I BOUGHT The ELECTRIC Geo Metro *Solectria Force EV*
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- Опубліковано 4 жов 2024
- Now this is a car I couldn't pass up an electric vehicle from 1996... Before there was even a thought of Tesla, Solectria was building and selling the Force (although not very many of them) with a price tag that was out of this world. It's a complete battery EV with almost every feature you'd expect in a normal car in 96, although it is still a Geo Metro so that's not saying much.
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#ElectricCar #GeoMetro #Solectria
How is it at towing?
LMAO, just had to ask didn’t you? 1 mile range
Better than Hoovie's Lightning, I'm sure.
@@WatchJRGo so better than the F150 lightning. Cool.
Check out Jerry's test of towing 10.000 pounds with a Rivian. Range is ok, but the range estimate is hilarious....
😂😂😂
Hello! I’m the previous previous owner of this car and I just wanted to clear some things up for you. The first is those wires in the glove box. This car used to have a “range meter” but I could never get it to work, so I removed it and just shoved the wires in the glove box. The meter used to sit where the cupholder is. Secondly, the terminology for the regen on/off switch refers to the road conditions. If the road is “dry” you want full regen, if the road is “slippery” you want no regen because regen+ice is a big no no. Also, I made a video about this car back when I first bought it, I’ll add a link. I’m so glad to see this car ended up in good hands. Maybe consider doing a lithium conversion at some point? ua-cam.com/video/VA3rJ8nJ6ec/v-deo.html&feature=shares
I was also a pervious owner of this car and I agree with everything said
not
nice job with the detailing ... was wondering how this car was so 'clean' for it's age
I was never a previous owner and just needed an excuse to post.
I was the original owner and I sold it for a Hum V
I worked on the GM EV1 (Impact). They used Geo Storms for powertrain mule vehicles, during the development of it. At the time, the chassis was the strongest chassis GM ever built at the time. The chassis was all aluminum. They where building the chassis during a very hot summer in Michigan. They had to weld them together at night, due to the power consumption being so high in the Warren area, with the summer heat. Welding the aluminum at the time required a lot of power. The motors used where turbine starter motors, by Allison. And about 2ft in dia.
Never been excited about a Geo before... But you have my attention.
I'm WAY more excited about this than my old gas one 💯
I used to and still have a soft spot for the geo metro convertibles. Would love to engine swap a Chevy trailblazer's 1.3 turbo 3 cylinder into one .
@@louisbabycos106 Imagine an electric Metro Convertible!
Same here
How can you not love geo they were everywhere ran themselves into the ground and still started also this is exactly what I explain to ppl about Tesla the old ev cars is what blows mind because it's clearly how Elon got the idea he had to have gone through mad blueprints
I will never get over the fact that my elementary school principal had an EV1 back in like 2001, I still remember seeing it pull up in that metallic green looking like nothing else I'd ever seen before. Such a shame I was too young to really appreciate it but that memory sticks. Would absolutely love to see one of those again one day
Fun fact. I worked at GM in a R&D center back then and we had a few of them. Only we also had a couple of Geo storms that were modified with Delphi inverters that could do massive front wheel drive Burnouts. Also they were used to develop the inductive charge system GM was developing during the time they were trying to standardize the charging system. GM called it the MAGNACHARGE. System. That was used for the EV-1's.
I got to drive an EV1 in ~2006. The thing I remember the most was the regenerative braking. Turn it off and that small car was HARD to stop.
That's amazing! You almost have to have regen to stop all those HEAVY batteries 🔋
I'd imagine they didn't bother to alter or change the calipers from the original Metro / Swift to keep that small company budget in check
Someone in San Diego is rockin a beautiful EV1, I've seen it for years and remember it at the Saturn dealer back in the day. I was working as a tech at a Saturn dealer and the story I heard was the owner battled GM to purchase out the lease, threatening legal action and GM caved and let him purchase out the lease. He must really enjoy it, because it looks minty and is always arround town.
That battery disconnect cable looks just like the ones on the forklifts at work! Lol! 😂
I always enjoy a JR episode when Jake is involved.
