Here is a report on my 1999 Force with the new Eve LF280K LiFePO4 batteries and 6.6 kW TC charger.

My Force had 48,000 miles on the original NiCads when I bought it. I swapped them out for 58 CALB 100ah cells and drove the CALBs until I had 125,000 miles. The CALB cells were great! They lowered the vehicle weight to 2180 lb - I weighed it - and increased the range to 90-100 miles per charge.

Running the CALBs without a BMS took some life off of them, so when I upgraded to the Eve cells I installed an Orion BMS. But the Orion was too complex for me. It has tons of features, but I struggled so much trying to set it up that I gave up. I use an EVCC from Thunderstruck Motors to control the charger, and just use the Orion for monitoring cell voltage.

The Eve 280k cells fit in the car fairly well. The rear battery box holds 36 without needing to modify anything.

The front box had to be reworked a bit to get 22 cells in there. The front box of the NiCad cars was different from the front box of lead acid cars. The box was actually two narrow boxes welded together like steps. I cut it apart and made a single box that would fit between the motor and front frame. It holds two rows of 11 cells side by side.

I think the front box of the lead acid cars is already set up like that, so it probably wouldn't require any modification.

With the Eve 280k cells and the 6.6 kW TC Charger, the car is now 2472 lbs. I can certainly tell the difference in weight. The car is slower to accelerate, but it also feels more solid on the road.

Don't worry, I fixed the one cell that's out of sequence before I wired it up. :-)

The Eve cells are doing great! Cell temperatures do not change from ambient during charge or discharge. My vehicle's maximum discharge is 225 amps at 190vdc. Normal current use is 40-60 amps on secondary roads.

I drove up to Charlotte NC for an EV show, about 80 miles each way. It was a nice day for the show with comfortable temperatures, so no heating or air conditioning was necessary on the drive. Most of the route was posted at 55 and 60mph, and I held it down to 55mph.

After I returned home, my BMS said that 318 miles was achievable on that charge. I was impressed because in my normal commuting it typically reports 305 miles per charge.

As for the charger, I'm a little disappointed with it. It took forever to get it working, and now that it is, it's not putting out the power I expected. It has a peak output voltage of 202 and I have 58 cells in my pack. The peak output I've seen is just barely over 6,000 watts, and that is only when my pack is deeply discharged.

I spoke with the California guy who works on TC/Elcon chargers and he said the charger starts throttling back at 90% of its maximum output voltage. So at 181vdc, it's no longer capable of charging at 6.6 kW. And really, the bulk of my charging is at 190v, so it's barely putting out more than 5kw. By the time my pack is almost full, it's down to just 4kw.

I ran an Elcon 5,000 charger for 10 years, and it charged at 21 amps all the way up to 196v. This 6.6 kW charger doesn't charge that fast at that voltage. The rate getting to that voltage is better, but from that voltage up, the old 5,000 put out more power.

I have both chargers hooked up in my car. When plugged into a 30 amp supply, I run just the TC charger. When plugged into a 50 amp supply, I can run the Zivan along with the TC, and it'll push more than 40 amps into the pack. I hate having to run two chargers to get that charge rate, but it sure is nice having that capability.