I’ve only seen CitiCars in pictures, and those photos only showed the exterior and cockpit, not the inner workings. I never thought I’d get the chance to what makes a CitiCar tick (or click and hum, to be more accurate), but the 1976 CitiCar restoration you’re about to enjoy from DIYauto.com contributor Ron Green delivers all the deep-dive goods I long for.
Steve Balistreri here! I started DIYauto.com to collect, organize, and preserve important DIY automobile project stories and build threads. I’m grateful to Ron Green for sharing his story with DIYauto so I can share it with you today. If you’ve written DIY or build threads, I encourage you to share them with DIYauto. Your project will be in good company! And now, back to the build …
As Jason Torchinsky explains in this video, the CitiCar comes from what Jason lovingly calls the Crap Era of the electric car. This era started in 1920 and stretched all the way to 1995, the beginning of what Jason dubs the “Tesla era.” Incredibly, the CitiCar was the best-selling American electric car until Tesla came along. Sure it may not measure up to electric cars today in terms of comfort, performance, range, or anything else really – but look how happy that thing looks! With its robin’s-egg blue paint and those whitewall tires, you can’t not smile looking at it.
Here’s Ron with more details about the Citicar:
CitiCar manufacturer Sebring Vanguard was formed in 1974 due in part to the mid 70’s fuel crisis. A factory was set up in Florida and approximately 2500 vehicles were built from 1974 to 1976. The selling price in 1975 was about $4500. This was considerably more than the average gas powered car at that time.
In 1977 the company went bankrupt and was sold piecemeal at auction. The principal buyer at the auction was a mobile home manufacturer from New Jersey named Frank Flowers. Frank purchased most of the company in-tact, but not the trade names “Sebring Vanguard” or “Citicar”. In 1978 he proceeded to build a new version of the car using both new and existing parts from the Citicar, as well as incorporating a number of electrical improvements. The overall shape of the new car looked very much like the Citicar and many of the parts are interchangeable. Since Frank did not have the copyright for the original name he called the new car the “Comuta-Car”. As luck would have it in 1978 America would have the second major oil shortage of the decade, which resulted in an immediate desire to have more efficient cars. The Comuta-Car was an instant success and sold over 4,000 vehicles. The average price for the Comuta-Car was $6,500, rather expensive.
By 1980, several things had changed and people were no longer as interested in fuel economy. Perhaps more importantly, the National Transportation Safety Board had increased the requirements for vehicle certification. Even though the Comuta-Car would have probably passed the higher standards that all cars in America must pass, the cost for testing and certifying the vehicle line, plus the cost of insuring the manufacturer (from $150,000 to $300,000), proved to be the final death blow.
A speed of 38 MPH is achievable with a range of 30 to 45 miles depending on the terrain (hills, etc), battery condition and the number of stop and go’s. There is an on board charger to replenish the eight 6 volt batteries that are located under the seat. The CitiCar has large relays to configure three different voltages and therefore three different speeds for the vehicle. The motor is mounted directly to the differential and there is no transmission. The low speed is about 18 volts, middle speed is 24 volts and high speed is 48 volts. The vehicle is made of ABS plastic, has an aluminum frame with roll cage, weighs a total of 1,250 pounds (less passengers) and seats 2 adults comfortably.
You can see it looks pretty rough in the pre-restoration photos. The front wheel is rusted and the rear suspension is made out of angle iron. It looks like an Atari era video game car that’s exploded. Some people may think a “crap era” electric car doesn’t deserve this much love, but I find it heartwarming. Ron’s preserving a piece of history here.
Ron sanded down the fiberglass body before laying down paint. The materials costs were probably a quarter what it would be to paint a conventionally-sized car. Here Ron talks about the wedge-shaped body:
The entire body including the top is made out of a material called “Cycolac,” which is an extremely thin type of plastic (not fiberglass). It will crack simply by looking at the CitiCar the wrong way. They have also been known to crack at the windshield pillars if loading onto a trailer.
