Do not drive over 88 mph: all-electric DeLorean for sale on eBay
Great Scott! An all-electric 1981 DeLorean DMC-12 is now up on eBay for the bargain price of $15,600. Well, it'd be a bargain if it could jump through time and wasn't under the reserve price. The one-off conversion was done by the seller and a friend and uses a WarP 9 electric motor that gets juice from thirteen 12 volt 100 amp-hour deep cycle Deka 9A31 Intimidator AGM batteries (they take up the trunk and underhood spaces. These can power the car for a 40-mile range and recharge in eight hours from a standard wall plug or 2-3 hours from a 220-volt outlet. The seller has put a series of videos about the car up on YouTube, including "Shifting gears in a clutchless Electric DeLorean," which we've pasted after the jump. Drawbacks to the home conversion are that the heater and A/C have been disconnected.
The seller promises that "If the Buy It Now option is used, I will include the custom build "Flux Capacitor" shown in the pictures." That BIN price is a cool $100,000, so you might just want to save your pennies for a Mr. Fusion. H/t to Mike for the tip.
Gallery: All-electric DeLorean
[Source: eBay]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Perry 1:05PM (10/01/2008)
I'd like to point out that series wound motors have a very fast no-load acceleration. This can cause problems with a clutchless setup on downshift, since you have to blip the throttle to get the transmission to synchronize. A minor mistake and you could be faced with a locked armature or other failure due to over rev. The manufacturers have stated (NetGain) there is no practical way to prevent over-rev other than not revving the motor without a load. The inertia of the transmission isn't enough to be considered a load.
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r4nd0mn4me 2:45PM (10/01/2008)
Nice work, I took a look at it, it's a little too expensive for me, but I love the idea.
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1985 Gripen 7:53PM (10/01/2008)
...or you can just buy the car for the reserve price and then spend another $275 for this flux capacitor replica:
http://www.tfaw.com/Profile/Back-To-The-Future-Flux-Capacitor-Replica___311677
It'd be hard for me to think of a less-suited car to convert to electric drive. Due to its stainless steel body this car was far too heavy even for its internal combustion engine!
For $100K you can just put your name on the list for a purpose-built EV sports car (the Tesla Roadster).
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Dorri 6:00AM (10/02/2008)
The body's not actually made of Stainless. It's composite with very thin stainless cladding. That's why it's so heavy. Stainless steel by itself would be no heavier than the carbon steel used in (almost) every other car.
GenWaylaid 12:21AM (10/03/2008)
I have to admit that I've thought about doing this very conversion myself. The DeLorean looks like it ought to have something futuristic under the hood, it's flashy, and it never was known for performance in the first place. Now to cover that big, flat trunk lid with solar panels.
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DrDave 9:27PM (10/06/2008)
FYI -
1) The stainless steel panels are indeed "solid" high quality stainless steel 304. They are now mush different in weight than regular steel. The stock weight is 2715 pounds.
2) The Zilla controller has a microprocessor controled rev limiter and it works quite well.
3) If you put a Tesla and a DeLorean next to each other the DeLorean will likely get more attention.
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