Would appreciate input on EV purchase opportunity
 

Hi folks,

Would appreciate some input from those more expert in EVs than I.

I have an opportunity to purchase a 1990 Honda Civic HB converted to an EV (see Jon Lawrence's 1991 Honda Civic for details). Haven't looked at it yet, but pics seem to show a fairly well built EV. Of course, I really don't have a lot of background with EVs, so I'm not as good of a judge as I ought to be.

The owner says the batteries are only 8 months old, but the motor is dead. He says it needs to be "rewound". Not sure if that is something that should raise a red flag or not. Or if it's something that's gonna cost a lot or not. Will get some more details but would like to get some input from folks here about what I should probe into.

Asking price is $3000, but probably negotiable.

Thoughts?

I would talk to the local electric motor/starter/alternator rebuild place with the details about the motor and ask them about rewind/rebuild costs.

$3 grand for an EV with fairly fresh batteries sounds like a pretty good deal to me if the motor rebuild isn't much more than $500 or so. The motors are not complicated at all, one could conceivably rewind it by hand with a lot of patience (some folks do).

Might wonder why the motor is toast after 1000 miles though.

the motor is most likely just fine, as I suspect one of the brushes burned up, so unless they know for sure that the motor is screwed... and if that is the case it might be cheaper to get a new motor, but brushes tend to burn out first and cost less then $50 for a set, after that you are buying the car for the cost of some of the parts to build it.

While the es-31b is supposed to do 144v, there is a similar vehicle on the EV album that 'burned up'. Looks like a brush spring got hot and shattered:
Jonathan Trotter's 1973 Sebring

The comments on the page may be sour grapes, but if it is a similar failure...

On the other hand, this guy seems to really like that motor:
Ken Barbour Jr.'s 1991 Geo Metro Convertible

(late note - this fellow upgraded to 120v in April. He was running 72v before...)

But he is only running 120v. May be the difference between fun and fire.

There are several others running an es-31b, but almost all have less than 200 miles.

Very good information; thank you!

Looks like a range of $875 for a rebuild to $1300 (or so) for the new one of the same brand/model motor. A replacement WarP 9" from NetGain (which seems to be a popular EV motor) looks like it goes for ~$1700. Think it'd be better to replace with a better motor than try to mess with the current one?

I'll be talking to the owner Sat so I'll have a chance to ask a few questions.