For those who are interested in them, there used to be an EV-1 on display at the Tellus Museum in Cartersville Georgia. I haven't been in a while, and the Savoy Automotive Museum opened recently down the road from it, so the car may heve been moved. But if anyone wants to see a rare piece of American experimentalism, there's one floating around SE US.
Something wrong when I been anticipating a video about a Geo 😂 but continue 😊
I would absolutely love a series on updating this car for no reason.
This is the kinda stuff I love out of JR. Relatable and interesting. This is gunna be a cool series
I believe they marked it dry and slippery due to road conditions. If regen is engaged and the the roads were slick, it could lock up the wheels and cause you to lose control. Basically their way of saying, don't use regen in slick conditions. Very interesting car for sure!
Thats what i thought - dry and slippery driving conditions. I dont know the mechanics of why though because someone else said its hard to stop without regen as an engine brake. But i wonder if in slippery conditions they dont want you doing single pedal and then get in a bad spot, they want you to use the brake pedal earlier.
This unlocked a memory for me. Years ago, probably in '96 or '97 TVA was showing off one of these all around the area with local utilities. My dad was able to take it home for a weekend and I got a chance to drive it. I had forgotten about it completely until I saw this, thank you for the memories.
This would be a perfect candidate for LiFePO4 swap. You might wanna ask @agingwheels if he has a spare pack from his many Coda EVs.
I'd also look at the potentiometer adjustment if its correct and goes all the way. Might explain why its only working at 3/4 throttle or more.
One of your coolest cars. I love pre modern era industrial-ness of the design and operation. It's basically a forklift on the road
I definitely would check on converting it to lithium batteries like Jake did with his Insight that got wrecked. At least the batteries were replaced recently and sounds like you got a deal on it 👍
Got it for the price of the batteries... I don't think I mentioned it but $3,500 🍻
Probably lucky the guy was a fan and decided you'd be a better home for it and he broke even so everyone wins.
Li-ion bateries would probably make this as good as a 1st gen Leaf, which we can get for $3,500
Would it allow a portable power station to charge it whilst driving?
@@WatchJRGo do it!
I used to work at Solectria back in ‘96. Man, lithium batteries are so much better than those lead acids were! The weight savings from fewer options and sluggy acceleration were all to squeak out as much range as possible (which was a losing battle with those batteries). As you explained, we mostly sold to utilities and government fleet users (I don’t remember so many military customers) because they could assign the cars to known regular and short routes, and charge every night. Get a wheel alignment and pump the tires up. There is a 12v electric vacuum pump for the brakes in there somewhere, which should help. Great to see one of these cars still running and being appreciated!
As far as the poor handling, I wonder if some of that could be due to the age of the shocks and struts.
You might want to consider replacing or even upgrading them if you can. A bet new shocks and struts would make a world of difference as well as the new tires and alignment you mentioned.
It’s so interesting seeing how this company engineered ways to make accessories designed for gas-powered cars work for an EV.
There's a chance it uses custom shocks/springs due to weight, so regular geo metro might not work.
Needs some coilovers
The EV is a sight to behold. These guys just put together an EV with whatever tech they had. And they made it work to the best. Kudos to them. I remember about 12 years back in my first job trying to get a portable serial-printer to work. It was real pain in the behind! Anyway as usual JR will fix a bunch of stuff and just make this better! Cheers!
Dude one of the coolest car's you've had on your channel. I never knew they even existed before your first video on it. You have to lithium swap it.
I imagine 100% Jake loves the car too. I'm really sorry you lost your grandfather to
Like you, I loved the GM EV-1. I lived in Phoenix, and we had a couple of those cars rolling around there. The old Fiesta Mall in Tempe even had the paddle connectors meant to charge these EV-1s. I thought the EV-1 was the PERFECT car for me; my car at the time was a Honda CRX. The EV-1 seemed like an electric CRX in my fevered imagination. I would love my own EV-1 even now. Back in the 2000-2010 decade, the military had fuel-cell powered Chevy SUVs. Out at Pearl Harbor, the Navy was cracking sea water into hydrogen and oxygen using solar. Also using solar power, this hydrogen was processed into liquid hydrogen and used in these promotional/test Chevys by the military. I miss seeing those vehicles; they had LOUD wraps that let the whole world what they were! Also, Toyota showed their MIrai here on O’ahu. These MIrais could actually be filled at Pearl Harbor, for all I know. Never saw a hydrogen-powered Kia eNiro or a Toyota MIrai running around here, though.
