Lately here have been several threads about Insight conversion, EV1 replacements and other such semi-hypothetical EVs. It got me thinking, what kind of EV could be built to meet the following:
Assume a total budget of $20,000, including the donor vehicle (used). Expected service life, 10 years, 100,000 miles, average about 30 miles per day, or about 3500 charge/discharge cycles at about 30-40% discharge, though there would be occasional deeper and shallower cycles. Initial investment to cover all battery replacements required during service life. (Economics of high cost long life batteries vs low cost short life batteries will come into play here.) Sealed service free batteries an asset, alternatives to be considered. Able to carry 4 passengers. 4 doors preferred but not required. Capable of ranges of 80 to 100 miles at highway speeds. 0-60 acceleration no more than 14 seconds fully loaded. (Minivan/Large SUV performance equivalent.) Able to charge from both 120 and 220 volt sources. Air conditioning and heating a must, power steering probably needed, as this would likely be heavy. As much as possible, this should be a "plug and play" vehicle, once converted it should not require extreme effort to keep in service. Now the question. Can this be done? Is it possible with today's technology? What would such a conversion be? Too much to ask for? Any thoughts? Thanks, Mike Chancey, '88 Civic EV Kansas City, Missouri EV List Photo Album at: http://evalbum.com My Electric Car at: http://www.geocities.com/electric_honda Mid-America EAA chapter at: http://maeaa.org Join the EV List at: http://www.madkatz.com/ev/evlist.html