Since the vehicle is riveted together stress cracks tend to show up. I countered this by drilling the rivet holes a whisker larger to allow for a tiny amount of play and expansion (not loose though). Riveting this vehicle together was like building an experimental airplane. Even the tail light chrome housing, rocker moldings, etc. were riveted. I had to buy a pneumatic rivet gun as my right hand was starting to look like Hulk Hogans. I beefed up the areas prone to cracking with fiberglass underneath prior to painting.
Here, Ron starts laying out the axle and rear leaf spring suspension. You can see the electric motor on the left which will mount directly to the axle. 
An electric car from the 70s is going to have some wiring issues to go through. As you’d expect, it’s looking a little crusty behind the dashboard. It’s probably not too complex, but I hate wiring – especially old wiring. Whatever insulation that isn’t turning into dust has been a late night snack for the local rodent population. As Ron put it:
One wire hook up , 2 wire screw up, 3 wire *%#@ up, 4 wire drag up
The “after” photo looks pretty nice. Is that real wood? Talk about luxury! Lucid, eat your heart out.
Eight lead-acid batteries power the little doorstop. Hopefully Ron didn’t need to use a chainsaw to pull out the old batteries à la Jason.
Fresh juice. Eight 6 volt batteries for 12 / 24 / 48 volt speeds at 38 MPH max. A neck wrenching 3.5 HP. Also a picture of the main forward /reverse contactor, speed contactor and solenoid, or as the wife says “that clicky thing.”
Speaking of mechanicals, look at this thing on its little jack stands. Those tail lights are so shiny and it looks nice and cheerful in that light blue color. The little CitiCar is coming along pretty good!
This is the electro-mechanical speed controller. The CitiCar is solidly in the analog electrical era, where mechanical parts played an important role in keeping the electrons flowing. I’m sure my electric nose hair trimmer has more electronic complexity than the entire CitiCar. Nowadays all this business would be worked out on tiny chips operating on the quantum scale.
Ron discusses the speed controller and a planned upgrade:
I do have a new 650 amp Alltrax controller along with a variable speed pot for the accelerator pedal. This will eliminate the troublesome relays, reduce controller heat, eliminate blown fuses, along with making for smooth driving ability. The jerking between the 3 existing speed switches (18/24/48 volt) connected to the accelerator pedal will be eliminated. The existing forward / reverse contactor, speed contactor and solenoid will reused.
These Alltrax controllers are rather expensive, almost the same cost as they were back in the day they were a new factory release for these vehicles. I want to get this thing up and running again, do some tweaking and troubleshooting (always have something amiss), then install the new controller. My wife plans on taking this car when finished and the Altrax will make it much easier for her to drive. She never did like the or jerking action or sound of the “clicky thing” when we drove it.
That’s pretty wild! These things didn’t even use potentiometers, which would have allowed voltage (and thus, speed and power) to be ramped up and down smoothly (think of turning a volume knob or dimmer switch). Instead of controlling an infinitely variable voltage output with your right foot and having speed and power increase in proportion to pedal movement, the Citicar offered three acceleration settings. Imagine climbing into your current daily and adjusting your speed by selecting 30%, 50% or 100% throttle. This thing will be much smoother after the fully-proportional-throttle upgrade.
Above, you can see the restored controller wired up, along with its snazzy black astroturf carpet.
The big silver box under the dash is the battery charger. You can also see the accelerator pedal which is attached to the three speed switches. There’s a little switch hiding under the dash that turns the car into a 60’s James Bond style submarine, or at least I hope so.
Pictures of the new vinyl roof, buffed out original rear window, and new custom-made front windshield. Was lucky to find the correct and exact window mounting rubber. This pictures also shows the re-popped factory decals. They are made or reflective material so the flash bounced off the decal, unfortunately.
It wouldn’t be the 70’s without a Landau roof, and this Citicar has one. Also where did Ron find a correct front window gasket? Is there such a demand for Citicar window seals that companies are still pumping them out? Can I buy some on Rock Auto? (I just checked. I can’t.)
Ron reveals the car has 9000 miles and was used as a security vehicle at Bucknell College. I can’t imagine security looking intimidating while driving around in a cheese wedge. I wonder if it went on any chases? I’m sure it could keep up with someone on a bike, or drunkenly stumbling to the dorms. I’d probably fall down laughing before I could get away, especially if it had one of those huge 70’s bucket-style cop lights on top. Of course, security guards have been driving small electric cars for a while.