@Davey I just saw a second generation 2 door Cavalier RS in Los Vegas while going to CES. It was parked in same hotel garage I was in, it was in remarkable shape, no rust, no faded paint, no door dings. I'm guessing it was either garage kept most of it's life, as out west that paint would fade under the sun. Or it had a really good paint job, but who would intend on painting a mid-90's Cavalier?
It had a spare donut tire on the back wheel while I saw it. But the rest of the wheels were original with their wheel covers in good condition. A few days later I also had to use my spare tire, so I can't blame them for rolling around on a spare. But it would have been nice to see a complete set. I just hope they knew what they had, a rather rare to see Cavalier today from the 90's. That most didn't get much older than 10 years before being taken off the roadways. A cheap throw away 90's GM car never intended to last.
That A/C system....nice!
JR - I have a guy that works for me who helped build these things. He worked for the brothers who started the company. He grew up with them... one of the brothers created solar powered go-karts that are on display in the Boston Museum of Science. He used to do test-drives on the cars to ensure systems like engine breaking would work. He used to have his 9-year-old son ride in the passenger seat and record the voltage every minute. Pretty interesting!
2:00 about 1998 Saw couple of EV1 in San Jose area. And At the Fry's (or some electronics store) at front of parking lot they had free EV chargers with the Paddle Puck thing for FREE EV charging.
In 1996, the four door Metro only came with the 1.3 liter four cylinder. The automatic was a three speed without overdrive (30 mpg’s at best). The five speed was with both fourth and fifth gears being overdrive (40 mpg’s). The 1.0 liter was only in the two door hatchback.50 mpg’s with the five speed.
I found the vehicle test report from the US Dept of Energy, they had a '95 Force on test
TEST NOTES:
1. Full charge may not occur when charging in ambient temperatures of >100°F
2. To charge in less than 12 hour, charging should occur in ambient temperatures
So Funny. 4. The vehicle cannot be parked or operated in standing water with a depth greater than six
(6) inches.
I driven a EV1. Gm was doing demonstrations of its vehicles versus the competition. They played up it was faster 0 to 30 than a corvette in 98.
JR should see if Rich Rebuilds would be interested in that EV Car
You may be able to adjust the throttle linkage at the potentiometer to get away from the 75% wasted petal. That may also increase the acceleration dysfunction.
I agree, the cable may be stretched.
That's what I was thinking, hopefully it has a bit more power that is just not available due to the throttle cable.
It has new batteries, it should outrun a freaking tortoise.
My brand new 97 Geo Metro 2-door with the 3 banger 1 barrel got 50 MPG if I drove it like I stole it. If I drove normally I'd get about 55 MPG. If I hypermiled it I could get over 60 MPG. Even though it had a pretty small gas tank. It felt like it would drive forever on a tank of gas.
That's why making one an ev makes no sense to me. I drove several of these when they were new and the gas mileage was phenomenal. It doesn't really make sense to make a worse car and charge so much for it.
@@mjc8248 I have an old friend who has the metro convertible with the "big block" 8^) 4 banger. He made skirts for it and an air dam and I think a few other tricks and hypermiles it to see just how good he can make the gas milage. He even drafts big rigs for less drag. I believe he told me he got in the mid 70s MPG with it.
I always loved the convertibles. I had a pink with a white top that I kept for a long time because of the fuel mileage. I liked the hatches and verts the best. They weren't very fast but they were nimble for day to day driving.
I think the other comments to your comment would tell you why someone would want to make the car even quirkier than “just” gas powered
Now you got me feeling bad for Jake, he needs this car!!!!!!!!!
Swap over all the lighting to LED to save a little juice. Cool little car! I don't even remember seeing the Metro sedan, only the little hatchback.
So straight to bingo for grandma and straight back. No stopping. NO STOPPING. I SAID NO STOPPING!
