>I am interested in building a simple ev scooter with a total weight (scooter + >rider) of 300lbs. I am more interesting in range then in high speed and >ecceleration. Will a car starter and a battery do the work? Or do I need a >special motor/battery? > >Any information will be appreciated
Not really. Starter motors are designed to produce lots of torque and the manufacturers (for the most part) don't care about efficiency. Just spinning a starter motor without any load can draw 50 amps or more. Some starter motors are better than others when it comes to efficiency, but none of them are really good. Also you don't want to use a car battery, these are only designed to be discharged a little bit before being charged up again. If you deep cycle them (drain them most of the way down) more than a few dozen times they die. You want a deep cycle battery like a trolling battery (not a great battery but they are cheap) or a deep cycle Gel Cell. Most folks prefer Gel Cells for bikes and scooters because they are sealed and won't leak when tipped over. If you can afford it an even better battery would be AGMs or NiCads. Here is a website that has a good price on Gel Cells: http://www.meci.com/default.asp?featured=true&partno=140-0094&mode=Search Note that this is an old battery but it should still work, make sure it reads at least 11V when you get it though (12V or more would be better) They also sell cheap motors that would be suitable for a scooter. http://www.meci.com/default.asp?cat_to_search=&searchall=&partno=&descriptio n=&topsearch=&mode=getitems&curpage=2 down near the bottom of the page, called a high-power DC motor for $14.95 part # 420-0559. Note: the efficiency of this motor isn't all that great either, but it's cheap and one of these (with a chain or belt drive) could easily power a scooter up to 10-12 mph.
