebPage | ||||||||
| Vehicle | 1991 Geo Metro LSI Hatchback I have retired this vehicle. All parts have been sold off to pay for my used Nissan Leaf purchase. It's has been a lot of fun but this concluded my EV conversion projects. At least for now. | ||||||||
| Motor | EMC RT-200 Permanent Magnet DC Power: 11.5 kW cont-- 23 kW pk Voltage: 12-72 Volt rated Speed: 3700 rpm @ 72V unloaded Size: 8" OD, 7.4 " long (w/o shaft) Shaft: 7/8"x 1-3/4", 3/16" key Weight: 39 lbs. Kind of small for a Geo but has more torque than original motor. I love that I don't need a lift to remove/install this motor. | ||||||||
| Drivetrain | Original Manual front-wheel drive. Drive around town in 3rd gear and 4th gear on the freeway. Clutch and flywheel removed. | ||||||||
| Controller | Kelly Kelly KDZ72551 12/5/2014 Two years to the day after finishing car, blew out Alltrax SPM-72400 400A controller. Put in this Kelly one and am loving the regen. 72 Volt 550 Amp with regen. | ||||||||
| Batteries | 24 Winston 160Ah, 3.30 Volt, Lithium Iron Phosphate Winston brand batteries from China. 12/5/2012: Just installed them this week. 12/10/2014: Nearly 17,000 miles later and they are still performing like new. | ||||||||
| System Voltage | 79 Volts | ||||||||
| Charger | Elcon PFC-1500 11/26/2012 Got my batteries but just found out the charger doesn't work. Argg.. 12/10/2012 got a replacement charger. Yeah! | ||||||||
| Heater | Small 12V heater. I also insulated my garage and it never gets lower than 40 degrees F in the winter time, even when it is 12 degrees F outside. I wear a coat, gloves and put a blanket on my lap. Suck it up and take it like a man. 1/4/2013: 4 degrees F outside. Garage temp dropped to 39 F inside. 1/12/2013: -5 degrees F outside. Garage temp is 36 degrees F inside. | ||||||||
| DC/DC Converter | Chennic 30 Amp 13.8V 30Amp 13.8V supply. $123 on Ebay. Works great. | ||||||||
| Instrumentation | Ligoo BMS 3.5" touch screen. It's awesome. All LED lights (less headlights). | ||||||||
| Top Speed | 70 MPH (112 KPH) PM motor RPM is voltage dependent. With front wheels off the ground, max top speed is 85mph. Actual top speed is less due to wind loads and sustained amp draw limitations in the motor. Motor is also too tiny (not enough heat dissipation) to try to push much faster for very long. 1/4/2012: While it was 19 degrees F outside, I got it up to 68 mph on a flat stretch of I- 15. 12/11/2013: Top speed is 77 mph down hill. High rpm limits current draw in motor. Air resistance prevents going any faster, even down-hill. 11/14/2014 Top speed on flat stretch is 70 mph. | ||||||||
| Acceleration | Awesome! Much better than original Geo. Excellent acceleration up to about 40mph. As PM motor reaches higher RPM, peak power drops off. From 40-65mph, acceleration is not great but adequate. | ||||||||
| Range | 80 Miles (128 Kilometers) 12/22/2012: Drove 80.5 freeway miles (averaging 55 mph) and 10 city miles all on one charge. Odometer showed 76.6 miles but Google Maps showed route as 80.5 miles. BMS showed range as zero but there was still some battery left. 11/2013: Drove from Kaysville to Logan 67 miles strait shot. Had 25% SOC remaining. 12/2014: Drove 65 miles and had 19% SOC remaining. 2 years later and no measurable loss of range. | ||||||||
| Watt Hours/Mile | 160 Wh/Mile This is based off of several charge cycles (average speed 55 mph) and measuring energy from Kill-A-Watt meter from the wall to re- charge pack. Originally was 225 Whr/mile. Grill block and undercarriage cover brought it down quite a bit. Oh, I also removed exterior rear-view mirrors and installed interior ones. 1/18/2013: Notice the motor pulls more amps in 5th gear vs. 4th gear, even at the same speed. I don't know why. I keep it in 4th gear but my top speed is only about 58+mph, which is fine by me. I only put it into 5th when I want to go faster, which is only for a couple mile stretch of my daily commute. 3/15/2013: Rear wheel skirts and kamm-back brought energy usage down to 181 Wh/mi. 7/2013: Summer driving with lower air density has brought energy usage down significantly. As low as 155 Wh/mi. 10/2014: Found resistive losses in cable going to the charger bringing down efficiency. Replaced with a shorter cable with higher AWG wire 160 Wh/mi average. | ||||||||
| EV Miles |
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| Seating Capacity | 4 adults. Rear seating has been preserved. This comes in very handy for hauling kids to school. 2014:It isn't very often but at times I haul 6 people, (on residential streets only). Can carry a lot of stuff. I once hauled 800 lbs. of concrete and eight 4x4 posts. | ||||||||
| Curb Weight | 1,760 Pounds (799 Kilograms) Original curb weight was 1642 lbs. Removed 134 lb motor and 120 lbs in other parts. Added 39 lb motor and about 30 lbs in other parts (controller, mounts, shaft coupler). Added about 300 lbs for the 160Ah LiPo4 battery pack. | ||||||||
| Tires | 12" All-season tires | ||||||||
| Conversion Time | 5 months, (most of that was waiting for the LiFePo4 batteries to get here). | ||||||||
| Conversion Cost | $~8300: $460 for the car, $30 paint job $1400 for motor, throttle, contactor and controller. $4200 for LiFe batteries $500 for charger, $700 for Ligoo BMS. Another $900 for stupid customs fees. | ||||||||
