1980 Jet Electrica 007

Sold as of 4/7/04, thanks for all the interest!

Converter: Jet Industries

Base Vehicle: 1980 Dodge Omni 024 fastback

Motor: GE 23hp Series wound DC

Controller: Curtis PMC25, 2.1kHz, 120v, 400A

Charger: K&W BC20 with line booster

Auxiliary Power: Sevcon DC-DC converter and small standard battery

Range: 70-75 miles

Battery qty and type: 20x 6volt (120v nominal pack) US145 Flooded Lead Acid (new Nov 2003)

A professional conversion from Jet Industries in Texas, this is an original Jet Electrica 007, based on the Dodge Omni 024 fastback. Delivered from Chrysler as a glider (engineless car), this particular example has never been gas powered and has many upgrades from new. The car is supplied with everything you need to own and operate (including extension cords), as well as full documentation and a set of tools and spares. You couldn’t ask for a more complete package, you need to purchase nothing besides what is supplied with the car to start driving electric!

Drive power is from a GE 23hp series DC motor. With only 7000 miles on the entire car, the brushes are barely broken in! I have pulled the inspection plate off to verify their condition. Factory recommended replacement interval is 80,000 miles… A while to go yet! Controller is a Curtis PMC25, rated for120v and 400A. This controller operates at 2.1kHz, emitting a very soft tone when accelerating. Very helpful to let you know that you are, in fact, under power and starting to move- also a plus when pedestrians are in the area! At speed the tone is barely audible, at no time is it annoying. A four speed transmission is used to keep the motor within operating parameters. This car operates at 75mph every day for me in the carpool lane. Actual range is around 70-75 miles if you are easy with your right foot; I have driven the car 60 miles multiple times on a single charge with a relatively rough duty cycle (high speeds, some hills) and still had battery capacity left to go farther. My calculations from the battery log estimate a real world range of 70-74 miles.

If you live in California, the “access ok” carpool lane stickers are invaluable. Yes, it is California state law that an electric vehicle, when displaying the proper stickers, is allowed to operate in the carpool lane with a single occupant. For me, this means saving about an hour of driving every day! This was my main reason for buying the car- that hour a day saved is simply invaluable.

Tires are the well regarded Goodyear Invicta GLR low rolling resistance type. A spare (non-Invicta, standard Chrysler) is included.

Here’s what the driver sees. It’s a clean car (remember, only 7000 miles on it since new and no mice living in here either).

And here is what the passenger sees. The two auxiliary gages show motor amps and motor temperature.

Batteries are US145 flooded lead acid type, purchased and installed in November, 2003- yup, only a few months old. These are almost brand new, just enough cycles to have them broken in! USB rates these as about 650 cycles of life expectancy, giving you years of service before they fall below 80% of their rated rate. Look at those nice orange 2/0 interconnect cables, all clean and corrosion free, offering low resistance and minimal losses. The high voltage wiring has been replaced at the same time as the batteries, no worries about unsafe or corroded high voltage wiring. 15 are located in the rear, 5 in the front for a total of 20 batteries.

The battery box on the left holds five additional batteries. The charger can be seen mounted to the side of the battery box. The Sevcon DC-DC converter is just behind it. Charging is accomplished via the onboard K&W BC20 charger. Operating from a 120v outlet, this will recharge the car overnight.

A charging cord for a standard 120v plug is supplied with the car, appropriately sized and rated for charging the car. To charge, just plug it into a standard wall outlet and go about your business!

Complete documentation comes with the car, starting with the original Jet manuals covering chassis, interior, exterior and electronics. A separate manual covers the Chrysler AM/FM radio. A Curtis PMC25 manual is included, covering operation, installation and troubleshooting of the unit. The factory manual for the K&W BC20 charger is also included. Every component in the car comes with it’s own manual, so if there ever is the need to service or repair, you have all of the information available. A log of the battery charging cycles is included, along with a manual for care and feeding of the US145 flooded batteries. This is really a fully documented car!

The charging cord is shown on the right, spare battery on the left, and the garden sprayer at top. The garden sprayer is used for topping the batteries off without making a mess. It has never been used in the garden, of course, only with distilled water in the ev!! I check the battery levels every two weeks, usually there is a cell or two that might need a touch of water.

I bought this car as my first EV, not knowing if I was going to like driving an electric or not. One of the big draws at the time was the amount of paperwork available with the car- it wasn’t running, but the information was there to help me fix it and get it running. Over the 6 months that I have owned it, I have gotten the paperwork together for the parts that weren’t documented- from calling Curtis to have an old manual sent over for the controller, putting together charging curves and limits from US Battery for the pack, and finding the BC20 charging manual. In addition, I have documented each and every charge cycle, so you know exactly how the car has been used, what kind of mileage it gets, how it is driven. Now it’s time for me to move on, I am actually in need of truck to haul bulky items! But this car has done me very well, teaching me how EV’s work, how to fix them from broken, and how little there is to do once they are running.