48v City-El

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Gareth Covell
Posts: 36
Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2007 4:43 pm
Location: Hereford

48v City-El

Postby Gareth Covell » Fri Jan 01, 2010 4:49 pm

Hi, I now have my City-El on the road and running on 48v!
The car is fitted with cheap leisure batteries, Numax 113ah sealed sort (aprox. 60ah at the c/1 rate).
The best speed I have reached so far is 40mph this I think is close to its limit. Range is aprox. 40 miles over undulating roads ( less at the moment because of the low temperature we are having).
I use four numax 10 amp chargers, one for each battery, they take up the space that the transformer used to have in the boot.
City-ELs are normally 36v, to get mine to work with an extra 12v added required a number of changes such as, a new control unit for the motor,resistors for the wiper motor, fan, and contactors, as well as zener diodes to reduce voltage to the dc/dc converter.
I am more than pleased with my el, and anyone wanting more info please email me.
1999 City-el

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booboo
Posts: 429
Joined: Fri May 25, 2007 8:08 am
Location: Creepy Crawley,West Sussex
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Postby booboo » Fri Jan 01, 2010 11:22 pm

Sounds like a good conversion mate. I'd be interested in seeing how long those Numax batteries last - my experience of using them a couple of years ago on Sinclair C5's was disappointing, I'm hoping they might have improved a little by now.

It seems like a cheaper compromise or half way option between a standard setup and a lithium conversion.


40mph is a useful improvement.
London to Brighton on a Sinclair C5 - 6/5/07 - what a trip !
Ford Explorer 4.0 v6 petrol for everyday abuse - thank God for LPG
Sinclair C5's (Plus "c5alive.co.uk" ) as a hobby

Gareth Covell
Posts: 36
Joined: Fri Sep 14, 2007 4:43 pm
Location: Hereford

Postby Gareth Covell » Tue Jan 05, 2010 3:16 pm

Hi, I used the numax batts because they were cheap £320 for four. I did not wish to spend alot at this stage as I was far from sure the car would work after all the electrical work I did on it.
I could not find the cycle life of them from Manbat who is the importer, but I hope they can last out this year. The max. discharge current is 120 amps set by the current limiter.
Any ideas on beter batteries.
1999 City-el


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