eBay Find of the Day: 1979 Unique Mobility Electrek
Filed under: EV/Plug-in, USA
Click on the image for more shots of the Electrek electric car
Good old eBay strikes again with another unusual but very interesting electric vehicle up for auction. Before seeing this auction, we were not really familiar with the Unique Mobility Electrek electric vehicle at all. As usual, the internet proves our friend, as a test of the vehicle was done by the DOE way back in the early eighties, and it's been made available online. So, we know that the Electrek uses a Soleq controller, a specially modified General Electric shunt wound 32-hp electric motor, and 16 6-V Globe-Union batteries. Those lead-acid batteries have been removed from the vehicle, as they are rather old and needed to be replaced. A fiberglass body, which may not be the prettiest design in the world, lies atop a custom-designed chassis with a central battery-tunnel running the length of the vehicle. Top speed is claimed to be seventy-five miles per hour and the range, when new, varied between seventy-five and one-hundred miles per charge (at 30 mph or so).
[Source: eBay Motors]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
5-19-2008 @ 10:21PM
Kevin Nugent said...
Well its not a Tesla roadster lol
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5-20-2008 @ 8:42AM
Bman said...
VW rabbit pedal cluster, steering column, and washer solvent container from pics.
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5-20-2008 @ 8:44AM
Bman said...
...and hubcaps.
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5-24-2008 @ 4:32PM
Jim McCullough said...
VW Rabbit tranny (note 4-on-the-dash shifter), +front and rear suspension parts...a conceptual front-runner to the GM Impact-EV1 of the 90’s (lightweight EV under 3000 lbs, about 33% batt weight, batt tunnel for best balance and center of gravity, regenerative braking for efficiency), but with removable battery tray for servicing or tray-swapping (Army did some 24-hr driving tests).
My experience: 66-80 mile daily round-trips, charged both at home and work. About 3 mi/kwh charge, 60-100 miles range do-able, over 50 miles on highway (60 mph), 0-60 mph moderate (mid-teens) with std 300a controller (400a opt avail), batt life 2-5 yrs or 20,000-30,000 miles. Did one 100 mi rally (range test
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5-24-2008 @ 5:02PM
Jim McCullough said...
..less than 40 mph). Did Pike's Peak hill climb (slowly, not raced). Regen'd downhill...cool brakes at the bottom of hill...and drove 25 more highway miles from the recaptured energy.
Here's a little more info..
http://www.uqm.com/about/history.html
..former Eletrek owner
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