Ron explains a bit more about the electrical system here:
The tall contactor is forward / reverse (up reverse & down forward). Factory originally had them operating the other way but found there was less wear going forward if coil pulled down. The other contactor in called the speed controller (SP-1). The 8 batteries are wired in parallel and in series and divided into two packs of four, providing 24 volts in each pack. The car uses 24 volts from each pack in parallel for the first two speeds and 48 volts in series for the top speed. The speeds are changed by changing the voltage through the use of an accelerator’s three micro switches.
As the accelerator is depressed, current will flow from the two packs of batteries wired in parallel which produce 24 volts. In the first speed the current passes through a nichrome ribbon resister (under the car in rear) which cuts the amperage load and permits a fairly smooth take off. The first position has a top speed of 11 mph. Depressing the accelerator further will activate a solenoid in the contactor box which bypasses the resistor and increases the speed 23 mph. The car remains in a parallel circuit mode using 24 volts from each pack of batteries. The third speed changes the current from 24 volts in a parallel circuit to 48 volts in a series circuit. To reverse the car a toggle switch on the dash is used to change the current flow to the opposite direction.
No range between speeds and it is jerky at best, even though the owners manual says you will become an expert at controlling these miro switches.
At the end of production they came out with a different style of controller that eliminated these switches and provided for a variable type speed control. I have this set up but requires a total rewire of everything that controls the motor. I will wait to work the bugs out of everything than tear this portion apart and redo. This will drive the wife nuts as she is ready to drive this thing.
Ron finished up the interior nicely with roll bar padding a custom-made seat bottom.
Here’s the completed dashboard – things so much simpler when you didn’t have all the annoying accouterments of modern life like giant screens and climate vents. And check out that 50 mph speedometer. Even that was optimistic in a car like this.
New exterior trim and shiny hubcaps with custom decals finish off the Citicar. That silver thing is the charge port, which I imagine is a household plug. From this angle the front looks kind of like some 70’s Giugiaro wedge design – Adrian, don’t kill me. [Why would I kill you when I can make you suffer? – AC]
And here’s the little wedge’s first venture into the world at a car show, where it won first place in the Junior category! Even though it’s awkward looking and came from the “Crap Era,” the Citicar is cool and draws a crowd wherever it goes.
I love build threads like this, where a car you’ve only heard about gets restored before your eyes (and there’s lots more great stuff from Ron’s project that I couldn’t fit here, take a look!). With the electric car revolution underway, it’s super interesting to see how small companies attempted to fill the need for economical transportation using electric power with the limited resources that were available over 40 years ago. The Citicar is an important piece of automotive history, and seeing this one restored is a genuine treat.
Great job on the restoration!
Would be interesting to see how it would perform with an aerodynamic teardrop body shell.
Exact same as a golf cart in the shell????
Fantastic job on the resto! I lived (and was driving) through this era and regularly saw several of these in the area, along with other makes and models of cars developed after the first gas crisis. A friend had a three-wheeler powered by a small motorcycle engine that he used to commute on the interstate, 30+miles, even through a few Pennsylvania winters. Good times …
As recently as 10 years ago there was an antique/junk shop in the area that had one of these in the passenger elevator. Same color, too.
This brings back memories. In the 70’s I was driving through Florida on U.S. 27. Every other used car dealer and some larger hardware stores were selling these things. I never once saw one going down the road. Glad this one is saved.
If anyone wants to live their childhood dream of going on a rampage in a road going bumper car there’s one for sale near me:
https://sfbay.craigslist.org/nby/cto/d/san-rafael-extremely-rare-1980-comuta/7691064405.html
That takes the term “diving board” bumpers to the next level
The makes me really happy to see it restored and not falling into of irreversible butchery. A piece of history. I didn’t always think like this, must be old age. (-;
I really want to poke at Steve with,
A Landau roof, but no opera windows: do you even Brougham, bro?
But I can’t. It’s too cool seeing this poor thing getting some real love. Well done, sir!
