Thinking about buying one, but wondering if I will have many issues in the hilly community that I live in. A dealer rep brought one out for me to test drive. It had the 6.5 kW Motor ($500 upgrade) gel batteries, and smaller stock wheels. It zipped around near 25 in most areas but on tougher uphills topped out at 18 MPH.
I was wondering if their is much more risk of burning out the motor or drive gears on more hilly terrain? Also trying to find a way to get the speed up on uphills.
The Max Lithiumn Ion 8.9 kW is an $8,300 upgrade, and the 12.4 kW is a $10,741 upgrade; yikes!! That is out. Could i consider another source for a battery upgrade? These newer cars are 48V. Would a different battery setup get my uphill speed up much?
The other pricey thing is the charger upgrades, with a 3kW Level One Charger upgrade costing $3,360 and a 6 kW Level 2 charger upgrade costing $6,944. But I am seeing charger stations priced in the $500 range on Amazon. I am not sure what extra I would be paiying for by getting this upgrade through GEM. Wouild the car have to be set up different? Unfortunately the dealer rep was not to knowledgeable about anything.
Any help on these questions, or other advice for someone buying new would be greatly appreciated.
Hill climb results.
As budget doesn’t seem to be an issue, try one with the lithium upgrade.
Or for 1/2 price find a late model gem and have it converted to one like in the video.
Much more is known about hot-rodding the 72v cars.
Ps.
“ in the video grant has an auxiliary fast charger for 2700 watt total.
A $350 option for the 72v Gems.
That gives you about 15 miles for an hour of charge time. Less on hills of course.
LOL I just wanted to see if I could change someone else’s post this is a test
What is the cost difference between a New E-2 and a New E-4?
I think for Re-Sale alone I would never get a New E-2
As a person that buys and sells them, No one seems to want a E-2. In fact I had seen a few NEW E-2s for sale, and I have yet to see a New Used E-4 for sale, could be just a coincidence. Ok back to your Orignal question.
The guy that I raced in the video said his E-4 is “not great” at real hilly driveways. When I drove it the gem seems to be super slow at take off and has a real smooth take off, I’m sure that’s programmed from the factory for energy savings and extends range. I’m guessing if you could re-program the settings you could get better performance.
I think with stock wheels it should do fine. Depending on your skill level, you can defiantly get yourself a way better Gem and save a bunch of $ by getting a used one and adding a Lithium kit to it. A Orignal Gem with a Lithium kit will SMOKE any traditional gem hands down.
if you buy a new one i will do a lithium upgrade for you . It would be the first i believe . Dont know squat about the new ones but then again i didn’t know squat about the first one i did 5 years ago .
Thanks for the responses. I also test drove an E4 and it was even worse on hills! It topped out at 13-14 MPH on the same hill but had the 5 kW motor. The E4 is a few thousand higher.
I am in Northern CA above Yosemite. Where are you located kinghappy and would your services be feasible considering?
From my Experiance weight is the biggest factor when it comes to hill climbing. You only have 5-7 Hp in these cars. And the extra 300-400 LBS that Flooded lead acid makes you haul around kills these cars. Removing that much weight form then turns them into a diffrent car all together.
On the flats weight is not such factor. Imagine pushing a normal full sized car or truck on totally flat ground. It’s hard but not impossible. Now try pushing it up a slight grade!!! That slight incline made all the difference.
What was a real eye opener for me this was. I was restoring a gem and I was pushing it in and out of my garage for a month or so, I was quite used to how hard it was to push around. I got to the part of the Restoration where all the battery’s came out and the car was empty. Omg the car was like pushing a shopping cart with the battery’s removed. I thought wow. The small 5hp motor must have to do so much work just to overcome the weight of its own battery’s. What if we could get rid of all this weight? And that’s when Lithium poped up on my radar, and that’s when I met Kinghappy & David. After doing my first Lithium kit with the help of David and Mike I’m sold. Flooded lead acid is like a Stanley Steamer to me.
I’m located in Copperopolis Ca. So we are very close and I know very well about the hills If your intrested I’m right about to get started on a E4 Restoration, get ahold of me if your intrested. Grantwest@gmail.com
Trust their advice.
My bet is that the new ones are tuned for mileage. Ask if it can be geared and tuned for hills.
The legacy models are well understood. Wide range of gear ratios available.
Sw available for custom tuning.
Not much information on the new ones, you will be completely dependant on the factory.
To the best of my knowledge, the error codes are not even available. The dealers are sellers, and may know less than you do.
I’m in se Mn.
Between Grant and Mike.
Grant doesn’t check forum or email much.
I spent another hour boxing a battery for him today. Never shipped a 150lb module before.
Probably would have been less work to split it, but he is a special customer (Guinea pig).
Hoping he will come up with a way to fit it in one piece.
Totally had the same moment. I bought my used GEM and was BREAKING my back trying to push it in and out of the shop. Pulled the batteries out, sold them, and it’s a dream to move.
I would be very, very interested in an “80 mile lithium modules for a $3000 target price.” Please keep me in mind when your testing is complete.
Thanks much,
Don
In theory nothing. Battery is correct voltage for Gem.
With such a big investment in batteries, I suggest a way keeping an eye on all 20 cells.
The bluetooth bms will display all cell voltages on android device. $250
Any charger can be routed through it (bms) to prevent possible over charge.
Stock charger may work fine. Worse case, reprogramming.
Grant is in the process of installing the same battery. He may soon post some tips.
If your intrested I’m right about to get started on a E4 Restoration, get ahold of me if your intrested.