page_title: AMC Pacer
section_title: Electric Pacers
hierarchical_section_title: AMC Pacer / Electric Pacers
caption_attribution_description: English: Electric Vehicle Associates (EVA) 1978 "Change of Pace" station wagon. A converted AMC (American Motors Corporation) Pacer two-door wagon finished in yellow with standard bench seat interior. Power comes from twenty batteries housed in two-packs (front and rear), with a 26 kW (at 3,000 rpm) electric motor mated to a three-speed automatic transmission. Picture taken at the American Motors Owners Association (AMO) annual convention that was held July 2015 near Cleveland, Ohio.
context_page_description: The AMC Pacer is a two-door compact car produced in the United States by American Motors Corporation from the 1975 to 1980 model years.
  Design work began in 1971. The rounded shape and large glass area were unusual compared with the three-box designs of the era. The Pacer's width is equal to full-sized domestic vehicles at the time, and this unique design feature was promoted by AMC as "the first wide small car." The Pacer was the first modern, mass-produced, U.S. automobile design using the cab forward concept.
  The Pacer's rounded and aerodynamic "jellybean" styling has made it an icon of the 1970s. The body surface was 37 percent glass, and its surface area of 5,615 square inches was 16 percent more than the average passenger car at the time. The May 1976 issue of Car and Driver dubbed it "The Flying Fishbowl," and it was also described as "the seventies answer to George Jetson's mode of transportation" at a time when "Detroit was still rolling out boat-sized gas guzzlers."
context_section_description: Some AMC Pacers were converted to plug-in electric vehicles.
  Electric Vehicle Associates (EVA) of Cleveland was best known for its Change of Pace model – a built-to-order adaptation of the Pacer that was priced at $12,360 in 1978. The company converted over 100 units.
  First available in the sedan version, power came from eighteen 6-volt lead–acid batteries to a 15 kW (20 hp) series DC motor with a stock three-speed automatic transmission. The EVA Change of Pace sedan weighed 3,990 lb (1,810 kg) and reached 55 mph (89 km/h) with a 53-mile (85 km) range. Regenerative braking is used in conjunction with the standard hydraulic brake system which utilizes front-wheel discs and rear drums. Vehicle tests that focused on the electrical drive system including the batteries, controller, and motor "found that the Pacer performance is approximately equal to the majority of the vehicles tested in the 1977 assessment."
  Later, a wagon version had twenty VARTA batteries housed in two-packs (front and rear), with a 26 kW (35 hp) (at 3,000 rpm) motor, and the car was complete in every detail down to a gas heater. The electric Pacer wagon was one of the more expensive cars at $14,000. The Lead Industries Association (LIA) sponsored a tour for government and industry officials that featured an EVA Pacer wagon. Consolidated Edison in New York City purchased 40 modified AMC Pacers from EVA. The United States Army also included EVA Pacers in its inventory of special-purpose electric vehicles.
  A video documentary about the Electric Vehicle Association's electric Pacers is titled "A change of Pace." A fully restored wagon has had its original silicon-controlled rectifier (SCR) control replaced with a modern controller and the "hydraulically operated hybrid vehicle recharging system" removed because of its lack of efficiency to use compressed air from suspension travel to power a small generator to recharge the batteries.
caption: 1978 EVA Change of Pace front battery pack
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