| Owner | Douglas De Boer | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Location | Dordt College, Sioux Center, Iowa US map | ||||||||
| Web/Email | WebPage | ||||||||
| Vehicle | 1998 Plymouth Neon Highline 4-door sedan Converted to battery-electric power by senior engineering students at Dordt College during the spring of 2009. WebPage | ||||||||
| Motor | Advanced DC FB1-4001A Series Wound DC | ||||||||
| Drivetrain | Front wheel drive Five-speed manual transmission Clutch was retained in the conversion | ||||||||
| Controller | Curtis 1231C-8601 | ||||||||
| Batteries | 12 Trojan J-150, 12.60 Volt, Lead-Acid, Flooded Energy capacity of the battery pack at a 75 A discharge rate is 12.6 kWH (45.4 MJ for those who like SI units) to 100% depth of discharge. Four batteries under the hood Five batteries under the back seat Three batteries in the trunk | ||||||||
| System Voltage | 144 Volts | ||||||||
| Charger | Quickcharge On Board Select-A-Charge model SCO14410 120 VAC(RMS) 60 Hz input Nominal 144 VDC at 10 A output This charger is set up with a "3-stage charge profile." 1) Bulk charge at a constant 10 A until voltage reaches 184 V. 2) Gas (equalize) at a constant 184 V for 3 hours. 3) Float at a constant 163 V until unplugged. The charger is permanently mounted in the trunk. | ||||||||
| Heater | No heat so far, but the blower works. | ||||||||
| DC/DC Converter | ElCon 144VDC input/13.5 VDC output, 37 Watts WebPage (purchased from EV America WebPage ) | ||||||||
| Instrumentation | Westburg voltmeter, 80-180 V (traction battery voltage) Westburg ammeter, 0-400 A (traction motor current) Stock speedometer and odometer Kill-a-Watt Energy meter on the charger | ||||||||
| Top Speed | 60 MPH (96 KPH) Designed for 60 MPH tops. Have driven it up to 55 MPH and it easily has more to give. | ||||||||
| Acceleration | Moderate. Can keep up with traffic easily but will win no races against a gasoline powered car. | ||||||||
| Range | 30 Miles (48 Kilometers) CITY DRIVING: Actual driving experience shows 30 miles range in city driving with good performance (top speed of 55 MPH achievable) and less than 60% of the battery capacity used. The car was designed for 20 miles range in city driving using about 60% of the battery pack's energy capacity. The batteries are new, not broken in yet. A voltmeter was used to estimate state-of-charge while driving. A hygrometer was used to make a final determination of state-of-charge before recharging. HIGHWAY DRIVING: Simulations show up to 40 miles in flat level driving at a constant moderate speed using 80% of the battery pack's capacity. More testing needs to be done to determine actual highway driving range. | ||||||||
| Watt Hours/Mile | 550 Wh/Mile Measured from the wall plug to the road. Data taken to date is a bit sparse, better data will be available later. I use a "Kill-a-Watt" meter WebPage to measure the power needed to recharge. I divide that by the miles driven since the previous charge. I'm using an aggressive charge profile to assure that the weakest cells reach full charge. That may account for the somewhat high power consumption I'm experiencing to date. I estimate that the energy delivered to the motor is about 300 Whr/Mile but I have no reliable data yet. | ||||||||
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| Seating Capacity | 2 adults (front bucket seats) and 3 children (in the rear bench seat). Batteries located under the back seat raise the seat a few inches reducing headroom and making the rear seat impractical for adults. The car has the stock seat belts. (That's lap & shoulder for each front seat and each out-board rear seat and a lap belt only in the center-rear.) | ||||||||
| Tires | Brand: Hankook Model: H714 Size: P185/65R14 Load/Speed Rating: 86H Type: All-season "performance" radial All four wheels the same. | ||||||||
| Conversion Time | The conversion of this car was a student project at Dordt College, Sioux Center IA, WebPage as an engineering WebPage senior project. There were six students on the project. On average, each put in about 80 hours on the project giving a total of 480 hours of student work in the project. This includes selection of a donor vehicle, preliminary simulation, researching vendors, some travel time to purchase various items, and the actual conversion work. | ||||||||
| Conversion Cost | Donor vehicle: $1500 (US Dollars) Conversion: $10000 Total: $11500 (about, as of July 11, 2009) Estimated cost of electricity for a full charge: $0.75. Driving past gas stations: "priceless" | ||||||||
| *****January 17, 2009*****Conversion work starts******* Started removal of gasoline engine and related parts. *****May 6, 2009*****Maiden Voyage******************** Maiden voyage on electric power. Traveled about 2 miles. Some instrumentation and on-board charger were not yet installed. A loose shift cable to the transmission caused problems shifting. After this voyage the car went back into the shop to fix the transmission cable and add instrumentation. *****May 7, 2009*****Sioux City Journal*************** On Thursday, May 7 there was a front page story in the Sioux City Journal about this project. The text of the story can be found here: WebPage The same article was picked up by the Siouxland Business Journal WebPage and later in abridged form by the Doon Press. *****May 11, 2009*****Sioux City Journal Web Update****** On Monday, May 11 the Journal posted a video update to the May 7 front-page story. WebPage . *****June 4, 2009*****Sioux City Journal & car show***** On Thursday, June 4 the Neon Re-Volt was again mentioned in a Sioux City Journal Article. WebPage (The "Show & Shine" car show was delayed by rain to July 11, 2009.) *****June 4, 2009*****Parade******************** Put the car back on the road, now with instrumentation. Drove it in the city of Sioux Center's "Show and Shine" car parade on Friday, June 6. Continued driving the car around town for personal use until June 15, 2009. Put on about 32 miles. *****June 15, 2009*****Install Charger*********** Back in the shop for installation of the on-board charger. High voltage wiring was also re-routed to a more secure location. *****July 10, 2009*****"Show and Shine" car show******* On the road again, with on-board charger. Will show the car on Saturday in the Sioux County Fair's "Show and Shine" event. *****July 11, 2009*****Winner: Best Mopar************** The "Neon Re-Volt" won