Electric Conversion: 1980 Lotus Eclat
The Lotus Eclat was in essence a Lotus Elite with a handsome fastback body shape, but it shared the Lotus 907 4-cylinder engine and lackluster build quality. Today’s example won’t change your mind about 1980s Lotus build quality, but it packs an electronic surprise under the hood. Find this 1980 Lotus Eclat offered for $6,500 in Albany, CA via craigslist. Tip from Rock On and Matt.
From the seller:
1980 LOTUS ECLAT
condition: good
cylinders: other
drive: rwd
fuel: electric
odometer: 45558
paint color: yellow
size: mid-size
title status: clean
transmission: manual
type: coupe
This Lotus EV is a kit which includes all of the major components needed to get this classic car on the road again including a pack of lithium ion batteries that I recycled from an EV that had 2 years of usage. The batteries are 100Ah are in good condition and will match the120V Elcon charger.The car was converted to Electric in 2012 with Optima batteries, driven to the California DMV and was given a Referee Certificate as a Pure Electric Vehicle (EV) with an odometer reading of 40558 mi. I drove it for another 5000 miles until the batteries died.
The Lotus currently has:
10” Mars Series wound DC motor
Miata 5 speed transmission with a clutchless adapter and a custom driveline to the lotus differential
Curtis 1221C controller
Elcon 120v onboard charger
DC-DC solid state converter to charge the 12v accessory battery
10 Optima D34 yellow top batteries and 1 red top (all dead)
The vacuum assist headlight raising mechanism has been replaced with an electric motor
The tires are new, made for minimum rolling resistance mounted to 4 Enkei after market rims in good conditionThe exterior is in good shape except for the bumpers (see photos), all of the glass is intact.
The interior is original leather but has a few seams that need attention, The head liner has been removed, and the dash board has been modified to receive new switches and a double height radio. There are other cosmetic parts of the interior that need attention which can be seen in the attached photos.I do hope someone will keep this rare version of the classic Lotus on the road with a contemporary and eco friendly drive train.
See a better way to go electric? tips@dailyturismo.com
Simplify and add lead-acid batteries?
Well, I guess there’s no point in being heretical halfway.
I wish I understood the differences between amp-hours and kilowatt hours and how that relates to energy storage for an EV. A li-ion battery pack sufficient to power this is at least a two or three thousand dollar proposition for something used. An EV powertrain expert needs to weigh in on this, especially on the DC motor when all modern EV’s are AC.
Also, with all the heavy batteries up front this is a Lotus that no longer knows how to dance.
Amp-hours x volts / 1000 = kilowatt-hours.
He didn’t note the voltage of the included battery pack, thus a critical element of the equation is missing. There’s not enough info here to make a well informed decision.
Wow, a crappy LOTUS with no Air Conditioning or Heat and some assembly required. Guess he could not find a Yugo to electrify.
Just.
Damn.
I work on EVs, especially conversions. It appears to currently be a 120V setup. (The ad says it has 10 dead 12V lead acid batteries, and uses a 120V charger.) Even though it seems like one option may be to just swap in 10 new Pb-acid batteries, that really wouldn’t result in much (I’d be surprised if it had much more than 20 miles of range). Would need to know more about the lithium-ion batteries he’s including to know what it would really take to use them. (Hint, they are definitely not a 1-for-1 swap with the Pb-acid batteries currently in there, at least not without really rolling the dice with some pretty impressive fires!)
With all of that being said, as a candidate for an EV conversion, this seems like it would be a better one. It’s unique, the body seems straight and without rush, it is old enough to not have all of today’s crazy electronics, and obviously it has already had some of the EV work done. Unfortunately, between those bumpers and interior, it needs more than just EV conversion work. For something on the scale of $10k to $20k (swapping in a current, modern AC motor, the right supporting electronics, fixing the interior, etc.), it would probably end up being a pretty sweet ride.
I had a whole battery of comments but after a surge in the MGBGT thread, I’ve been grounded.
Just realized that this may be the ultimate example of what I said about “previous British car owner electronics” in that thread.