A while ago, I had done some back-of-the-envelope math that told me that I didn't need to worry much about batteries until the time came to actually pick which to buy. Now, thanks to y'all, I'm realizing that this may instead be a show-stopper.
To recap, I have a chance to buy a 1964 1/2 Mustang in good shape for not much money. The goal is to get something not unlike the driving experience of a Volt, with an all-electric range of roughly a couple dozen miles and a "traditional" Prius-style hybrid range limited only by the gas tank. The thought is to replace most or all of the driveshaft with one or more electric motors. My initial calculations were simply to divide system volts (144) by cell volts (3.2), and multiply that number (45) by unit Wh and price and weight and volume and the like. Almost all the options I looked at gave at least 10 kWh for a couple-few grand at a weight less than the average American passenger, so I stopped worrying about it. But I now understand that many of those options would only be capable of putting out 10-15 kW -- an order of magnitude shy of what a pair of 9" motors would be capable of. And what's the point of having electric motors as powerful as the combustion engine if the batteries make them act like a garage door opener? In the research I've done since then, it seems that the only ways to get to something capable of supplying the motors with all they can ask for is either to go with a full-sized battery pack, at much (*much!*) greater cost and weight and volume or to go some exotic homebrew route that'll likely cost at least as much, if not even more. In other words, lacking a relatively inexpensive small battery pack capable of high discharge, there's nothing to be saved by going the hybrid route. It'd still gain the extended range and increased performance, but there'd be none of my anticipated cost or space or weight savings -- quite the contrary. I'm not yet ready to throw in the towel...but it would completely change the dynamic of the project. So...any chance anybody can point me in the direction of a 150 - 200 kW capable battery with at least 7 kWh capacity (10+ kWh preferred) that wouldn't break either the bank or the suspension? I'm willing to put in the time assembling it from cells, but the only cells I've found so far that I've thought might be up to the task would set me back five figures, before any sort of management system or the hardware to package them or the rest. Indeed, these cells: http://www.quallion.com/new-pdf/QLI1250-18650.pdf have pretty much perfect specs but I wouldn't be surprised if enough of them cost as much as an entire Leaf.... Thanks, b& -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 801 bytes Desc: Message signed with OpenPGP using GPGMail URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20140724/ed13d309/attachment.pgp> _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
