Did you laugh at the Geo Metro back in 1988 when General Motors began selling this Suzuki-made mini? Would it surprise you to learn the Metros, and their cousin Suzuki Swifts, are having second lives as EV conversions?
Electric vehicle enthusiasts have embraced the 1,640-pound Metro/Swift as a low-cost, alternative-fuel commuter. This is not a gasoline engine/electric motor arrangement a la the Toyota Prius/Honda Civic/Honda Insight. It’s a fully electric option for people who travel less than 50 miles a day, but it can handle a top speed of 90.
Dave Cloud of Washington-based Cloud Electrics has converted a number of late-model Metros to electric power and usually has a completed example or two for sale through his Web site–www.cloudelectric.com–for $8,995 each. Cloud also sells an EV Metro conversion kit for weekend mechanics and builds EV drag cars that turn the quarter-mile in 11 seconds.
“Gasoline cars are pretty darned clean these days,” he said. “It’s hard to knock what Detroit and Tokyo have done in the way of cleaning up engines and making hybrids available.
“EV drivers are another type, though. They tend to be independent thinkers. They’re interested in conservation and alternative fuels, obviously, but they also have long memories. They sat in the gas lines of the 1970s and remember the feeling of being dependent, and they want another option if those lines ever return.”
In theory, one might convert any car to electric power.
“I’ve done others,” Cloud said. “I had one customer insist on converting a 1954 Morris Minor, and it was terrible. Had a range of 20 miles.” Although the car weighed only 1,735 pounds, exhorbitant drag robbed the Minor of EV mileage.
“We tried [a 1974] Porsche 914 too, but older cars don’t work well. They’re fine if you want to spend your time on restoration. But in practical terms, they’re too heavy. They create too much friction and drag.
“Wheel bearings used on a Triumph Spitfire, for example, are the old tapered bearings. They don’t roll as freely as modern roller bearings on a Geo Metro. And there’s the clutch to consider. A Triumph conversion requires you to keep the clutch, because they were not all-synchro transmissions. Those clutches weigh 35 pounds. In terms of rotating mass under constant acceleration and deceleration, it translates to carrying 350 pounds.
“In a Geo Metro, we throw away the clutch. The motor links directly to the transmission with a coupler and you run through five gears shifting with a finger. The idea is to get rid of anything in the car that rotates and causes drag. Get rid of the flywheel.”
And while you’re at it, dump the Metro engine, gas tank, gas lines, radiator, the engine mounts, which Cloud said “are heavy and unnecessary for this application.”
A rolling Metro skeleton should weigh 1,400 pounds, down from a stock weight of 1,808. (By comparison, the all-electric GM EV1 of the late 1990s weighed 3,086 pounds.) The kit then calls for 15 8-volt golf-cart batteries built by Trojan or Interstate at about $60 each, with an onboard charger by Cloud Electric running another $200. A controller unit by Curtis Controllers for $1,100 regulates power to the $1,100 electric motor by Advance DC Motors.
Electric vehicles are better-suited to temperate climates such as Los Angeles, one of the areas that GM sold the EV1. So what about the Midwest when the mercury drops to 10 degrees?
Doug Mather drives his 1984 Pontiac Fiero conversion year-round, 30 miles a day from Hebron to Woodstock and back. Mather, a member of the Fox Valley Electric Auto Association, guesses 80 percent of his trip is made at 50 to 55 m.p.h.
“Heat the batteries,” he said, revealing his secret to success in the winter. “My 20 batteries have their own heating system keeping them at 80 to 100 degrees, operating at maximum efficiency. They’re standard Trojan T-125 batteries. They work fine. I drive to work and plug the car in. We call that `convenience charging.’ When you park somewhere and there’s an opportunity to plug in your on-board battery charger, do it.” (In addition to the office, opportunities can be a friend’s house while visiting.)
Mather sees his EV as mission specific.
