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This area of the site is intended to be a 'Documentary' of my project converting an old gasoline vehicle, a 1997 Suzuki Swift (Geo Metro), to electric. The goal is to illustrate that the process is not THAT hard or expensive, and really is a good option for the post-petroleum age we are about to enter for city/suburban transportation. The coolest thing about electric cars is that the electricity can be generated from many non-fossil source... Solar, Wind, Biofuel, etc.
Before you even start on an EV project it is important to clarify your needs and expectations. Current battery technology DOES limit daily driving range to somewhere between 30 and 100 miles per charge depending on size of vehicle, type of batteries, how fast you drive, whether its hilly or flat, highway or city. Until there are some improvements in regenerative braking and batteries, the simplest and least expensive design for the average person remains a DC motor with Lead batteries; the total cost for conversion using a brand new DC motor, controller, flooded lead batteries and other materials will be about $8000, plus a Donor car.
This is the story of turning a 1997 Suzuki Swift (Geo Metro) into 'Zappy' the EV...
What's new...
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This section I have decided to turn into a brief 'blog' noting significant improvements and effect on performance as I go now that Zappy is operational as of 3/1/2009! Note that the most recent comment will go on top...
3/18/2009 - Still averaging about 0.4 kWhr/mile (at the plug), added hood today...
I was a little disappointed that my new aluminum wheels (Primax-333) and new Kumho Solus Kr21 tires did NOT seem to make a significant difference in efficiency. I only had gone about 40 miles since last measure, so the difference would not have been obvious unless it was 'significant'. I got the hood on with a little 'cut and bump' from the inside rather than cutting a hole and needing a scoop after all. I did have to add a central latch support; it would have been easier to do it back BEFORE I installed the bumper as I had to take it back off for access. I plan to check temp after a long climb uphill... if the controller feels hot, I may go back to adding the open scoop after all.
- 141.0 hours of labor -
3/8/2009 - 153 miles - Decided to take a reading of cumulative performance after the first week... averaging 0.41 kWhr/mile at the plug.
After driving a little every day to break in batteries and brushes (without any instrumentation installed) I decided to take a reading on my kill-a-watt meter and see what kind of performance I am getting. I kept the extension cord plugged in the whole time so the meter wouldn't lose it's total. Remember that there is no hood, no bumper and no bellypan yet. Additionally the car still has old (bald) p175/60r13 tires on the stock steel rims. Turns out that over the first 153 miles my average was .41 kWhr/mile. At a 'steady state' 100 amps the car speed seems to level out right about 40mph on the flattest road I can find. Not great, but not bad all things considered. This is average driving in rolling terrain suburban stop/go with high speeds of 50-55 mph and average closer to maybe 35-40mph. Today I also installed my metering on a
pillar mount pod
which looks oh so racey! Now I'll have a much better idea how hard I am actually pushing and what's left.
- 138.0 hours of labor -
3/1/2009 - 0 miles - First test run on the road! whoo hoo..... Zappy's new life begins after 130992 miles on ICE.
I finished wiring last evening, plugged in the charger... and everything seemed ok! No smoke, amps were flowing, etc... I was really hard to wait till morning, but the batteries have been sitting uncharged for so long I really didn't want to kill them with a test drive. This morning I turned the switch and again was amazed; no smoke came from anywhere! A short drive around the neighborhood was SO exciting. Gave a few test rides to friends and family and grinned all day.... ;)
- 131.0 hours of labor -
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