Full Electric Car Home Conversion – 1988 Pontiac Fiero Part 3
Posted on June 22nd, 2010 by admin
The process of converting my Pontiac Fiero to 144 volt electric car. Full video documentation of the process along with a few test drives. It runs on 12, 12 volt Trojan deep cycle lead acid batteries. Powered by a 9.1 in. dia. Advanced DC motor with a 500 amp Curtis controller. About $6,000 for EV components not including: car, tools, steel brackets for battery box, 12V wiring supplies, new break pads. Tested top speed: 70 mph. Though this was limited by the road. Preliminary range test: 30 miles without fully conditioned batteries. GO ELECTRIC!
Duration : 0:4:28
[youtube jPJ9MAqrD78]
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
don’t forget … no …
don’t forget … no oil changes .. air filters
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
@BikerTrashWolf wow …
@BikerTrashWolf wow. you have too much time on your hands my friend.
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
@TheBuIIshitable …
@TheBuIIshitable I could see saving 6000 dollars in fuel easily. If I got a car that got 40 mpg just that would save me nearly 200 dollars a month, that would make it 2400 dollars a year, 6 thousand dollars would be saved in just about 28 months if I am figuring right in my head. Then if you look at an electric car, what does it cost to charge one money wise? 4 bucks? if you can get 100 miles to a charge that would be like getting 75 mpg and you would break even even faster.
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
What, you no like a …
What, you no like a little Aesop Rock or JMT? Whatever, haha. To each his or her own.
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
nice video… …
nice video… hideous music
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
I know of a guy who …
I know of a guy who have invented a electronic battery controller for lead acid batteries. In simple means it take power from one or two batteries of at the time, of a total of lets say 10 batteries. About 2 seconds of drawing and 8 seconds rest for each battery. The batteries that are resting is connected together in parallell, and the batteries working is taken out of the system by mos-fet transistors. He gets almost triple energy out of the batteries that way! He won a price for it as well.
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
I was thinkin the …
I was thinkin the same thing.
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
yeah just look …
yeah just look under my user name on here and you’ll find some. i even made it on to the national new last year. thats on here too. the program is called ” a current affair ” which i thought was apt when talking about electric cars! haha!
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
Definitely better …
Definitely better mileage when I’m cruising on the open road at a constant speed. Like you said whenever I start from a dead stop the ammeter just pings at 300 or 400 amps and then drops once I pick up speed. So what is your conversion? Do you have some vids or pics?
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
great work mate. i …
great work mate. i love it! just one question, do you find you get better range on the open road or stop start traffic? its just i think mine goes further if i’m not stopping all the time at intersections. taking off is a real amps sucker! awesome videos mate!
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
Its not all about …
Its not all about the monetary return. I could think of a lot of worse things you could spend 6 grand on.
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
$6000++?? you will …
$6000++?? you will never make that money back in gas savings.
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
Nice video. It …
Nice video. It should get more views. The only problem is small range on charge up. There could be a system where if you’re parked and you pay at the parking meter, you could plug in your car and pay at the same time for charging up. It would be as easy as setting up new parking meters and hooking them up to infrastructure of electricity already there. In EU parking meters take debit cards so this would be like paying at a pump. Very simple and would solve part of the problem.
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
Great job!
Great job!
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
“you ruined a very …
“you ruined a very great car”?????
NO, THE GREAT CAR IS TUNED INTO A HIGH-END CAR WITHOUT CLAMOR & EXHAUST!
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
Kona
Kona
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
I respectfully …
I respectfully disagree……
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
you ruined a very …
you ruined a very great car!!!
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
I’m not exactly …
I’m not exactly sure but I estimate about 3600 lbs. When I get a chance I’m going to take it to a truck scale and find out for sure. The conversion was about $6,000 not including the car, and the batteries. There is no clutch so shifting up takes about 2 times as long as before the conversion and downshifting requires rev-matching.
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
Great job with the …
Great job with the fiero!
I’m curious as to what the car’s final weight is?
How much did the swap cost a do-yourselfer such as your self.
Is it difficult to shift gears on the fly?
If you ever want a shorter shifter arm, you can buy a bolt with the same thread at the hardware store and cut the welds on the old stick and weld the shorter bolt on.
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
So far the max …
So far the max range is 30 miles. Though it takes about 40 charge cycles to fully condition the batteries so I think after that I should be able to get about 40 miles. From a full discharge it takes about 8 hrs but for usual driving drain it takes about 5 hrs. The charge cycles can be anywhere from 800-1600 charges. Age and depth of discharge make a big difference in the total amount of charge cycles for the life of a battery.
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
Great Job! What is …
Great Job! What is the range per charge, how long does it take to recharge, and how many recharges are the batteries good for?
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
I bought most of …
I bought most of the EV parts (including motor) from Electric Vehicles of America (evamerica “dot” com). The motor has a continuous rating of 30 hp and a peak rating of about 100 hp.
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
where did you get …
where did you get the motor and how powerful is it?
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:36 pm
awesome
awesome