Blue Car side January 2009Blue Car rear January 2009Blue Car rear 10/13/9Blue Car rear 10/13/9Blue Car mid 10/13/9Blue Car mid 10/13/9Blue Car under hood
OwnerWillie McKemie
Owner's Other EVs1981 Jet Electrica
1999 Ford Ranger
2011 Nissan Leaf
2008 Zap PK
LocationDale, Texas United States map
Web/EmailWebPage email image
Vehicle2007 Hyundai Accent
MotorNetgain Warp 9 Series Wound DC
ControllerEvnetics 1000 amps 300v
Originally had a 144v 500amp Curtis which gave me much trouble. Replacement 750 amp 156v Logisystems proved to be un-reliable. See discussion below.
Batteries48 Thunder Sky LFP-260, 3.20 Volt, Lithium-Ion
Drove the car about 20K miles on 45 cells, then added three more.
System Voltage154 Volts
ChargerElcon 1500 watt
With 45 cells, my primary charger was a Zivan NG3. With 48 cells my primary charger is an Elcon. Also, several KingPan 1500 watt chargers are used as needed.
Heaterelectric hot water
DC/DC ConverterBelktronix
InstrumentationWebPage
Top Speed90 MPH (144 KPH)
With the original more tail heavy battery configuration, it felt unstable above 70 mph. Feeling of stability could now be better, but is much improved.
AccelerationWith the EVnetics controller, 0-60 mph is around 17 seconds. Acceleration "feels" very good, though it slows noticeably around 80 mph.
Range180 Miles (289 Kilometers)
With 48 cells, LRR tires, and low viscosity transaxle oil, my range has increased from 120-150 miles to 150-180 miles.
Watt Hours/Mile260 Wh/Mile
With 48 cells, my TBS meter tells me my fuel consumption varies from 1.5 to 1.7 ah/mile.
EV Miles
Start:12 Miles (19 Kilometers)
Current:23,400 Miles (37,650 Kilometers)
Total:23,388 Miles (37,631 Kilometers)
Seating Capacity2 adults
Curb Weight3,520 Pounds (1,599 Kilograms)
Front: 1570 lb
Rear: 1980 lb
All above weights are with a 120 lb wife in the driver's seat. Perhaps it would have come out better with a 120 lb girl friend.
2187 is the approximate pre-conversion weight. It now has about 900lb of batteries in the rear. Rear springs have been replaced with stiffer ones. The full fuel tank (removed) would have weighed about 100lb.
I'm astonished at the weight! I first estimated 2800 lb. I guess the electric stuff weighs more than the gasoline stuff.
There is room to move the battery pack about 6" forward; I plan to do that.
I also intend to confirm the weights at a second scale.
TiresP195/65R-15 GOODYEAR ASSURANCE FUEL MAX
Rated for 1279 lb. Running about 50 psi
Replaced:
OEM P185/65R14
Rated for 1124 lb
40psi makes the non-power steering more acceptable.
Conversion Timeabout two months
Conversion CostThis phantom EV was offered by LionEV for about $30K. Long after receiving partial payment, LionEV failed to deliver the conversion and the un-converted car ended up costing about $10K more than it's value after I finally extracted it from LionEV. My total cost for the conversion was about $55K (including about $18K for the car), though a similar conversion on a new Accent, in the absence of fraud, should be possible for a cost of about $46K.
FLASH! New TS cell pricing should bring the cost down to around $40K.
Additional FeaturesThis was a completely contracted conversion; I did none of the work myself. After an unsatisfactory experience with LionEV WebPage , the car found it's way to Wayne at EV-Blue WebPage in Kansas. He selected the controller, motor, etc. I selected and ordered Thunder Sky batteries through Everspring WebPage and ordered the BMS and "fuel meter" from EV Power WebPage in Australia.
The whole sordid LionEV experience is pretty well documented here:
WebPage

Since new, the car has had brief power drop-outs. I will soon try replacing the Curtis controller with a Logisystem.
This car is clutchless. Up shifting is no problem. Down shifting, without a tachometer, is difficult. If I had it to do again, I would get a clutch.

7/3/9 With 100 degree days, we've been testing the AC. It works very well when it works. It has a refrigerant leak that hasn't been located. It eats belts; I think the contact area/sector on the drive pulley is too small.
Recently, Gary Ellis of RNC Motors in Austin WebPage replaced the Curtis controller with a Logisystems and worked over the heater wiring. He also removed the belt driven alternator, replacing it with a Belktronix DC-DC, which allowed much better geometry on the belt drive AC compressor. The AC now works well and reliably. Very nice work. He is scheduled to reconfigure the battery pack in the next few weeks.