I worked for Solectria when it had changed over to a solar grid-tie inverter company. It was still run by the same owners and founders from the vehicle days, James and Anita Worden. They were true entrepreneurs, passionate about grid-tie solar and electric vehicles. Anita and James commuted in Forces most days, 15+ years after the Forces came out. We would have company parties at their house and visit James' barn with old vehicle prototypes and his projects of all kinds. It's funny, some of the older grid-tie inverters that were born out of the vehicle inverters still had variables / PIDs for things like taillights. Good memories!
James's father goes to the same church my family attends - used to see his quite rusty Force in the parking lot on some Sundays.
I saw a guy that bought a newer Nissan Leaf for $3500. The battery is getting older, so it only charges to 60% now. He can only drive 52 miles, before the battery is completely dead.
I'd heard of Solectria before, since I'm from the Boston area...but had no idea they converted Geo Metro's/S10's. Hilarious!
I test drove an EV1 back in 97. It was at a Saturn dealership. It drove really well from what I remember, and the salesman said you only lease them. Way ahead of its time.
I remember seeing the S10 when you came to Chicago. That thing was pretty cool. You should have seen the electric Dodge cargo van I had a couple years ago.
Something like this would be amazing for me in a small town while I save for college
I still have a Force that I regularly drive, I have put 60k on it and I have done two lithium conversions on it. Currently running half of a Nissan leaf 40kWh pack. I can share info if you are ever interested. I have service manuals, spare parts etc... As well as a bunch of info about the conversions. The car is much faster with lithium due to weight savings. I worked with Solectria in the 90's on NiMh versions of the car.
I think I could see all sorts of equations flowing out of 100% Jake's ears. He's so hooked...
This is neat. My dad used to have a 91 metro. It was a great car. I owned a 91 geo tracker soft top 4x4. It was so much fun
This has to be your best “before I show you”the car tease 8:00 min mark wow that’s some work class prattling.
Full resto and lithium swap. It’s an interesting artifact.
Love this JR , this is excellent content. Hadn’t heard of one of these before.
Very cool buddy . BTW really loved your tribute to your Grandpa. Life well
Lived ! Oh l was wondering how old was he ?
Just an FYI, Jehu Garcia has an EV battery channel with lots of amazing battery technologies. I'd love to see this car get upgraded from the primitive lead acid battery technology to one of the newer technologies (less weight, more energy, more range). No idea if those old school, twenty six year old electric motors can handle the increased outputs from newer technology batteries.
I'd like to see the suspension fixed, aligned and refreshed.
Adjust the pedal so it's more active and you don't have to floor the pedal. Shouldn't be too hard.
And probably a battery upgrade.
My neighbor had an ev1, he let me drive it once. It was really cool, very torquey, instant go. He always said it was the future. My Dad wanted one but has always refused to lease a car. Francis Ford Coppola has one hidden at his winery.
That's so cool. Part of me says lithium swap, but honestly it's a historic car at this point, drive it on flat ground and at car shows or sell it to someone with no hills between them and the grocery store (I could take the kids to school! They'd hate it, they complain my Saturn is too small and bumpy compared to the Subaru Outback). So cool seeing something that looks much more repairable than the drive train of a Tesla. In my mind, all EVs, especially EV swaps, are like the Solectria S10 I saw back in the 90s...
Apart from the GM EV1, all the other major auto manufacturers had EVs in the late 90s as well, as was mandated at the time by the California Air Resources Board. There was the Ford Ranger EV, Toyota RAV4 EV (1st gen, not to be confused with the Tesla powered 2nd gen), Chrysler TEVan, Honda EV+, and Nissan Rnessa. Much like the EV1, most of those vehicles were all crushed in 2003/2004 when the EV mandate was repealed after the automakers put a lot of pressure on CARB. If you ever want to learn more about that period of EV history, I highly recommend checking out the documentary called "Who Killed the Electric Car" (theres also a sequel called "Revenge of the Electric Car", which focuses on the early days of Tesla, and the grassroots EV conversion movement).
Back to the subject of those latest 90s/early 00s cars, about 400 each of the Rangers and RAV4s were saved from the crusher after a lot of pushback from owners, so there's still a fair number of those floating around. I actually used to own 2 Rangers myself, and have a couple videos about them. I've also worked on one of the first gen RAV4s as well at the shop where I work (there's a video of that car as well where we compared it to a 2nd gen RAV4 EV on my shop's youtube channel).