About five years go I did a project for a guy that had a warehouse he owned next to the project site. Among streetgoing trolleys, a 53 ford pickup and assorted flotsam was one of these just sitting, dusty and forlorn. Same color as this one. We got to talking about it and he said that his wife used it as an enclosed golf cart for around town. He told me to take it home with me and try to get it running. I could have it. I wasn’t sure if he was serious. No use case for me and it would have been a long flatbed home. I declined, but I hope someone did something with it. The warehouse has been torn down so it’s not still there.
This is basically a golf cart. It’s the same technology speed and size. Actually the current larger carts are probably better. Here in Florida everyone just drives them around town on the road with a plate on them.
Do you go to parties and tell everyone to stop having fun the wrong way?
I’m always shocked when I see things like this and people don’t put some battleborn (or similar) lithium batteries. Waaaay more power density. Could get better range, better power, probably both. And they’ll last a LOT longer.
In this case, the owner is trying to maintain a degree of originality which requires the ability to step up and down between voltages. Most deep cycle or automotive grade lithium batteries are 12V with some 24V options. The 6V batteries needed to manage the 18/24/48V steps would be a lot harder to find in LiFePO and would cost 5-10x more than the equivalent lead-acid 6V battery.
If it were me, I’d rip the 48V drivetrain out of a golf cart and drop in a couple 24V batteries in series.
I do see that here, but there are a lot of situations where who tf cares about originality and they still just put some marine deep cycles or golf cart batteries in. Changli with battleborns and a thicky boi motor? it might be able to hit a speed limit or two! and be utterly terrifying!
I guess they just want to pop down to the local hardware store and drop $100 on a battery so they can putt over to the nearest Cars & Coffee a couple times a year.
they are not that cheap anymore.
What, car batteries? Sure they are. Wal-Mart still sells Everstart Value car batteries in several group sizes for $69.74. That’s up from the $50ish I paid for my last one.
I’ve used these value batteries for years. They usually go well past their 2 year warranty and that’s before I started using a battery conditioner. I’m hoping to get several years more out of mine.
Edit: looks like its down to a one year warranty. As I said its been a while since I bought one. Still if you’re worried about it an extra 3 years is $8.
I guess that’s market specific, or extremely size specific. From anything I’ve seen in my area, even the value line batteries at auto parts stores are 200-220 each, and I haven’t seen a battery below 150-200 at a local Walmart in.. 5 years?
Granted, nothing I personally own takes anything smaller than an H7, but last I looked, even 35 and 24F batteries were $200+.. hmm
24 and 35 are both $69.74 at my store in the SFBA. There may be options in the store not shown on the website.
Also if you don’t have one already you might consider picking up a battery desulfonator:
https://www.motortrend.com/how-to/impp-1105-battery-desulfators-fact-fiction/
I picked up a Norco Genius 1 a few months ago for $30 on Amazon and used it on my batteries. It took a few days per battery to work its magic but I was in no hurry, everything checked out OK. It’s too soon to tell if it extended the lifetimes but so far so good.
People have spent much more to wow much less.
It is using 6V golf cart batteries becuase that was what was available at the time, not because they needed them to manage the speeds. It runs in 48V series or 24V parallel. The lowest speed is achieved by running the current through a space heater element. So yeah you could use 4 12v batteries just fine.
I was thinking the same. This thing is probably terrifying even at 38mph, but I can’t imagine going to so much trouble and not upgrading everything possible while I was at it.
It’s powered by toaster technology. Literally. I’m surprised Ron resisted the urge to paint it Kraft Slices yellow.
Also: duh… Leaf drivetrain swap! How fun would this be with 100+ hp on tap?
I remember reading about these in Consumer Reports back in the day, if memory serves they were unimpressed.
I’m not surprised by the crude electrical controls, the Citi Car is basically a hot rodded golf cart.
I thought there never was a car crying out for opera windows, but this might be it.
