| Owner | Mike Sargetakis | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Location | Salt Lake City, Utah US map | ||||||
| Vehicle | 1973 Volkswagen Type 3 Squareback Conversion done by myself with help/finishing work done by Spencer at Electric Car Co. of Utah. Many thanks to Spencer. Thanks to Ryan at EVsource.com also, an invaluable asset during the conversion! | ||||||
| Motor | Netgain WarP9 Series Wound DC seems like overkill now, 9" motor is a lot of go for this little car, but when i upgrade batteries after these go, i'm sure i'll be glad i went with it. | ||||||
| Drivetrain | Stock VW Trans, Clutch and Lightened Flywheel | ||||||
| Controller | Logisystems 500a works great! its a little jumpy at full charge, but I'm told this has to do more with the pot box than anything else. I'm looking into tuning the controller to help with this. | ||||||
| Batteries | 9 US Battery US GC8V, 8.00 Volt, Lead-Acid, Flooded cheap, good warranty, good compromise between 6 and 12v | ||||||
| System Voltage | 72 Volts | ||||||
| Charger | Delta-Q Technologies 110VAC to 72VDC cheap and pretty good. could probably be faster | ||||||
| Heater | none yet, working on a solution for this. anyone who can help, I'll take all i can get! | ||||||
| DC/DC Converter | NONE. just a 12v soneil charger on my stock starter battery. my traction pack runs out before the acc battery. with nothing but headlights/turn signals/contactor running from this, it's pretty low draw at this point. | ||||||
| Instrumentation | all stock instruments, fuel on empty. added ammeter and voltmeter. speedo cable keeps breaking, so i'm giving up on it. | ||||||
| Top Speed | 60 MPH (96 KPH) got it to 60 on a fresh charge in 3rd gear on a slight downhill... don't think I'll do it much though. gets to 50 in a hurry in 2nd though! | ||||||
| Acceleration | better than stock up to about 45, then falls off very substantially | ||||||
| Range | 15 Miles (24 Kilometers) so far, that's as far as I've taken it all at once | ||||||
| Watt Hours/Mile | no idea how to calculate this | ||||||
| EV Miles |
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| Seating Capacity | 2 adults | ||||||
| Curb Weight | 0 a lot. the front sags hard with only 4 batteries under the hood. i dropped the rear a spline so now it matches (and rubs, ha) | ||||||
| Tires | 4, one valve stem leaks a little. | ||||||
| Conversion Time | I bought the car almost exactly one year before the conversion was done. I drove it with the ICE for a few months, then the fuel pump died and it was my sign it was time. a bunch of weekends and after school time, probably about 4 moths worth just trying to figure stuff out, then two weeks with Spencer at Electric Car Co of Utah and she was driving! | ||||||
| Conversion Cost | I don't know really, probably around 11k including the car and everything. I should get about half back on taxed this April though! EDIT: recent addition of all receipts and everything indicate a price closer to $14k including resto work on the car. OUCH! and no taxes back, they ended that last year. double ouch! | ||||||
| Next time, i'll do all the work myself. it's pretty scary going into it the first time all alone, but i think i'm pretty comfortable with how it all goes together by now, and having taken it apart and put it back together a few times, i think i'm ready to do it. if you're thinking about a conversion, just jump in. if you've got the time and the $$ you've got no reason not to! it's more simple than you can imagine. *** i've been thinking about selling. A new project beckons, and one single guy with 3 cars seems a bit excessive. considering the $14k in the car, if i could get a decent return on it, i'd have enough to get my other project on the road with some left over to play still. if you're interested, email me at mikesargetakis (at) hotmail (dot) com, i'll try to get back to you soon.*** | |||||||
1973 Volkswagen Squareback
Last Updated 06-16-2010
Copyright © 1997-2012 by Mike Chancey