| Additional Features | All LED lights (less headlights). Homemade motor mount made out of a 12" steel gusset. Homemade motor shaft coupler made out of a 6" steel gusset welded to a 7/8" shaft coupler. Original clutch disk is riveted and bolted onto the gusset. 1/2015: 2 years and 17,000 miles later, the shaft coupler is working like new. I'm a better welder than I thought. Ligoo Battery management system with 3.5" screen. LOVE IT! Mounted 8 cells under rear seat (where the gas tank used to be). 10 cells are above the motor and 6 cells in the front of the engine compartment just behind the grill. | ||||||||
| 12/21/2012: Motor gets hot after 60 strait miles on the freeway. I still have some work to do in reducing areas of high friction as the energy consumption is higher than calculated. 12/21/2012: Put Royal Purple Synchro-Max in the gearbox. Reduced gear drag (tires spinning but not going anywhere) by 14%. Currently it pulls between 110 and 145 amps at 55mph (72V battery pack). 12/22/2012: Partial undercarriage cover and grill block brought 55 mph amp draw down to 108 Amps. 01/01/2013: Finished undercarriage cover. Removed exterior rear- view mirrors and replaced with interior ones. 01/04/2013: Drives great (even when it's 4 degrees F outside). Cold air has higher density. At 55mph this alone causes a 6% increase in current draw. I use a Harbor Freight 12V cab heater to keep windows clear during frigid winter driving. Works OK. 01/10/2013: Replaced all wheel bearings but sadly, they didn't reduce the current draw that much for my regular commute. Maybe only marginally. Weather got really cold negative single digits, BURRR!) so that could be canceling out the gains. When I am carrying more weight, current draw is much less than it used to be. 01/18/2013: Undercarriage aeromods cause motor to get hot in stop and go traffic or whenever I am pulling more than 150Amps for a long duration. Made a duct directly to the motor. Motor now runs much cooler. I even drove up a 1000 foot hill with a 12% grade (going 20mph) carrying 2 people. Motor was about 125 F by the top. Outside temp was 8 degrees F. I doubt I could do this going that fast in the summer time. 2/10/2013: A cracked brush caused a hex-screw in the motor (internal buss-bar tie point) to back out, overheat and melt. I believe this damage happened early on before I ducted the motor but has just now revealed itself. To be on the safe side, I replaced the whole brush assembly ($86). 2/15/2013: After 1 year, because of my home's solar panels, my net electric usage at home is zero (including EV driving). I am no longer charging up at work at all. I don't need to. 8kWh per 40 miles. 02/27/2013: Verified cold winter range is 70+ miles. Drove 70 miles (mostly freeway all on a single charge). According to a Kill-A-Watt meter it took 15.8kW-hr and 12-hrs to completely re- charge the pack from a 120V outlet at home. 3/15/2013: Added rear wheel skirts and Kamm-back. Energy usage is now 5.5 kWh/mile. Warmer 73 F weather is upon us. But after a 20 mile drive, the motor temp was 125 F. I will need to add better passive cooling before it gets really hot. 5/23/2013: Added vent slots in undercarriage aeromods to allow passive cooling to motor. Even when it is 103 �F outside, the motor still maintains decent temperatures (under 150 F) while at freeway speeds. Averaging 6.28 kWh/mile. Nice!! Leased a 2013 Leaf for my wife. Now we both drive EVs. 9/17/2013: Made it through the hot summer season without any issues. Lately the LiFe batteries are acting like they are larger capacity than they were originally. Cool but Weird. I manually equalized one of the cells before noticing the improvement. Still driving it and still loving it. 11/12/2013: Took both EVs to Logan for a USU science demonstration (Geo EV and Nissan Leaf) Drove up sardine canyon. Drove 67 miles one way. Still had 25% battery capacity. Charged up both cars overnight and drove back home. Nice! 12/13/2013: 1 Year of driving this car back and forth to work, 40 miles a day, 4 days a week. 8800 miles, almost all on solar power. 5/2014: I am ashamed to say, of my own doing, I killed one of my LiFePo4 cells. I don't want to talk about it. Replaced with a new one. All is well. 6/5/2014: Had to replace the throttle control potentiometer. It cost me $17 and took 15 minutes to replace. 10/1/2014: Due to the split pack design, cells B19 and B9 fall out of balance and I have to manually bring them back up about once a month. Continues to be a fun, reliable car. Continually finding small ways to reduce energy usage like in charging. Averaging 6.6kWh per 40 miles, most of which is freeway. 11/06/2014: Adjusted profile on Alltrax controller, now I have much better acceleration on the top end. It also raised top speed by a couple mph. Cool. Now I can go 57 mph in 4th gear. 68-70 in 5th. 12/5/2014: Two years to the day, I blew out the controller. Replaced it with Kelly controller with regen. Loving it. 1/9/2015: Motor acting kind of jerky and top speed was only 55 mph on way home from work. Amp draw was also erratic. Found several brushes with loose wires, (pulled out of brush). I'm amazed the motor could even spin at all. Motor bus wires are also showing signs of corrosion. Two years driving on salted, Utah roads probably didn't much help either. Removed back of motor and using good parts from the old assembly that I still had, I pieced together a complete, wire-brush assembly with all good brushes. Cost $0. Back in business. 01/29/2015: Sheared the shaft coupler on the way to work. Repaired it on the side of the road and then drove it back home. | |||||||||
1991 Geo Metro EV --RETIRED
Last Updated 12-30-2015
Copyright © 1997-2024 by Mike Chancey