10/11/9 Gary Ellis just completed the battery re-configuration. Three tiers of 15 cells were re-arranged to 20 cells in the front tier, 15 in the middle, and 10 in the rear with all moved forward about 7 inches. Weight distribution is improved; I will run it across scales at my first opportunity. Storage space in the car is much improved. Permanent hinged lids were installed, protecting the tops of the cells, providing load carrying surface and retaining easy cell access. Design gives me some confidence of the pack remaining in place during a rollover.


10/10/2009 I took the car on it's longest trip so far. 89 miles consumed 171 amp-hours. We then charged 115 amp-hours in about 7 hours. We then returned home, 87 miles by a slightly different route, and arrived with -215 amp-hours on the meter. So, 330 ah for 176 miles. I now have confidence that our comfortable range is about 120 miles and maximum range is about 160 miles. The cells are rated at 260ah but I have tested them to supply slightly over 300ah. This FAR exceeds my initial range expectations.

1/27/2010 MUCH to report: I blew up my 750 amp Logisystem rather spectacularly and then the repaired controller failed in short order. Meanwhile, the 550 amp Logisystem on my Escort failed in it's first 30 miles. After resolving to install an EVnetics controller (WebPage ), EVDL discussion revealed that the Logisystem problem was probably associated with switching the main contactor off with each throttle closing. GaryK in San Antonio (WebPage ) installed the EVnetics; nice work. Once I started using the EVnetics, I found the Belktronix DC-DC (WebPage ) was dead. After killing three DC-DCs, it was determined to be an interaction between the new controller and the DC-DC. "High ripple current." The Belktronix guy was most helpful in resolving the problem; he diagnosed the problem and added inductors to my DC-DCs as well as making the inductor an option on future DC-DCs.

When I got involved with this car I was warned about the possible un-reliability of the TS battery. It turns out that the TS battery is far more reliable than many of the other off-the-shelf components.

8/25/2010
After a long period in GaryK's shop, the Hyundai is back on the road. Controller mounting problem is resolved, tachometer works, dash lights for controller and BMS are installed, charger is moved from trunk to engine bay, "balancing charger" is configured.

Using the air conditioner regularly, I find a vibration at certain motor speeds. This I attribute to the idler/tensioner pulley being mounted on the tension side of belt.

I did another battery capacity test and took 280 amp-hours out of the battery.

It came back from GaryK with two bad BMS cell modules. Having exhausted my supply of EVPower spares, I installed two miniBMS modules which seem to be working well.

The new controller dash light indicates probable high controller temperature when ambient is around 100 deg. Looking into liquid cooling.

10/10/2010

High controller temperature seems to be a problem ONLY when ambient is near or above 100 deg F; I haven't again seen the light since day time maximums have come down to 90-95 deg.

For quite a while, I have had an Elcon 1.5KW (8 battery amps) charger that can be interchanged with the 3KW (15 battery amps) Zivan. I found myself using the Elcon most of the time due to the possibility of using it for 110vac opportunity charging. I've recently received two Chennic 1.5KW (9 battery amps) chargers, bought here: WebPage on eBay. After configuring splitter cables for both the inputs and outputs of
the chargers, I use up to three of the four chargers to achieve various charge rates. The two Chennics plus the Elcon gives me about 25 battery amps. I'm a bit afraid to use the two Chennics plus the Zivan for about 35 battery amps because that pushes the 20 amp (220vac) rating of my BMS relay.

In the fall of 2010, I changed the transaxle oil to Royal Purple 5w-30 "racing oil". This noticeably improved cool weather mileage. Also put larger Goodyear LLR tires on which gave me about 6% greater diameter and about 600 lb of additional load rating. Except for a ticking motor and no AC or heat, the car is working very well.

7/25/11
Steve Clunn of WebPage just completed some semi-major repair and improvements:
1) added three cells bringing pack to 48 cells
2) added liquid cooling to the Soliton controller
3) added a 40 amp relay to allow higher current charging
4) diagnosed the "ticking motor" as a bad AC compressor caused by a motor pulley that was too large
5) replaced the belt driven air conditioner compressor with an electric compressor, an abortive effort; still no cooling
6) hooked up the motor speed sensor to the Soliton controller so the controller now doesn't allow over speed; currently set to about 5,000 rpm.
7) upgraded BMS cell modules to miniBMS connected through drilled terminal bolts to minimize installation fatalities.

Current mileage is about 23.4K. Total ah used is 41.2K, about 350 cycles.

11/23/11
Turned over 30K miles a few weeks ago. With my delivery season over and the availability of the Leaf, it is seeing little use. Little problems continue to irritate. No heat, no air conditioning, no tachometer, no brake boost. The bright points are the lack of major failures and the range.

9/3/15
This car has been fully functional though cell degradation has reduced range to about 120 miles. I have no use for it and the value is very low so I'm just storing it with the battery disconnected. It now has about 50k miles on it.

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