| Owner | Peter Campbell | ||||||
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| Location | Canberra, Australian Capital Territory Australia map | ||||||
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| Vehicle | 1991 Daihatsu Charade 5 door hatch | ||||||
| Motor | Advanced DC 8 Series Wound DC dual shaft version | ||||||
| Drivetrain | ADC8" DC motor direct coupled to gearbox, no clutch. | ||||||
| Controller | Kelly KDH14100D For 2 years I had a Curtis 1231C. It went fine for most of that time but it developed a problem where it would not deliver full current to the motor when at low revs so it because sluggish to take off. Remained good at speed. Problem fixed with a replacement controller-now much more torque to take off-not hard to spin wheels accidentally in 3rd gear. The Kelly is programmed to limit motor current to 800A, battery current to 270A (3C) and the motor voltage to 120V, the rated maxima for the motor and battery. Nonetheless the controller seems to allow 400-500A from the battery when I put my foot down quickly, even in winter. | ||||||
| Batteries | 45 Thunder Sky LFP90AHA, 3.20 Volt, Lithium-Ion with EV Power (West Australia) Battery Management System. On occasional more lead-footed acceleration get the BMS low voltage alarm (less than 2.5V on at least one cell) to go off at about 3C (270Amp). I can get a bit more current than this without the alarm when things are warmer. With some voltage sag I can get 500A out (>5C) Through winter when it has been been freezing or a few degrees less over night in an open carport the car only does a bit over 2C or about 200Amp before the BMS alarm sounds. This is still adequate but a bit more pedestrian performance. In these conditions the battery compartment is in the 0-10oC range. In warmer weather with the cells at 20oC or more I get noticably zippier performance. (Update: After 8 years and about 60,000km the battery capacity has dropped to about 70% of original but the car still performs just fine) | ||||||
| System Voltage | 144 Volts | ||||||
| Charger | 2x Elcon 1500 8Amp Chinese charger I have a switch to run just one or both. One is certainly friendly to 10A wall sockets while running both I can get away with on 10A but it is probably really better on a 15A outlet. It never trips my 16A breaker when I have both going for a faster charge (16A to the battery). | ||||||
| Heater | I have two heating elements. Each element is controlled with a switch. The fan comes on automatically if heater is on. The flaps in the dash are fixed so air always goes past the elements. Two very big 0.4 ohm power resistors are the heating elements. With 13.6V these should be almost 500W each. The air con is the most effective defogging and 900W of electric element is barely adequate. Also, 2x45W seat heaters-ebay chinese kit was much more effective for 10% of the energy drain. | ||||||
| DC/DC Converter | Iota DLS90 90amp version-more 12V current than usually needed because I have a 12V heater. | ||||||
| Instrumentation | TBS battery gauge. Original tacho works with a signal from a Hall sensor and a metal disk with two notches on the second motor shaft. A signal boost circuit was required to get the original tacho to respond-thanks evric (evric.kestar.com.au). The overheating switch on the ADC motor is wired to the original'engine' warning light. I have a set of LEDs in the dash showing 13/12/11/10V from a battery testing gadget. The LEDs come on as a system ready indicator with the key is ON. Also, if the LEDs start going out the DC/DC converter must have failed and the car is running down the backup 12V battery. | ||||||
| Top Speed | 80 MPH (128 KPH) 110kmph is the speed limit on the fastest road I have driven on so far and it maintained that easily. I briefly took it to 135kph because people ask. | ||||||
| Acceleration | Brisk, better than most cars at the lights, but not a racing car. Better than our iMiEV. I sometimes used 2nd gear for quicker standing takeoffs facing up hill or if I wanted to get across an intersection quickly but mostly leaving it in 3rd all the time. That was with the Curtis 500A controller. Now with higher current Kelly I never use 2nd and have to be careful not to spin the wheels in 3rd. I routinely take off faster than everyone else at the lights. | ||||||
| Range | 45 Miles (72 Kilometers) about 70km. Regularly doing up to 55km I only once run it way down to 3% on a day when I did 135km with opportunity charging. That is a mix of suburban and 80km/h roads. In Feb 2016, the least good 90Ah cell had reduced to 70Ah. In Jan 2018, the least good cell's capacity was down to 60Ah and 60km range. | ||||||
| Watt Hours/Mile | About 150Wh/km from the battery on a mix of 60, 80 and 90kph roads with some hills and traffic lights. | ||||||
| EV Miles |
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| Seating Capacity | 5 adults | ||||||
| Curb Weight | 2,070 Pounds (940 Kilograms) 940Kg, 150kg over the original mass of 790kg (according to the book)- I suspect it was originally heavier than the book said. | ||||||
| Tires | ordinary originally. Then I got some low rolling resistance Michelin Energy tyres. Handling and wet braking much better but did not notice a range increase. | ||||||
| Conversion Time | 11 months Completed in May 2009, Still going fine in Jan 2018 after 55,000km. Barely noticeable reduction in performance from the battery. Capacity was recently tested and the least strong cell had lost ~33% from new. | ||||||
| Conversion Cost | AU$20K-could do it cheaper now. I bought almost everything at the very worst time for exchange rates. Cost included engineer's certification and car with dead motor, reinstating the air con and other mod cons. | ||||||
| Additional Features | The previous owner put in remote locking. I added an electric windows-kit from ebay. The air-conditioning is original but now driven by a pulley on the second motor shaft. The air con controls required some rewiring by an autoelectrician to get it to work without the motor and ECU present. I have wired the air con to optionally come on with the brake light so the drag only occurs when I want to slow down anyway. IE free but intermittent cooling. | ||||||
| Gear changes without the clutch work just fine but you need to push a bit more slowly into gear to avoid a crunch, not that I have needed to change much, mostly stay in 3rd. I used 2nd for optional quicker take off when I had a 500A curtis controller. Now I have a Kelly with more current (torque is proportional to the square of current), I never use less than 3rd gear. I occasionally change to 4th gear when staying over 90kph for an extended time. I had to have beefier springs and new shocks in the rear. The rear was ~40mm lower than at the start and the original shock absorber were worn out. The replacements were standard length but heavier duty and restored most of the original ride height. The front ended up ~25mm higher than at the start with the original springs and shocks. Eventually these were replaced with slightly shorter springs (a Pedders lowering kit) and new shocks which had put the car back to level. Charging is from accredited 'GreenPower', tax-deductible from tinyurl.com/k8wlf6k Brake booster vacuum pump is MESdea. After initial pump down comes on for a few seconds every 10-15 mins without any vacuum reservoir. It is quieter than others I have heard. I have a extra vacuum switch in the line. It is closed without vacuum and connected across the brake fluid float switch. At turn on the brake warning lamp is tested because the vacuum is absent and the float switch shorted. The light goes out as the line is pumped down. The lamp would only comes on while driving if the brake fluid were lost or the vacuum had failed; either would be worth knowing about! Now on U-tube: WebPage /> Don't underestimate how huge motor current can be for modest battery current. The Curtis 500A limit (and later only 400A when something was going wrong) was more of a performance limit than the motor or battery. With the Kelly able to do 800A on the motor side I have much more torque and no longer bother with gear changing unless planning to sit on 100+kph. Recently did some 200m (1/8th mile) acceleration test. In 3rd gear did only slightly worse times than an iMiEV or Leaf but better than a new Mini with 1.6L BMW motor. Was sold in 2018 after around 9 years and 50,000 km of EV driving still running well. I heard something went 'bang' in the motor later in 2018. | |||||||
1991 Daihatsu Charade
“Electric Charade”
Last Updated 12-29-2019
Copyright © 1997-2024 by Mike Chancey