how about doing performance mods to one of these Smart Car copy NEV's?

This is NO Smart Car, it's not even a good copy. I also noticed it only drives 1 wheel what is this garbage... I think this would be a fine little golf cart if you removed the doors but to use it on the streets would be taking you life into your own hands. At least the real Smart Car has a 4 star crash rating, so if you do get hit you have a good chance of walking away. I am going to use a Smart Car four two as my base conversion. I know the cost is almost twice the price but I think it will be a much better vehicle in the long run.

Grandpa Chas S.

From the ebay listing:

Thats me on the left and Mr. Li the factory owner closing the deal in China.

That nearly says enough. For the $8k, they could easily assemble these in the US. It could be done with a cheap DC system, and wouldn't need proprietary expensive AC components that can't be replaced if they break and the company goes under.

Here's a NEV company that's been in business for a while: Global Electric Motorcars.

If you increased the speed it would no longer be an NEV. It would then be an illegal vehicle because NEV's do not have to go through DOT crash/safety testing and as a byproduct they are labeled NEV etc. I take it the NEV label is there to make sure it's only used in low speed situations so that if there were a crash situation, and the vehicle doesn't have safety equipment (e.g. the GEM cars that don't have doors) or is otherwise unsafe, then the danger risk would be small because of the low speed.

Another issue is a vehicle designed for 25 miles/hr or less probably has weak brakes or a weak frame/suspension/etc which would not work well at higher speeds. To stop adequately from 50 miles/hr takes a lot more braking power than it takes to stop at 25 miles/hr.

Doing what you suggest is illegal and likely unsafe.

Some links that I found of NEV hmmmmmm
(Neighborhood Electric Vehicles) Interesting

http://www.okaauto.com/okanev1.htm

http://www.kiawah-owners.org/PDFs/NEV-member%20info%20sheet.pdf

For some odd reason the Title of the Post wouldn't let me preview it or post my comment so I had to by pass it by deleting a couple of words, okay??

Is it from China ? If so,There is no way to increase speed because this E-car is series motor like golf car and heavy Fibre glass body.

A lot of such E-car makers from Shangdong province, north china.

I agree with the safety issues about this Smart Car look alike. That is the main reason I choose to buy a real Smart Car, drive it for a couple of years as a gasser, then convert it to electric.

I think in a few years the battery technology will be at a point and price where converting this little guy will give me an exceptional EV. Also after searching for conversion kits, I found several, I think the price of the kits will be more affordable and have better components which will only make the car better. Besides that I can live with 48 mpg for my weekly ride which will cut my fuel bill by about 60%. The extra dollars will go into a fund to purchase the EV components and batteries.

Grandpa Chas S.

Gramps ;-) - can you post a link to the best of those kits? (Or if no one else is interested then drop me a PM with the links?). I think your plan makes a lot of sense - do you have the car yet? If not, when do you get it?

John,

Sadly I will not get the little car until around November due to the waiting list for these little guys. The other day when I put $70.oo in my gas tank I was wishing it were here.
Here are some links in no particular order.

Links:
Electric Transportation Solutions
EV World
Electro Automotive (best so far)
Electric Vehicle Conversion Help (good read!)
Cloud EV(lots of kits)
Electric Auto Conversions
Dragon Electric Vehicles (UK)
Spark EV (interesting)
The Mid-America Electric Auto Association
Commuter Cars Corporation (Tango)
This is a great link page - Green Pages

This is not a complete list but it is a list of the better sites I have found. Some here are for information and may be of interest.

I also went to the Global Electric Motorcar site and went through their build a GEM and the following is what I selected. Just as a prospective the Smart Car I am purchasing, pictured in a previous post, cost $14,090.oo delivered and has more options than I chose for the GEM.

This is an outrageous price for this vehicle!!!

Grandpa Chas S.

Most EV conversions of older cars are not very safe either, but people do use them anyway. Neither are motorcycles of any kind for that matter, gas powered or electric. Old VW's with an extra 900 pounds of lead batteries in them aren't going to set any records with their braking distances or crash worthiness.

How did you determine that they are not safe? I can imagine that the added batteries may alter the crash physics, but I don't know enough to know how. 900 extra pounds might sound like a lot, but that may be not be far over the GVWR. And most of the time, these vehicles driven at less than 50 mph.

Motorcycles may not be safe in a high-speed crash, but they are safe to ride at high speeds, and designed and tested to do that.

I bet that Chinese made 2 seater I started the post about would do fine at 35 to 40 MPH, (It does have disc brakes)

Lets hope so after you've spent $8k on the vehicle, and another $? to upgrade it, and in the process voided the warranty. For much less money you could do a very simple low voltage DC conversion. There's a company that does these pretty cheap. Does anyone have the link?

I bet that Chinese made 2 seater I started the post about would do fine at 35 to 40 MPH, (It does have disc brakes) and would be actually safer than running it at only 25 where everyone would be having to pass you. I'd get run right off the road around here if I could only go 25.

The Xebra is a reasonably fine vehicle that does 35-40 miles/hr and is built using simple DC drive train. It is actually legal etc to go at this speed while modifying an NEV to do so is legally questionable.

Chas,

I agree the NEV's all seem overpriced and underspecified. I think the SMART will be far better. Oh yeah, and I smiled when I saw this:

7.0 HP Performance Package $495.00

Woo hoo - now there's some blistering performance for you. Does it have a spoiler and go faster stripes? ;-)

http://www.hybridtechnologies.com/products/cars/dash

Here's a turn key electric Smart car with amazing performance, and a price to go along with it.

I couldn't find prices - can you point me in the right direction?

I've heard disturbing things about this company in the past (like over stated claims about what they've delivered and to whom). There's certainly no shortage of pretty products on their site though.

Hmmm - just saw this at the bottom of the page Hybrid Technologies is a concept and brand development corporation in the field of alternative-fuel automobiles, motorcycles, scooters bicycles and alternative-fuel products.

Isn't the rough translation of that "we can dream up some really cool ideas if someone else would like to build them"?

Do a google search for Hybrid technologies. One of the links is their products page, which, I think, has prices on it. (can not confirm limited access from where I am now).

Maybe they are redoing the site or something, or it was hacked. The links from a March 17 article are down:Hybrid Technologies, Inc. Prepares as Oil Prices Hit USD$110 Per Barrel by Launching New All Electric City Car for Under USD$40,000

The link worked for me last week but it now sends me to a suspended page so maybe they forgot to pay their web bill.

Grandpa Chas S.