A couple years ago, I actually almost bought an early Solectria Force myself (the two door hatch version) which was in need of batteries. I'd say that if you're up for it, a lithium swap would make a MASSIVE improvement to the car. Not only would you increase your range, but you'd likely get a lot better performance thanks to reduced weight and A LOT less voltage sag under acceleration.
You should get one of those "solar generators", basically, a large lithium battery with an inverter, and patch it into the 120v charging circuit and see if you can increase the range on the car using it!!
that would not do much. Those solar generators are about 1500w -2000w inverters with a 45 amp hour battery. just one of those lead acid batteries in the metro is at least a 80 amp hour. You would have to trickle charge it while off. It would charge it though.
I worked for Rays Electric outboard motors in Cape Coral FL. We used all the same connections for our batteries. I'm pretty sure they can supply you with parts if you want them.
Been waiting for this video. Would be a great car for me to drive back and forth to work. I'm only 8 miles from work.
It only has a 10 mile range. you would not be able to get back home. :(
When I lived in Bartlesville Oklahoma just south of you my neighbor had one except his was turquoise. He loved it
What a neat little car. I wondered how they managed the air conditioning, being an HVACR Service Technician. It is going to be interesting to see what it can do. Thanks for the videos.
I'm excited to see where this goes! Geo cars are so cool and one thats an EV is awesome!
Good find, more Jake!
Jake, near the end, "My reverb's not wet enough." LMAO!
How cool would it be for Doug Demuro to review this.
Weird and cool car - also gotta love Jake with the sound-tech wet/dry mix reference! :)
This summer I was at the Heart of Route 66 Auto Museum in Sapulpa, OK they had one. I think it was a permanent display. It is worth the 2 1/2 hour drive from Wichita to see their whole collection.
Getting a very distinct Aging Wheels vibe from this video. I he‘d love this car
Increase range, by reducing drag, make a tail, install a underplate. Test this thing out!
Something is wrong with the throttle. It should not take pushing the pedal 75% down to get it to move. If i remember correctly from driving those ones that were brought to the dealership i worked at for brakes and suspension work, these did not take much pedal pressure to move them from stop. Check the throttle cable for correct adjustment. Also check the potentiometer for the throttle for dirty contacts or cracks
interesting. someone in Bermuda had a hatchback version with what looked like factory solar panels on the roof. they said they were so expensive because the company had to buy complete cars and remove all the ice components to install the electric conversion so in effect the customer was paying for a full hybrid without the ice side of things
There used to be an EV1 at University of Missouri Rolla (Missouri S&T)! I walked past it so many times as an undergrad! It was a neat piece of history to see! Not sure if it is still there though, it was in 2012!
Wasn’t expecting to see a vlog under recent circumstances but I’m super happy to watch, I would do a conversation to extend it’s distance and life in the new world it was designed for.
Hope your dad and family are coping well.
See you next time. 👌🏻👍🏻
You upload at the perfect time thank you
I have owned 4 of these. About to buy my 5th this week. EV life is a good life
Appreciate you showing all the quirks and features of this car I never know existed. I’d like to see it get fixed up.
My uncle had a gas Geo Metro. His was green. He was a tall and wide man. He barely fit but he didn't care because he was saving gas money.
I was at the college near LaGuardia airport when James Warden inventor of your car, arrived on one charge from Boston using the NiMh batteries loaned from the inventor .
It was a world record range.
The car was called the sunrise .
Professor Wouk of NYU, brother of famous author Herman of Caine Mutiny fame, organized it.
They were late due to traffic ….
Getting the Sunrise ready late the night before, John Rogers and I discovered the motor controller had developed a fault. The only choices were either cancel the trip, or swap it out and not be able to test it on the road, we had no cell phone or tow truck and everyone had gone home. Of course we swapped it out, it was getting close to midnight by then. The next morning James Worden set off in the Sunrise followed by a TV camera crew, and actually got lost twice on the way to NYC. Months before when we got those beautiful NiMH batteries ($10,000 each), we calculated the range and I suggested to James we do a publicity stunt and drive it to New York City. James liked the idea but the marketing manager was angry, later saying the publicity was wasted because we had no cars to sell. What they never told anyone, the onboard charger would take two and a half days to charge it back up, so Ed Trembly towed the Sunrise back to Woburn on a flatbed. Those were fun times at Solectria.