He offers the analogy of not grabbing the Space Shuttle to pick up a gallon of milk at the White Hen. “If you only have a commute of 10 to 30 miles, an electric vehicle meets your mission,” he said. “It’s another tool in your toolbox.”
He disagrees with Cloud on the Metro. “They’re not terribly aerodynamic, but if he only intends them for use around town at lower speeds, I think they meet the mission. I’m driving 55 miles per hour, so for me, using a Metro would be like pushing a brick through the air. The Fiero has substantially less drag.” (“He may be right,” Cloud says. “At that speed he might achieve 10 to 20 percent less drag.”)
Cloud has one customer who’s put 27,000 miles on his original EV Metro batteries.
Mather has used his EV Fiero five days a week since 1999.
Both emphasize there’s a learning curve to owning an EV. Electric drivers need a basic understanding of how their cars operate and how to maintain batteries and deal with the occasional blown fuse. But they say the knowledge is easily attained and is nothing compared with the workings of an internal-combustion engine.
“It’s not hard,” said Mather. “You have batteries. They feed voltage to the controller, which regulates power to the electric motor. The motor delivers power to the transmission, and that, in turn, drives the wheels. Everything else–tires, brake pads, suspension parts–are wear items you’d replace on any car.
“If you want to know how long an electric car can last, talk to Bill Shafer. He’s been driving electric cars since 1974.”
Shafer remembers the 1974 gas lines. “I told myself no more,” he said. “I said they won’t catch me in a gas line again, and I meant it.”
Shafer, a retired engineer from River Forest, puzzled out his first electric 28 years ago.
He chose a Dutch-built 1996 DAF Daffodil mini-car, which he picked up for $250. It was never imported to the U.S. in large numbers. He was attracted by DAF’s “Variomatic” transmission–two belts driving a centrifugal clutch, similar to that on a Rupp Go-Kart.
“That Variomatic transmission was crucial,” recalled Shafer, who used the DAF on the four-mile daily commute from his former home in Oak Park to Maywood for 15 years before it rusted out in 1989.
“I had a surplus World War II aircraft starter-generator for power, and it worked perfectly when coupled with the Variomatic transmission. I needed very few modifications. I think I paid $38.50 for that starter-generator, which you could find anywhere in 1974. The DAF used six batteries and had a range of about 18 miles, and I drove it year-round. It’d be zero outside, and the other fellows at work couldn’t get their cars to turn over, and I’d zip right out.”
Shafer’s current EV is a 1980 Mazda RX-7 that he converted to electric power in 1990. He bought the car for $300 from a gent in Oak Park who’d managed to scrape off the oil pan and cause the engine to seize.
“I use the Mazda for short-trip driving,” he said. “And I’ve learned over time that one can look at the economics of driving an electric car any number of ways. Figuring total operating, maintenance, insurance and depreciation costs, I’ve averaged $2,800 a year in expenses. But there are other economies from using an electric car. It extends the life of your main vehicle, which in my case is a Honda. You’re not putting on around-town miles. And for that reason, my new-car dealer hates me.
“The electric car is a simple transportation tool,” Shafer said. “When you own an electric, you have to rework your thinking, your approach to driving. View the electric car as a transportation tool and use it in substitution for short trips. If people could see electric vehicles that way and if they were marketed that way, I think we’d have a better chance of making them succeed.”
Shafer’s friend Mather, who uses solar power to charge his EV Fiero at home in Hebron, added: “We’re certainly not eco-freaks. At least not the members of the Fox Valley Electric Auto Association. But I think we all have some responsibility in caring for the environment. Think of the impact we’d have if everyone used an EV for short trips. If we could plug up half of the tailpipes and reduce our dependency on foreign oil. Wouldn’t that be something? These cars work, if people give them a chance.”
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For more information about buying or building your own EV Metro, visit Cloud Electric at www.cloudelectric.com. To learn more about the Fox Valley Electric Auto Association, visit www.fveaa.org.
