1976 Citicar - Bay Area, California $1900

[TomEV]

My electric 1976 Citicar - affectionately known as the 'Cheese Wedge' - is for sale. (see avatar picture)

The Citicar has worked as a daily driver for my 4.5 mile commute for several years, but I am moving on to a newer EV and don't have room to park two cars. Price is $1,900. Includes some spare parts.

Good commuter vehicle if you have a one-way distance to work of less than ten miles. Electricity cost is less than three cents a mile. (This compares very favorably to a regular 30 MPG gasoline-powered car that costs 14 cents a mile.)

Some details -

1976 model year (commercially manufactured in September 1975 by Sebring - Vanguard, the U.S. #6 automaker).

48 volt battery pack.

Modern speed controller (Alltrax 7245) and contactors (Albright SW202 F/R and Kilovac main contactor)

Manual Field Weakening system (goes faster uphill than a non-weakened series motor, and gives about 10% more speed on level roads).

Nearly new tires (about 95% tread remaining).

Top speed is about 35 MPH. (goes faster downhill...)

Range with new batteries is about 24 miles with six 8V batteries (US8VGC). Room for eight 6v batteries if you want to increase the range to about 30 miles. I experimented with eight 8V batteries (64v). This really wakes the Citicar up (45 MPH), but the small GE motor needed extra cooling to handle the voltage increase - I didn't have the time to do yet another mod to the Citicar so it's back to 48v. The DC/DC converter and Alltrax controller handle 64v just fine. If you want to go to 64v, I have a nearly new Elcon 2500 charger also for sale for an additional $500 - charges the pack in about 1/2 the time of the stock charger (won't work with 48v)

All the typical problems you'll find in most C-Cars have been taken care of - wiring is good, brakes work, modern controller installed, side curtains have new 'window' material so they can be left in place when driving, etc. It would cost more than $1,900 just to get those items working in most disused C-Cars!

What needs to be done:

While mechanically OK, like most 35 year-old vehicles the Citicar needs a bit of body work and paint. Citicars have ABS plastic bodies that are easily repaired (similar to repairing plastic bumper covers). A local paint shop said they'd paint it for about $300.

The batteries are about 5 years old, and will need to be replaced soon. When tested in April, they still had enough power for about 15 miles before they needed to be charged again. Replacing the battery pack (six 8V golf-cart size batteries - $97 each as of May 29, 2012) is easy to do.

[TomEV]

The Citicar has been sold (June 11th). Thanks!

[TomEV]

I still have the ElCon charger that I used for the 64 volt upgrade for sale. It was used for about a month before I sold the Citicar as a 48v car. Currently set up for eight 8v batteries, but can be reset by ElCon (Sacramento, California) for different chemistry/voltage. Nominal voltage range for this charger is about 54 to 68 volts as it is originally a 60v ElCon 2500. This charger can use 120v, 208v, or 240v input. About 1,500 watts on 120v, and 2.5 kW when using 208v or 240v.

I used it with regular house plugs (120v and 240v) and also with the new J1772 Level 2 charging stations. You'll need to build your own plug adapter and control if you want to use J1772.

Purchased new for about $720. The slightly used price is negotiable, but I'd like around $500.