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Bryan Avery's 1997 Honda Accord Electric Conversion

Update - September 28th, 2007:
I'm currently in the midst of revamping this site to include more detailed information and photos about my conversion experience, as well as adding other useful information about electric vehicles.  Check out the new photo gallery!

Still on the list of things to do:

• Main fuse box (Yes, I probably shouldn't be driving without fuses. That's why this is first on my list of things to do. The fuse box will also include an inertia switch to disconnect batteries in an accident, as well as the AC interlock relay to disable the drive system while the charger is plugged into the wall.)
• Wiring for charging port behind fuel door to charger (So I can charge without leaving the trunk open).
• Add "EV Filter" for E-Meter (Basically just a capacitor & resistor, but I'll have to rip the entire dash out. I've seen some weird behavior counting Ah when the car is switched completely off and am hoping this will increase the accuracy of these measurements)
• Electric Heater (Heater is installed but I still need fuses and a couple other small items).
• Air Conditioning (Last on my list of priorities - I'll wait till I have a battery pack with more than a 10 mile range before adding anything that will reduce that range even further).

And... that's about it. As you can see, things are pretty close to being completely finished. If anyone has any connections with any quality Lithium battery manufacturers, I'm looking for a battery sponsor. :-)

For those wondering, the Thunder Sky lithium batteries were absolute junk and I now have a smaller (capacity-wise) and hopefully temporary, 600 lbs. pack of regular old lead acid batteries installed which are giving me... (drum roll please) ...a whopping 10 mile range! I intend to upgrade to lithium as soon as I can find something with good performance at a reasonable price. Most of the major work is complete and the car is now being driven daily.

So, without further ado:

"Want-to-trade: [Bryan's Soul] for [~336V pack of Kokam 100Ah Lithium Polymer batteries]!"

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Update - July 11th, 2006:

So with EV Awareness Day coming up on July 8th, I finally had some motivation to get some work done. In fact, I've been spending the last three weeks or so leading up to the show pulling the motor to repair the leaking gaskets and then getting everything put back together to get the car presentable. I actually managed to get the car almost completely reassembled to the point where the only thing missing is the shift knob which I have somehow managed to misplace over the last year or so. The back seat and all the trim pieces have finally been reinstalled (for the first time since starting this project nearly 4 years ago), and I even went ahead and bought a new cd player since I will now be driving the car regularly and will appreciate a functioning stereo. The 600 lbs. pack of lead acid batteries is only giving me about a 10 mile range which is... disappointing to say the least, but at least it's enough to actually get some use out of the car until I find some better batteries to upgrade to. I'm hoping that getting the wheels aligned will help reduce the drag a bit and give me a little more range. I towed the car up to Portland for "EV Awareness Day" (organized by the OEVA) last weekend and had a blast. It was great talking to everyone and I got a lot of great feedback and comments on the car. And, get this-- I only had to deal with one person trying to talk me into some hairbrained put-a-generator-on-the-wheels-to-recharge-the-batteries-while-you-drive theory! It seems the laws of physics still continue to escape some people. Yes, that's a factory-built electric car parked next to me in the second picture, built in 1921. Many people are surprised to learn that electric motors were running neck & neck with the internal combustion engine in the early days of the automobile. Eventually, with developments like the electric starter motor (one of the early draws of electric cars was that you didn't have to hand-crank them to start the motor), gas-powered cars won out in the end.

Update - May 16th, 2006:

We had some really cold weather last month and I realized too late that I had never put any antifreeze in the coolant when I re-filled it last. The freezing water forced the rubber gaskets out all around both ends of the motor, creating a leak for itself to relieve the pressure. Now I get to disassemble everything & pull the motor back out to replace the gaskets. I'm hoping that since the water created a leak for itself and lots of it drained out on the ground before it completely froze, that there is no other damage to the motor. On a more positive note, I have finally installed the upgraded front swaybar. I purchased a set of beefy intrax swaybars a couple years ago to hopefully improve handling with the added battery weight. Unfortunately, the set was spec'd for a 90-97 Honda Accord and while much of the 90-93 model year parts are interchangeable with 94-97, apparently the front swaybar is one of the items that *is* different between the two model years because it didn't fit at all. Apparently I was the first person to actually buy Intrax's swaybar set for a 94-97 Accord because they had to go all the way back to the drawing board and engineer a new one for me from scratch. While they were awfully helpful and willing to replace the part for me with the new one, the process of designing and producing the new part wasn't exactly quick. Over a year later, they finally sent me the correct swaybar, along with a nifty Intrax t-shirt for my patience.

A couple pictures from the outside. Note the "Electric" emblem on the door. ;-) From the rear, you can just see the bottom of the rear battery box peeking out. The battery boxes are welded aluminum, and the outside of the rear box has been powder coated flat black so it blends in very well.

A few early pics of the engine compartment, now nearly full. The throttle pot assembly bolts to the top of the inverter case so that the potentiometer ends up positioned just to the left of the contactor box in the back (as shown in the last picture). The wiring for the heater contactors & relays is not yet finished, but everything else in these pictures is close to its final form. The headlights have since been replaced with aftermarket projector type headlight housings to allow for the HID upgrade. The cheap halogen projectors have been replaced with a pair of bi-xenon HID projectors out of a BMW which gives me both HID hi & lo beams.

Currently, I am using a 600 lbs. pack of twenty-four 28Ah Panasonic lead-acid batteries for a total pack voltage of 288V. This only gives me a measley 10 mile range, but is enough to get around town a bit and make use of the car until I find some better batteries. $50K will buy me a a 100Ah pack of Kokam lithium polymer batteries that should give an approximate 100-mile range between charges (I accept donations via paypal).

For instrumentation, the e-meter is mounted in the center where the heater control used to be. An analog ammeter is mounted in a gauge pod on the A-pillar. Switches on the center console are for electronic reverse, regen on/off, & power reduction (valet mode) on/off. The ash tray opens to reveal two RS-232 outputs for connecting a laptop to the e-meter and the inverter. The above pictures show the partially completed throttle assembly at the time of my very first test drive. Holding the assembly in my lap and using one hand to operate the "gas" while stearing with the other hand was an interesting experience. The assembly consists of part of the throttle body from the original engine connected to the wiper of the electric potentiometer. This gives me an easy way to connect both the throttle cable and the cruise control cable and allow both to operate properly.