Thanks for the words of encouragement Peri! On Fri, Jan 15, 2016 at 11:28 AM, Peri Hartman <[email protected]> wrote:
> Personally, I think you have an exciting idea. I have no knowledge of the > market but can imagine that people with big egos and big money will gladly > pay exorbitant prices for one off items. > I NEVER would have imagined marketing to those people had I not met those advisers. > > If you go the EV route, are you clear you have the ability to do it? I have a artistic, mechanic, mechanical engineering, computer programming, racing and machinist background and an attitude that "If someone has done it before I can do it too!" > Can you figure out a way to fit a large battery in an existing chassis and > body? As has been mentioned, it will have to be cut up into several smaller battery packs and distributed throughout the vehicle. One of the big EV conversion companies has done it before with this car model. > How are you going to deal with instrumentation - fitting it into the dash > in an elegant way, providing software and excellent graphics, UX, etc.? All that is for a later version. Manufacturers roll out "concept cars" with no engines and no interiors all the time. No reason I can't do the same. I view the prototype as simply "One stage above vaporware". The only requirement is that it be "An EV 'supercar'". In reality, the low bar is "A car with an attractive body style that moves on its own using an electric drivetrain." Anything past that simply delays initial progress. I will learn a lot from simply having an EV that moves on its own power, even if it has a minimalistic interior and minimal instrumentation. I just need a seat, steering wheel, pedals, enough crude instrumentation to ensure I'm not damaging anything and VERY dark tinted windows! Again, the prototype goal is simply "an oversized gocart". I've never seen a gocart with power anything or even an instrument panel. > Are you prepared to gut practically everything in the car's existing > infrastructure - hydraulic brake pump, hot water cabin heater, A/C belt > drive compressor, power steering belt drive - and replace it with > electrically driving components? > THAT is why I was wondering about buying a used Leaf. My assumption is that it would come with all that stuff and I could simply "repurpose it" for my car. So a big part of my question was "Is there WAY more than $10k in parts and time savings to be worth buying a Leaf?" Then the discussion got sidetracked... That happens on pretty much every forum. Some people have their own agendas or soap boxes and turn every response into answering the question they want to answer instead of what was asked. That is why I have simply been lurking on this forum for so long and rarely asking questions. I simply don't have time for distractions with working a full time job and doing this car project on the side. I'm already WAY behind schedule. I was HOPING some other "makers" at Makerspace would be interested in my project and be willing to help. But they have already built several electric bicycles and an electric gocart so they would rather build a hovercraft than an EV. Not long ago they blew up the controller on the gocart and I just saw someone haul it off about a week or two ago. No clue if they had plans for it or were just clearing it out since space is a valuable commodity there. Shame I wasn't a member (I didn't even know they existed) when they were doing that project. I could have learned a lot. I actually talked to an EV conversion company in Austin when I started the project. Their price put me off to the whole idea and, when I asked around about the, I was told they do "old technology". Like others have said, my goal was to use the latest and greatest that could actually be done is I was going to pay to have someone else do it. BTW, the other reason for going the "quick and dirty" DC route is that seeing an EV move on its own MIGHT inspire makers to join in on the project. They have apparently seen EV builds attempted before and all of them were abandoned before anything was ever done. I get the impression that most were underfunded. People simply don't realize how much time and money an EV takes. I don't want people feeling that I am dismissing their suggestions and advice... I'm not. But the reality is that if the prototype has to "out Tesla a Tesla", I am looking at 10 years of R&D before I can even show a prototype. And, in 10 years the existing Tesla will pale in comparison to what is available. I will learn what to do and. just as importantly, what NOT to do, faster with a crude prototype that with all the planning in the world. I did pretty much everything wrong I could when I built the prototype body. But I never would have learned that had I not said to myself "Screw it... just build SOMETHING!" -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20160115/d94ae058/attachment.htm> _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org Read EVAngel's EV News at http://evdl.org/evln/ Please discuss EV drag racing at NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