Family friend had a couple of these on the lot of the “dealership” he operated back in the 70s/80s. I put that word in quotes because it was as much of a museum/curio display as it was an auto dealership. The place was in Coopersburg, PA, just south of the Allentown/Bethlehem area and he had some *very* interesting stuff on his lot – much of it imported from the UK (taxis, double decker buses, classic Rolls royce, etc.). He also had a lot of random other stuff there as well, including two of these electric cars; one red and one yellow. I don’t remember them moving too much, and it wasn’t long before the red one faded to a shade of oxidized pink.
I remember that dealership, its a turkey hill now
I truly hoped that someone here might say what you just said! I think that the owner’s name was Tommy Troxell (?). I don’t know what the tie was between him and my family, but I know that my great uncle accompanied him from time to time when he would get calls from production companies that wanted to use some of the vehicles he had for appearances in TV/movies. Much of that happened when I was in elementary school, so I didn’t get to appreciate it as much as I would have later on.
That’s just a Cybertruck rip off!
/s
If you peel back the plastic body panels, you can see a Hummer EV underneath.
I’m so mad I had to sell my two before I moved! Though this guy seems far more connected and experienced in the restoration world; any fixes I’d have done would have been pretty janky by comparison.
More importantly…
raises hand I have an electric vehicle related quibble. Potentiometers are signal sources, i.e. you adjust them and they provide a variable resistance or voltage out, depending on how they’re hooked up, to a circuit which reads that and does something with it.
A direct “potentiometer” control of a motor does exist; they’re called Rheostats when they’re big, and a rheostat big enough to control the drive motor of a Citicar would be as big as the motor and burn your battery down in 10 minutes flat.
In EVs what that potentiometer hooked to your throttle lever or pedal does is its voltage output gets read by the motor controller, which then turns that analog voltage input into a digital modulation scheme called Pulse-width Modulation.
In other words, your traction motor controller very scientifically touches the battery wires to your motor, for a tiny fraction of a second, many times a second. The more you turn the potentiometer, the more that tiny fraction increases. This is how you get continuously variable power from the controller.
In the ideal model of a pulse width modulated motor controller, there is no loss inside the controller itself (whereas with a big potentiometer-rheostat knob, there can be up to 100% power loss in the controller!)
BTW, if you tapped the throttle pedal of the citicar fast enough such that you were only giving 0 or 48 volts to the motor, you can get the same continuous power delivery effect. But RIP your ankles, the contactor terminals, and the motor… Imagine tapping that pedal 50,000 times a second (for modern controllers, that’s not uncommon)
This whole process is also accomplished using modern semiconductors, something which was impossible back when these were built; they did exist, but were massive and consumed a lot of power just to turn on and off in their own right. Mid-sized motor controls made of solid state semiconductors became more economical in the 1980s and small ones you’d use for an R/C car or e-bike or something were a 1990s+ phenomenon. Now you can buy them for $9 for your drone racer.
BTW, the system I described is basically what goes into a DC motor traction system like the Citicar. An AC motor controller (usually called an inverter) will scientifically touch the battery to the three wires of your AC motor for a tiny fraction of a second, many times a second, and in the right order. Scientifically, of course.
P.S. a light dimmer knob switch actually works on the same principle: the “Many times a second” is 60, because that’s our U.S. mains frequency, and it simply cuts the light off somewhere in the middle of the AC voltage cycle to dim it. This is also why most LED and Fluorescent bulbs that contain their own power circuitry cannot be dimmed in this way; it’s like just turning them on and off 60 times a second and the power converter shuts down to protect itself.
P.P.S. If your car/home stereo amplifier says Class D or Digital Switching or something on it, your volume knob also controls the amp this same way: The amp scientifically touches power to the speaker, many times a second, following what the audio input tells it to do. Older/cheaper amplifiers (basically) vary their resistance to allow a varying amount of power into the speaker according to the signal, but in doing so, they burn off the rest inside themselves, which is why old amps are big and run hot.
Thanks for this valuable explanation! Electrical engineering wasn’t my strong suit so I appreciate your insight. I’ve seen some rheostats at work and always wondered what the difference was between that and your regular potentiometer. Sounds like it’s another piece of technology that’s ubiquitous today that they didn’t have a great solution for 50 years ago.