Need to get you guys to write this all down or do an oral history for a college .
I was there the day Mr Allan Coconni demonstrated his lithium laptop battery roadster Tzero in Santa Monica I think for the first time publically. He was trying to get a Toyota scion glider into production car and also had one for demonstration.
It became the basis for the Tesla roadster.
Later I was with Phoenix Motorcar trying to get NiMh batteries from the Chevron Front company
No luck of course, we spent a fortune with Nickle Zinc from China. It was great for a few weeks…
Never got any refund.
@@josephpadula2283 Probably our biggest missed chance for success was the Saturn Hybrid. James and I asked Bill Chu to design the water-cooled inverter for the Saturn and Bill did an excellent job. Saturn had removed the 12-volt battery from under the hood and that was the only place available to put Bill's motor drive. It had to be the same size and shape as a small car battery, a major constraint! But it worked. To our great disappointment GM then re-absorbed the Saturn company, saying it had been a "good experiment." Our hopes for big motor-drive sales were dashed. Because GM had its own EV program, the Saturn Hybrid was soon canceled and that was the end of it.
You might try to adjust the throttle position sensor... if it takes so much throttle pedal travel to even start moving the car, you may be losing the top end power too... maybe why it's so sluggish.
my 96 had the same interior lmao these videos making me nostalgic for 2003
That's the nicest four seat forklift I've ever seen seriously though I love it with you and Jake's knowledge I want to see you build an EV out of something like a Volkswagen bug that would be a great series
JR: "I'm REALLY EXCITED TO OWN THIS!"
Also JR: "I sold it, because I need to make room for the Volt".
Yeah the Volt is actually a good car so that happens a lot 😂
I really want you to take this thing to the wizard. I just need to see his reaction.
Thank you for this video I love geos not enough content on YT!
For anyone that didn't figure it out... the regen terminology, dry/slippery refers to driving conditions. It had such a stiff regen that it would make the wheels lock up and slide in rainy or snowy conditions so you were supposed to turn the regen off in slippery conditions. So only regen in dry conditions. Put the switch to whatever the road conditions are at the time.
When I first brought it to Colorado I forgot to turn off the regen as I was so used to Cali driving. I almost slid off the road lol. The ability to turn off the regen is very useful
@@99lockerock I bet. I never owned one myself. Would be handy if you lived in a small town. I don't. I have to drive further than it's max range to get to anything. I mean literally anything. lol
JR you need to find a Renault Fuego !! Those were a classic. Owned one in 1984 !! You could have an entire series on that one !!!
Looks like a great opportunity for an Aging Wheels colab
There’s a new shirt for either you or Jake…..”My Reverb’s not wet enough!”😂😂😂
Drove the EV1 when they were leasing them (~1998) and just recall quick range loss driving up steep mountain but also the quick recovery of charge coming back down. Had a futuristic dash. I have seen them again at the Peterson Museum is Los Angeles and also the Henry Ford Museum in Detroit. Good luck on the Metro. Recall driving a gas one (think 3 cylinder engine) as a rental and got a laugh out of it as the seat was made for someone 6ft tall. I’m short and had to pad the seat to get the height I wanted to see.
@Davey I live in AZ and maybe once a year will see one. What I do see a lot of are PT Cruisers. It’s like these things are invincible (cockroaches of the car world), they still even have good paint when other cars have completely failed due to the desert sun.
