Jack
Well, if you just want high performance and don't care about kludging it
together on the inside, here's a short cut you could take. I believe
Roland (list member) did this.
Use an automatic tranny so that the EV motor is always spinning. Then
it can use the existing belt an pulley systems to run all the ICE
components. In lieu of that you could add a separate small motor which
drives the pulleys.
When you take this approach you are essentially taking out the ICE and
bolting an electric motor onto the tranny. Of course you still need a
controller or inverter, a BMS, and various instrumentation. Some list
members would argue that you can, at least temporarily, skip the BMS
(but you better be aware of the consequences).
Peri
------ Original Message ------
From: "Jack Wendel" <[email protected]>
To: "Peri Hartman" <[email protected]>
Cc: "Electric Vehicle Discussion List" <[email protected]>
Sent: 15-Jan-16 10:52:35 AM
Subject: Re: Re[2]: [EVDL] Leaf donor car? Re: Books on converting a car
to ev?
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/c2f95638/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)
