# Vantage EVP1000 electric van



## EVP1000 (Mar 29, 2012)

Chinese-made FAW minivan imported and converted to electric by Vantage in California.

I bought one of these in 2010 and have seriously had nothing but headaches with it. Of the things added by Vantage for the conversion, almost everything has gone bad and been replaced/repaired, spending literally months in the shop, while the original Chinese-made FAW minivan platform has had one problem -the wiper motor.

The latest fiasco? 4-5 months ago, due to ongoing lead-acid battery longevity problems, Vantage requested the controller be sent down to them for "inspection" and proceeded to SECRETELY re-program it with a smaller image of the battery pack -effectively cutting our range in half in a misguided effort to increase battery longevity. I found this out from my engineering contact at Vantage (who has since been fired) when I called him with the observation that, since our controller was "inspected" at Vantage, our standard commute was reportedly using exactly double the amount of power as before.

While we would never in a thousand years have bought this vehicle if we had known of even an eighth of the headaches to come, we own it now, and since it seems that the bugs -except for the super-fast battery deterioration problem- have been shaken out, we are planning on switching it over to Lithium.

The original FAW minivan platform has been virtually problem free, and everything for the conversion was off-the-shelf, and so replaceable and upgradeable, so we're planning on making lemonade out of this lemon.

Anyone else out there with a Vantage?


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## EVTechsFL (Jan 10, 2017)

I know this is an old post, but I'm new and looking over them when I noticed this one.
BINGO! They are really NOT reliable vehicles. The quality of parts is garbage Chinese steel that has less hardness than Zinc. They over torque everything and strip out the threads and heads. Most hardware when removed has to be replaced with new due to this. 
Motors/controllers/charger are first quality, but everything else is questionable. 
The company installs "secret" software into the controller and into the BMS programmer on their LiPo pack. This has caused cells to overcharge and blow.
I know, I worked on and with Vantage for several years on these cheap trucks and witnessed first hand the ineptness of this company.
If any questions about the Battery pack situation, just call University of Florida and ask them. 
My advice, NEVER purchase a vehicle from Joshua Kim nor Vantage of California!


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## TallguyFL (Mar 8, 2017)

I am currently looking at a used Vantage Van - should I stay away? Can they be modified, like a controller out of a GEM? Can't import Japanese vehicles until they are at least 25 years old. Alternatives? I want street legal, doors and AC. Truck or van. I have been searching hard for the last couple of weeks. I have found a few but nothing close by. Look forward to any feedback.

Thanks


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## piotrsko (Dec 9, 2007)

We have 2 at work. Either my people are idiots (possible) or they are poorly done and always broken. Here in nevada, we can't get them highway legal. Below 35mph ok.


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## rmay635703 (Oct 23, 2008)

If your going NEV I recommend the Miles zx40 range, they are at least semi reliable once modded, somewhat off the shelf and have more repair possibilities (also easier to mod)

Miles are also cheap to buy up front

Good luck


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## alfu (Aug 30, 2017)

EVP1000 said:


> Anyone else out there with a Vantage?


Uh, yes, I just bought the one mentioned by EVTechsFL from U of F surplus! I have many questions, like 
1) The motor size seems to indicate that it could push the vehicle to 50mph at least. The 25mph limit imposed in software is frustrating! How to change that?
2) All the sales lit I have seen on line indicates the traction battery is lead-acid, but the display shows "LITHIUM" on start up. Could it be that this 2011 actually has a lithium traction battery? And that the range might be more than 40 miles?


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## rmay635703 (Oct 23, 2008)

These vans are pretty simple, if there is lithium batteries they are pretty easy to identify, just open the battery box and look.

In so far as speeding up the controller you need to be able to program it which being Chinese is tough without someone internal to vantage helping


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## EVTechsFL (Jan 10, 2017)

These use Curtis controllers If you have a hand held programmer you can increase the motor RPMs


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## alfu (Aug 30, 2017)

EVTechsFL said:


> These use Curtis controllers


Thank you! Indeed it does. Model 1238-7601, 72-96V, 650A. Made in USA. The motor is a HPEVS model AC 35-02, 35HP max, *10HP continuous*, 72V, RPM 4800, also made in USA.

*This* makes me wonder if it could sustain 50mph. The gearbox is a TEAM 421640-300. I have not been able to google the gear reduction ratio. It has to be less than 6.28 for the motor to max out at 50mph. Any ideas on this?

Now, on to the battery. 79.3V at rest, not re-charged overnight after driving the van 4 miles home from the purchase point, so this could be EITHER a 20s li-ion OR a 6s lead-acid. As to simply opening the aluminum battery box, not so easy. For one, it is basically a tray and the cover is the tall part, so to take the cover off the battery needs to be removed from the van first. Also, the construction, aside from the peripheral bolts holding the two main parts together, is with poprivets and the seams are joined with sealant. So basically it is hermetically sealed with no vents and no labels; I would expect a lead-acid battery box to be vented. This sealed construction is very good reason for de-rating the whole gizmo!


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## EVengineer (Apr 16, 2018)

Vantage vehicles are built in California from FAW Kei car vehicles. They are LOW SPEED vehicles and are not legal to convert to highway speed as they have not been crash tested. 
Yes the early models had their problems and the software used is Vantage proprietary not (SECRET) Programming is intended to protect the batteries in the service they were designed for, and to comply with federal law. The vehicles are not allowed to go faster than 25mph for this reason. 
Many of the original components have been replaced with higher quality parts from better vendors when they were discovered to no be dependable. Constant improvements are made to increase dependability and battery life, and yes this means shortening the available range to limit the depth of discharge. 
The vehicles themselves have improved over the years because of production changes at Vantage and quality improvements by FAW. 
It sounds like the Florida Lithium vehicle was an early one, Vantage has also come a very long way with Lithium development, the early BMS's used were not very accurate nor did the cells turn out to be very long lived.

In short, don't complain about things you don't understand, it makes you look like you have an axe to grind.


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## rmay635703 (Oct 23, 2008)

EVengineer said:


> Vantage vehicles are built in California from FAW Kei car vehicles.
> 
> In short, don't complain about things you don't understand, it makes you look like you have an axe to grind.


Yes single post guy


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## TJEV (7 mo ago)

EVengineer said:


> Vantage vehicles are built in California from FAW Kei car vehicles. They are LOW SPEED vehicles and are not legal to convert to highway speed as they have not been crash tested.
> Yes the early models had their problems and the software used is Vantage proprietary not (SECRET) Programming is intended to protect the batteries in the service they were designed for, and to comply with federal law. The vehicles are not allowed to go faster than 25mph for this reason.
> Many of the original components have been replaced with higher quality parts from better vendors when they were discovered to no be dependable. Constant improvements are made to increase dependability and battery life, and yes this means shortening the available range to limit the depth of discharge.
> The vehicles themselves have improved over the years because of production changes at Vantage and quality improvements by FAW.
> ...


Hi, I just bought a 2016 Vantage EV. Do you happen to know of any mechanics or engineers in Virginia that I could pay to fix it?


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## remy_martian (Feb 4, 2019)

What's wrong with it?


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## CREWCAB (3 mo ago)

TJEV said:


> Hi, I just bought a 2016 Vantage EV. Do you happen to know of any mechanics or engineers in Virginia that I could pay to fix it?


Just bought one also.
Where are u located?


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