@Davey rarely see cavaliers. A college friend had one back in early 90s. Was station wagon version and stick shift.I had a 1990 civic si which I loved. Don’t see these either anymore
@@curiousumscientia3648 You are correct! Cock roaches they are. I ended up with a PT Cruiser (when my 98' Honda accord with 266k tranny died and the engine developed a massive oil leak) when a work colleague inherited one from his sister in law who passed away. He kept it for about a year, and decided having 4 vehicles was enough and sold it to me for the cost of state title transfer. i.e we went into DMV and I payed all the fees, and he handed me the keys. It's a base model, 5 speed, with A/C, cruse, and auto down windows, but nothing else. No power doors or mirrors.. I will say the paint has faded, (dark blue) mostly because it's spent it's entire life in New Mexico after a brief stint in California. It had only 100k on the clock when I got it in 2019 and was a 2002, so it was rathe low mileage for it's age. Still runs and drives remarkably well, the 5 speed will probably never let it down, it will most likely be the engine that fails in the end. It's had the water pump replaced three times, I had to do that last year, seems to last only about 36k then leaks water and get's bad quickly.. Seems to be flaw in the design.
If the throttle controller is just a variable resistor, try some contact cleaner to see if the throttle response improves!
Wow, love the $500 JVC tape deck. What a cool retro EV. If you extend the range, it would be awesome. Teslas are so common now, no one even looks twice at them but everybody would want to stop and ask about this. Love it.
I just checked, Francis Ford Coppola has an EV1. Showed it on Leno's car show. Just kept it when GM wanted it back, I think. There was a story from 2019 about one abandoned in Atlanta Airport.
Man, would love to see a conversion to lithium on one of these, it would reduce so much weight going from all those lead acids to just (4) 12v lithium batteries. And give it about 2,000-2,500AH. I bought (4) 12v li-po batteries off of Alibaba in (16) 3V cells with bus bars, to make them into 12v packs, for the solar on my camper. Spent around $1,500. It's actually a shame he replaced the lead acids, could have done lithium with a new charger, for close to the same spend or even cheaper than on the lead acid batteries.
I’m not into electric cars but I love this channel so I gave it a watch, keep rocking the awesome vids!!
Lol selectria saw what Porsche was doing and was like hold my beer. “Oh you want seats? That’s an extra fee. Tires? That’s extra”
You need to put Lipo batteries on it for sure. New tires, alignment, and fix that sagging headliner.
JR & Jake, fun video. Nice praise and lots of digs. The Force came out in 1991 as the hatch then 1995 as a sedan. It was by far the most efficient and most advanced EV being sold at the time. Competitors were building series wound DC motor cars with 4-speed stick, no regen, no heat, no A/C except GM EV1 that was never even sold. The Force was more efficient than EV1 on a Wh/mi basis. Is it a great EV by today’s standards? No, of course not, it’s 28 years old. Your vacuum pump is out or more likely the vacuum switch or wiring. Power brakes were standard in 1995 Force. Your batteries are old and weak and don’t look OEM, which was 13 East Penn GelTec group 27 gel at 832lb total. A fresh pack would get 50Ah. I have 350lb of Li pack in my Force and does 180 miles is way more peppy and fun, handles a little better although nothing to write home about of course. Check your struts for shock action, definitely do a precision alignment when you have final batteries in it. I bet that’ll help efficiency. Good tires at 45 psi will help.
I have a Force, 375 mile Sunrise GT, E-10 pickup and Tesla M3 and drive all of them, like them all. Love to hear and see what you fix & restore on your Force.
Follow the brake hoses & wiring to find pump, vac switch (on ball or front cross member above A/C condenser). Best if you find the Solectria service manual
Love the hand roll window cranks. Looking forward to your thorough road test.
Hey neighbor! Looks like a fun project! The ball-shaped vacuum reservoir is very likely for the HVAC system which probably uses vacuum diaphragm actuators. The power brake booster is its own vacuum reservoir and doesn’t need any additional reservoir to function. Looked sorta like the hose from the booster went to a vacuum pump maybe… Am guessing that pump is not working but you already have more than enough experience and knowledge to fix that. Keep up the good videos!
1000 cycles at only 40 miles per charge would mean those batteries would already be toast. Perhaps the batteries have been replaced already since it has over 42K miles.
One of the coolest cars you've had on in awhile, love it, great content!
I totally get your love of the EV-1. I was able to drive them in the late 90s while working for Saturn in Spring Hill, TN. I believe it had around 75 miles of range. It sounded cool when accelerating (my kids said it sounded like the 1966 Batmobile). Good luck with the Metro!