Jet Industries Subaru Sambar Electrovan

etard

100 kW
Joined
Aug 3, 2008
Messages
1,936
Location
Redlands, CA
I just saw this ad on CL for a late 70's electric van. Has anybody any experience with these? He still has it available as of today. It would make an interesting project, but alas, I cannot.

http://inlandempire.craigslist.org/cto/4793885606.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subaru_Sambar#1973.E2.80.931982

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Hi. I worked on those. Nice. Built (or converted) by Bill Bates and his 2 sons in Austin, TX. Nice EV for the time. It looks in good shape. Would be nice today. Did well on 16-6V golf cart batteries, 96V with like a 200A controller, 400A max. PMC, I think, the forerunner of Curtis. Although some late models might have had GE. Used a series wound motor, clutch and OE 4 spd trans. I still have a unused motor for it. It would be killer with Lithium and a EVnetics or Zilla.
 
Yeah, that sounds exactly the way the owner is describing it voltage wise. I watched a video that says the van weighed like 3600 pounds, but without the batteries it only weighs something in the neighborhood of 1700#'s. That's a lot of lead! I wish I had the extra funds to put some Nissan leaf cells in there. That would be a very cool surf van!
 
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