If you really want to get neckbeard-stroking about it, any three-terminal adjustable resistor is a “potentiometer” if used to get a voltage output (voltage input one side, ground on the other, and you take your volts out of the middle) and a “rheostat” if only 2 of the terminals (fixed and adjustable) are used to get a variable resistance.
In casual conversation the distinction is more that rheostats are big potentiometers used to manipulate end-use power directly, and a potentiometer is used for its signal.
This was very informative
“A direct “potentiometer” control of a motor does exist; they’re called Rheostats when they’re big, and a rheostat big enough to control the drive motor of a Citicar would be as big as the motor and burn your battery down in 10 minutes flat.”
I had one of those in my little electric RC boat back in the 80s. Oh boy did it get hot in use and yeah, that energy lost to heat really cut into the run time. I can’t imagine how hot that tiny car would get using one of those.
Edit: found a picture!
https://i.ytimg.com/vi/4WlzZzavvHw/maxresdefault.jpg
And a video!
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=4WlzZzavvHw
Those original prices are remarkably high. My 1972 Super Beetle stickered for around $2,200, I believe a standard Beetle was just under $2,000. You could buy two brand new VWs for the price of one of those!
Also, fantastic restoration, I’ve always loved those early EVs and have respect for anyone who actually bought one back then.
Batteries and low volume hand assembly don’t make for low prices. A Honda Civic was theoretically $2,729 when this was new, assuming you could find a base model in stock at a dealership that wasn’t adding market adjustments
I love that the speed control on this is arguably less refined than on my son’s (admittedly now modified) power wheels – low speed has 2 motors in series and 2 12V batteries in parallel (each motor sees ~6V), medium speed has 2 motors in parallel, 2 batteries in parallel (each motor at 12V), and high speed (boost button on the wheel!) has 2 motors parallel, 2 batteries series (each motor sees 24V) – no wasteful resistors to turn those precious electrons into heat instead of forward motion.
I understand every build has a budget. That said, the restorer Ron already purchased the modern Alltrax controller and that would have been an absolute requirement — for me — to rid this thing of the hacky three-speed throttle. The Alltrax controller would likely free Ron to use 48-volt LFP batteries, which would give this vehicle much greater range.
Yea… why oh why would you go through this much trouble just to drop in more 6V lead acid batteries and the old speed control system first?? Just start from scratch on the battery and wiring to include more modern components!
Partial answer: After I wrote my comment above I read the original article — it was written in 2009. LFP batteries were not common 14 years ago. That does not explain why the restorer did not ditch the three-speed controller in 2009. I suppose the original components are more authentic, but this isn’t a viable contestant in the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.
This is fantastic. I’ve always wondered if someone would be industrious enough to do a pro-level restoration on one of these. This is the nicest one I’ve seen since… ever.
I want it.
“You can also see the accelerator pedal which is attached to the three speed switches.”
It’s not entirely obvious in the photo above so permit me to take this opportunity to remind everyone that the accelerator pedal in these is truly radical:
https://live.staticflickr.com/8523/8571251224_067bb56af6_o.jpg
It looks like hitting the go pedal in these would be a divisive act
Please tell me you’ve been able to arrange for this to race against Jason and his ChangLi?
Just a straight up drag race would be fine.
We’ll time it with a calendar?
A former neighbor had one of these in yellow for a short time in the 90’s. The bumpers were missing so he replaced them with 2x8s. He drove it for a while but then it vanished. I credit the memory of this with initializing my interest in owning an EV.
it seems like and enclosed e-bike. It is 70s cute.
This thing just makes you smile. (unless you’re driving it). Great job on the restoration but I’d have been tempted to install a bigger motor and some Lithium batteries.
I’ve always liked these, because I’m a sucker for wedges, and I guess Torch’s ChangLi is probably more practical than this but the CitiCar wins the styling category.
George Orr drove a CitiVan in the “Lathe of Heaven” movie, and it seemed a perfect choice for what 1980 thought a techno-dystopia should look like.
That’s like the second “Lathe of Heaven” reference on Autopian this month! I was so intrigued by the first reference I watched both versions.
You’re one up on me…I’ve only seen the PBS version. I do feel inadequate, as James freakin’ Caan is in the other?!
AND Lisa Bonet!