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Old 02-06-2016, 02:25 PM   #45 (permalink)
bennelson
EV test pilot
 
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Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: Oconomowoc, WI, USA
Posts: 4,435

Electric Cycle - '81 Kawasaki KZ440
90 day: 334.6 mpg (US)

S10 - '95 Chevy S10
90 day: 30.48 mpg (US)

Electro-Metro - '96 Ben Nelson's "Electro-Metro"
90 day: 129.81 mpg (US)

The Wife's Car - Plug-in Prius - '04 Toyota Prius
90 day: 78.16 mpg (US)
Thanks: 17
Thanked 663 Times in 388 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by EVmetro View Post
I am a little surprised to see you rolling around in a manufactured EV. Your early days of DIY conversions were an inspiration to me as I followed in your footsteps, and I have found that my converted Metros beat manufactured EVs in almost every category imaginable. What changed for you?
The Metro is a unibody car. We use LOTS of salt on the roads in my area. The body is really rusting out. Also, the Metro only ever ran on used lead-acid batteries.

I could rebuild the Metro, or transfer all the parts to a new donor vehicle (but would be hard to find a good non-corroded shell) and buy new Lithium batteries OR I could buy a used electric car with a good battery warranty, J1772 connection, and fast-charger and NOT have to do any of those things.

Also, the iMiEV is a "normal" car. My wife has no problem hopping in the iMiEV with our 5-year-old daughter to go out to the store, but she never would have done that with the Metro.

Don't worry, I'll still be playing around with making upgrades to the iMiEV.
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