Electric Speedster on Ebay from JPS

For those of you who have not yet "seen everything."

http://cgi.ebay.com/ebaymotors/Cars-Trucks___Electric-96-Volt-LiPo-batteries_W0QQitemZ320343051818QQddnZCarsQ20Q26Q20TrucksQQddiZ2282QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_Cars_Trucks?hash=item320343051818&_trksid=p4506.c0.m245&_trkparms=65%3A10|39%3A1|240%3A1318

A 40 mile range would barely get me to work and back.

I saw this a few days ago......
WEAK!

Not to get nitpicky but isn't that a Beck hood handle (not JPS)?

Someday I wouldn't mind converting mine to electric but I'm gonna need a heck of alot more than a 40 mile range. And a HECK OF ALOT MORE than a 65mph top end before I'd ever seriously consider it.

The interior shot is definitely of a pan-based car.

A two speed will consume a charge quickly, 20 miles on a freeway = limited use, plus any incline draws big amps, aerodynamics are way wrong for an electric speedster. A flared speedster with no bumpers, less hood and door handles and narrow tires specific for electric vehicles. Keeping top up and windows in at all times would help a bit..."in sunny California".

OK, I'm confused. What is it really?

I looked into doing this a few years ago (sort of, and I realized I would electrocute myself and needed a bigger garage and so on and so on). The 96 volt one for sale is a pretty neat looking city car. John mentioned a 144 volt one eventually to come in the ad. If you wanted it to go on the freeway or be more performance oriented, more volts the better. I suspect you could possibly add more batteries and get more oomph. It actually looks like quite a sanitary design. Plus, with emissions- hybrid or diesel or electric Speedies may be the only ways to go down the road....

Very true, Dan. If we insist on sticking with air-cooled internal combustion, I worry about the long-term viability of our hobby.

There is a company in Texas that has signed an exclusive arrangement with ZENN cars to produce a capacitor discharge system. Claims will propel a car to over 130MPH and close to 300 miles between charges and will take 5 minutes to recharge to full. No battery. Advantage to this system is that it has less leakage and safer to the environment. The exclusive arrangement was because ZENN has invested heavily in this technology. Supposedly will be out shortly. It's an EEStore capacitor. The car is on the ZENN site as the CITY ZENN and will be limited to 85MPH top speed. :/ Launch fall 09.

Some of the limitations are high voltage recharge stations. But they said that for a few hundred dollars you can have an extra 'charge' tank and simply swap it out while the other one charges under normal house current for 24 hours. Some of the engineers think that high voltage stations could be cheaply built in higher traffic areas.

Innovation...... I love it! I would have speakers making car sounds.....

I know nothing more than this may be the start of something bigger in electric vehicles.

" If we insist on sticking with air-cooled internal combustion, I worry about the long-term viability of our hobby"

Seriously? This line of thought, especially given the car that is the topic of this thread seems to be the definition of "ironic". What isn't really viable for our hobby, now or in the foreseeable future, is anything BUT the internal combustion engine. 40 mile range!?!

I've been hearing about 300 mile, 5 minute recharge electric cars almost as long as the mystery "carburetor" that would allow 100 mpg. What I see with my eyes are cars like this one, or a $25K snooze-box Prius struggling to equal the mileage a 1980 diesel Rabbit would return.

There is a long distance between the 1930s technology that powers most of our cars, and what would be available to us if we were willing to embrace some of the technology of the past 30 years. The rub is: I don't want that kind of car for my hobby. The old-school power-plant is what I'm after- if I wanted a Solstice, I'd just buy one.

I drive my car less than 5000 miles a year. My 2110 was a 140 hp engine that that returned 25 mpg driving like I stole it (I expect more of the same with my 200 hp 2332). The car's got carburetors and a distributor- nothing fancy at all. At $2/gal, I burn less than 200 gal of gas- $400 worth- in a very big year.

You can do what you'd like with your car. I'm sticking with what I've got.

I'm not about to give up my noisy, smelly 4-banger without being forced to - but I'm afraid that the nanny-state powers-that-be are moving in that direction. I just want to know that there are reasonable alternatives. So far it's been smoke and mirrors, but I keep hoping because I want to be driving a Speedster (powered by whatever) for a long time.

Perhaps I should have said "If we limit ourselves to only internal combustion..."

I suspect battery technology or fuel cell or capacitor discharge systems may have their day soon simply because people are putting money into it. As I said above, I semi looked into this a few years ago, and the batteries that you can use are much different than even then. It may be different battery manus are trying to get the edge on the market at some point. Whether or not much of this is a chase after wind I don't know.

It would be nice to get an alternate to the IC motor for basic transportation.... Not because I'm green, but because it gives us car people more room to move. If in 10 yrs I can swing an electric only, I'll do that so all of you can still play with VW aircooled engines. I also wish John luck with the electrospeedy. Maybe I'll buy one someday, when I dont have car payments on my smartie.

Overall, I thought it's a pretty clean looking install, and interesting subject.

GM had good batteries some years ago in the EV I.
They were also in the Toyota electric Rav 4.
BUT Chevron bought the patent and destroyed the remaining batteries. ~Alan

www.ev1.org/chevron.htm

I'd have to get a cd with a reving motor recorded!

Why did GM shelve the EV1? It was too good, it was a car you could actually use like a car.

Follow the money, and it is big oil! I am not being a conspiracy nut.

There are grants in place for solar electric home power, and also tax incentives for that and solar heat. We are getting closer to real viability on those fronts.

My prediction is another 20 years and then a serious push on electric or other propulsion. We'll see if I'm right.

Latest on Batteries:

Some of my old Mechanical Designers from a past life are working here now> http://www.a123systems.com/

They own the battery technology that Chevy will be using in the Volt, even though the batteries themselves will either be built in Korea or at a new GM dedicated battery plant they're trying to build right now.

My guys are trying to get me to convert Pearl to electric and run their batteries. They estimate 60-90 mile range, depending on speed (or maybe 30 mile range the way I drive, so they tell me).

Nano Technology batteries. How cool is THAT?

gn

I agree Daniel. GM should have preceded with the EV-1

They would be a lot happier right now If they had.

Their is a strong demand for these cars .

In a pickup form with a solar panel in the bed charging all day would increase the range. I do like the Bug roadster truck that uses the rear panels of a Vw Bus that would work good

My Questions about the electric speedster are !

(1) Size and type of motor Hp.60? 80? 100?

(2) Is it the Solaris AC or the DC type motor?

(3) how many batteries. and which type.

(4) Is it the direct throttle rheostat

or the expensive Inverter type that give trouble

(5) what is the Charge time and rate

(6) What is its range?

These are the issue that have to be solved and why Im tinkering with Hydrogen as a back up to charge with the platinum H2 to energy converter on the batteries. If the solar panel is making fuel all day and also charging the batteries, Both running at the same time would greatly increase the range of travel

The T-zero uses Lithium/Ion batteries very very expensive. I think Its a 125 hp solaris AC motor with the inverter throttle system .That system alone is over $4,000. Some of this is overkill.

A compromised set up would and should be possible to get you at least a 60 mile range at 60 mph. Which is more than enough for most daily commutes.

A couple of friends of mine built an electric bug and sold it on ebay. they purchased a Lambo mold set up and are currently building an electric one. I drove the bug and it was weird. Scared to pull out into traffic without the engine purring behind me. Power wise it was like driving a regular bug but you never moved out of second.

The Lambo is going to use lithium batteries and have a better range. The motor will be about twice the size as well. Should be interesting. Here is their website: http://www.ecosmotors.com The car was in Hot VW's a couple of month ago.