Geo Metro plug-in parallel hybrid EV - in progress

[bennelson]

My electric Geo Metro features a 10.5" diameter series wound motor from a Nissan electric forklift.

When I ran 144V, I was able to get the car up to almost 75 MPH. ( I was going uphill and knew where the cop hides....)

A big limiting factor in my otherwise stock Geo was the width of the car in front. It was pretty hard to shoehorn that motor in - I had to chop the tailshaft, etc. Of course that was on the transmission, and takes advantage of the gearing.

Depending on where and how you will connect the electric motor, perhaps you could use a big old forklift motor. They are powerful and inexpensive, but will take up some space and weight. That extra 12" wide should give you A LOT more design flexibility than I had working with a stock Metro.

[MetroMPG]

Wow - big update.

Are you putting the Metro bits in the Manta car? Did you consider going with a Samurai transmission & converting to rear wheel drive? Might make slotting an electric motor inline somewhat easier.

[euromodder]

Originally Posted by Coyote X

So I say that hybrid drive project worked but it sucked something major. Now I started working on a new plan that is by far the most involved project I have ever tried. I am building a kit car Geo Metro so I can get more room to mount stuff and way better aero and less weight.

That's some serious changes !
Good luck with the project.
I'm hooked.

[Coyote X]

Yep I am putting the Metro in the Manta body. I thought about it for a while and the Manta was probably the most dangerous car on the road the way it was built. 1300hp in a 1600lb car was fun in a terrifying about to die at any second kind of way. But it was not really usable on the street. The metro was about the same way. It was incredibly rough riding and with the drivers front suspension much stiffer and limited compared to the rest of the car it drove terrible also. So with 2 cars that were not really fun to drive I figured I could build one really good car out of the two.

The Manta is a rear wheel drive mid engine car so I am keeping it that way and putting the front end of the Metro in the back. The only change I made to the front end was to swap the control arms from side to side and angle them forward about 40 degrees. I am building this one from scratch instead of like I did with the convertible and building it inside an existing body. So it is much slower to build but the end results should be a much lighter and cleaner build.

I am really considering tearing down one of my extra transmissions and seeing how much work it would be to have a longer shaft machined for it to stick out of the 5th gear cover. I would probably use the driven shaft. I am thinking with it on that shaft what ever gear I put the car in won't matter to the electric drive. It would always be connected. If I put it on the main shaft I would get a lot of gears to use but then I would have the problem of having to always hold the clutch in when not using the gas engine and I don't really want to have to keep my foot on the clutch constantly. I am not settled on hooking it up this way but it is just another option I have.

With the tire size I am using and the gearing I have I would need a 4000rpm range on the electric motor. If I find a motor that can spin faster I can gear it down with the drive sprockets. I would like to use an AC motor so I don't have to worry about brushes wearing out but if the brushes could last 50k miles before needing changed I could live with that.

[MetroMPG]

Oh, right -forgot that was mid-engined. Makes sense.

[bennelson]

My concept for my plug-in hybrid diesel/electric pickup truck is to use a forklift motor AFTER the transmission.

That way, it's basically direct drive for electric, and still uses the stock transmission for the diesel engine.

It also offers the advantage of using the electric, without thought to what gear you are in, or even whether or not the engine is running.

Of course the downside is that you are stuck with one set gearing for the electric motor, but I plan to make up for that just by using a huge motor! I will also need to add a reversing contactor and leave motor timing at neutral if I want to be able to use the electric to back the truck up.

I'll also be able to use the electric motor to push-start the engine, or use the motor to pull away from traffic lights for advanced engine start/stop use.

[Cobb]

Originally Posted by Coyote X

I think I have a plan for fixing the axle problem.

I need to do some driving and see your setup. I am thinking about adding an electric motor in parallel to the drive shift of my sidekick and using my 4 kilowatt pack from my enginer phev kit to power it to supplement my power needs.

Better yet, remove the front drive shaft and use the electric motor to power the front axles like a reverse of the VA Tech hybrid they had at the state fair a few years ago. They had the rear axle of an escape driven by electirc and the front axle by a modified turbo charged engine and a comuter between the two to regular power, charging, etc.

[Coyote X]

I am at 25628 if you want to see how far away I am. I am really hoping to have the framing done on the car by next weekend so I can start assembling the car and have it on the road by fall.

If I get it done in time I will most likely just drive it as a gas only car over the winter and once the weather gets nicer out start working on the new hybrid system. Just a quick looking around found this system: ThunderStruck Motors - AC-50 Kit I have no idea if that is a good price but it seems like it would have enough power to get me going at a good speed.

I need to dig around and see if I can find a decent battery setup other than lead this time as well. It will probably be this winter before I am ready to buy anything so I have plenty of time to look around. If I am going to be putting out that kind of power in the car I will really have to build a good connection to the engine. I might try to get the aluminum welding stuff together and see how hard it is to weld on a transmission case. I might be able to do something simple like cut a hole in it and add another gear to the final drive for the electric motor.

[bennelson]

The AC-50 sounds like a good kit. I don't personally know anyone who has used it yet, but would love to hear experiences from anyone who has.

In recent years, there have started to be AC motors available for golf carts and forklifts. A friend of mine is just waiting for AC electric forklifts to hit junkyards, but I think that's going to be a long time coming!

The AC-50 is based on an AC golf cart motor, but modified for street EV use.

[Cobb]

Thanks, likewise I am in 23832 if you are in the area or anyone else.

I wouldnt toss lead acid out with the bath water. I was hot and heavy on buying an EV that was for sale because it needed new batteries.

I found out that most local auto stores like Advance, auto zone, batteries express, etc were willing to give a discount for 13 deep cycle group 24 or 27 batteries as well as 13 chargers. I know it wouldnt be the best setup, however it would be cost effective and let me drive around tiwn where mpg is the worse and save the gasser for longer distances.

From what I can see of the Honda IMA system its best to use it for extending coasting and save the gas for acceleration as well as grades. Then of course ensuring it FAS at stops and to coast as much as possible.