1993 Geo Prizm EV Project

Ralph's Geo Prizm at 2002 Home and Garden Idea Fair in Vancouver, WA

This is my 1993 Geo Prizm electric vehicle. It was originally converted from a new car in 1993 by Drive Electric in Sacramento, California. Drive Electric is no longer in business. This car was included in the premier (and only) issue of ElectricCar magazine.

The original owner put about 1200 miles on the car. It then wound up on a dealer's lot in Corvallis, Oregon with dead batteries. The second owner bought the car from the dealer, installed a pack of 12v Marine/RV batteries, and then put another 1800 miles on it.

I bought the Prizm in July 1998, with 4096 miles on the odometer and a very dead battery pack. I rebuilt the car using a 120v pack of buddy paired Optima batteries, a Zapi H2 controller with regen and a Russco charger. This version of the car had a range of about 26 miles. The Optimas died after 2200 miles, mostly due to my abusing them.

The car is currently being rebuilt again, with a 120v pack of SAFT NiCads, a DCP-600 controller and a Manzanita Micro PFC-20 charger.

The two front battery boxes hold five SAFT STM 5-100 NiCads against the firewall and three more where the radiator once lived. These NiCads are the air-cooled, low maintenance model. They have a central watering system and only require watering every few or months (at least, that's the claim - I'll know more once the car is on the road again).

The SAFT charging specifications can be found online at John Benson's site. Look for the 'Charge Mode for Low Maintenence STM Modules' manual. (He also has Brusa charger information there.)

The NiCads are used, pulled from a Pivco CityBee that had been part of a Station Car demo project in the San Francisco area. (The entire fleet of 40 City Bees were returned to Oslo, Norway, had the NiCads removed and were then immediately crushed, along with their nice controllers, motors and chargers. Sigh.)

The flat plate between the two boxes is the mounting plate for the controller.

To the left of the controller plate is the brush end of the 9" Advanced DC motor.

The space to the right of the controller plate will be used for another mounting plate for two Kilovac contactors, the shunt, the circuit breaker, the throttle pot, the vacuum pump and the 12v aux battery.

The engine compartment with the DC Power Systems Raptor 600 controller (aka DCP-600), contactors, etc. installed and he battery box covers fitted.

You can also see portions of the front watering system. The inlet is on the firewall on the driver's side. The white hose on the passenger side connects the two front battery boxes. The catch bottle is not visible in this picture but is located next to the horns.

A closeup of the contactors, shunt, circuit breaker and throttle position sensor. The coiled-up wires are left-overs from the previous incarnation that I haven't had time to remove/reroute properly yet.

A closeup of the 2/0 wiring to the controller and the 4/0 wiring to the motor.

Picture of the rear pack and the two Brusa NLG412 chargers. The main charger is used for normal charging, at a rate of 20 amps for the bulk charge and then 5 amps for the finish charge.

The rear battery box fans will draw air from the trunk. The tube coming up between the chargers is a fresh air inlet.

A box will be fitted between the chargers and will contain the AC receptacles for the chargers and the Anderson plugs connecting the chargers to the pack and to the DC/DC convertor.

Since this picture was taken I've switched to a PFC-20 charger from Manzanita Micro. The Brusa charger kept giving my Avcon wall unit fits, probably due to the inrush current caused by the Brusa's filter caps.

The PFC-20 also puts out much more power than the Brusa, especially when connected to a 120v circuit. I tested the PFC-20 against the Brusa on the same pack from the same 120v and 240v outlets. On a 120v circuit, the Brusa was only able to put 9 amps into the pack while the PFC-20 could put 18.9 amps. On a 240v circuit the Brusa put out 18 amps vs. the PFC-20 at a solid 20 amps. Using the PFC-20 will allow me to recharge anywhere at almost the same rate.

Closeup of the rear pack showing the bus bars and battery watering connections. The bus bars are tin plated copper. The wires are from one of the two temperature sensors.

This is a closeup of the air inlet holes in the rear battery box. The top set of holes vent from within the trunk, and the bottom set of holes vent from underneath the car. The fans exhaust the air on the other side of the battery box, to the outside of the car. The intent is to help pull some of the charger-warmed air out of the trunk.

Closeup of the Avcon charging port. The Avcon port provides a GFI protected, 240 VAC, 40 amp source. See the Avcon web site for more details.

If anyone ever installs public charging sites in Portland, I'll be ready. Until then I at least have a convient charging plug with a fairly high "coolness" rating. (And yes, the chargers can be unplugged from the Avcon and connected to any 120v or 240v outlet with the proper extension cord, should the need arise.)

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