the "Best Mopar" award at the 2009 Sioux Center "Show and Shine" Car Show, held at the Sioux County Fair. There were no other electric or hybrid cars at this event. The other cars were either restoration cars, generally from the 1930's to the 1970's, or souped up recent models. The "Neon Re-Volt" was recognized for the uniqueness of the changes made to this car and the amount of modification that this car had undergone. *****August 10, 2009*****New Transmission Oil, Tires***** The transmission oil has been replaced with the Mopar brand factory recommended oil. (The transmission had been re-filled with generic "manual transmission oil" after the transmission was re-installed with the electric motor.) The factory specified oil is lighter weight then the generic. This might improve the driving range a little. As a small side-benefit, the transmission shifts with less effort now. The tires on the car have also been replaced with used Hankook (brand) tires. Nothing special, but the tires that were on the car were worn down to the tread wear indicators. Now there is about 1/4 inch of tread on all four tires. *****Update: August 10, 2009*****Another car show***** This car will be shown in the Rock Valley Iowa "Rally in the Valley" car show, Saturday morning, August 15, 2009. The car will also be in the parade in Rock Valley that same Saturday. *****August 15, 2009*****3rd place in car show****** On Saturday the Neon Re-Volt took third place in the "Late model modified car" category in the "Rally in the Valley" car show, held in Rock valley Iowa on this day. The car also was part of the "Rock Valley Days" parade, also held this day. Rock Valley is 15 miles from Sioux Center. The car is usually garaged in Sioux Center. On Friday evening I drove the car from Sioux Center to the Rock Valley high school and plugged it in to re charge in their shop. On Saturday, driving to the car show, in the parade, back to the car show, and then back to Sioux Center the car put on 20 miles. Fifteen of those miles were on the highways at speeds of 55 MPH. At the end of this trip the specific gravity in the battery pack was 1.230, or about 75% state-of-charge ("3/4 Full") according to data from the battery's manufacturer. The motor draws about 150 to 200 A to maintain 55 MPH, allowing for average hills. There is a steeper hill (uphill) traveling east out of Rock Valley on US highway 18. The motor drew 250 to 300 A on this hill. I also taped a thermocouple to the motor for these trips. The thermocouple was located at the transmission end of the motor where the motor's internal fan exhausts air. The exhaust air was about 10 to 15 degrees F warmer than ambient while driving on the highway. (The motor also has a high temperature limit switch in the brush box. I have connected that to an ohmmeter that beeps when the circuit is closed. I have never tripped that to date. Eventually I'll get this permanently connected to an idiot light on the dash board.) The motor controller is the next item I'll monitor for temperature. It seems to run a bit more than 15 degrees above ambient, but it has never been too hot to rest your hand on it indefinitely, including after these highway trips to and from Rock Valley. This 15 mile jaunt on the highway is the longest sustained high-speed trip the car has made to date. It did well. ****August 19, 2009****Will be in the Ireton Car Show ***** Plans have been finalized to have the car in the Ireton "Show and Shine" car show on Saturday, August 22, 2009 from 2 to 4 PM. ****August 29, 2009****Watered Batteries & Checked Connections***** Up to this time the batteries have not been watered from the time when I purchased them. Last week I noticed a few cells with just about 1/8 inch of water over the plates prior to charging, so it was time to water the batteries for the first time. Most of the cells took about 1 ounce of water (30 ml) although a few needed none and a few took about 2 or 3 ounces. I suspect that the batteries were not uniformly watered when they were new. Overall the entire battery pack took about 3 quarts (about 3 liters) of water. In the process I noticed one of the connections to a battery was visibly corroding. This same battery had some acid that had wept out of one of the vent ports and left a damp residue on the top surface of the battery. This inspired me to disassemble and check all the battery connections, but I found little other corrosion. Since I had each connection apart, each got cleaned and re-assembled, but it now seems this is not necessary unless there is visible corrosion. I cleaned the top of the battery that had the corroding connection. I cleaned it with a disposable paper towel dampened with an ammonia-based glass cleaner. I used ammonia because it will neutralize the acid and because ammonia will evaporate and leave the top of the battery clean and dry with no residue. I checked for electrical leakage before and after cleaning. I used a voltmeter for this. I connected the positive lead of the voltmeter to the positive battery terminal, then slid the negative lead of the voltmeter around on the plastic top of the battery looking for voltage. Before cleaning there was voltage present on the plastic surface due to the acidic dampness. After cleaning, no voltage. BTW the car garnered a pleasing amount of attention last week (August 22) at the Ireton car show. *****September 1, 2009*****Trip to Orange City********** I drove the car from Sioux Center to Orange City and back, a round-trip distance of 20 miles, without recharging in Orange City. This is the longest highway trip done on one charge to date. The car had 5 miles of around-town driving from the time of the most recent re-charge to the start of this trip. The car did OK on this trip and could maintain highway speed although for the last few miles one could feel that the car could not accelerate rapidly, as for example what might be needed for a passing maneuver on the two-lane highway. After returning to Sioux Center I continued to drive the car around town for about 6 more miles before recharging. The car accelerated normally in city driving after the trip to Orange City. Thus the car traveled a total of 31 miles on one charge, 20 of these miles at highway speed. The specific gravity prior to re-charging was 1.190 or 55% state-of-charge. | |||||||||
1998 Plymouth Neon
“Neon Re-Volt”
Last Updated 11-09-2009
Copyright © 1997-2009 by Mike Chancey