Chiming in here, My Dad (known as Father Time) and I built several conversions for over a decade (pre lithium). We rarely spent more than 5 or 10 thousand doing most of them. Bear in mind that we were careful about the condition of the donor vehicle. We usually did the machining in house, and often bought or traded for existing projects to cannibalize for the more pricey parts. On any given day, you can find an EV project for sale, usually with a defective battery pack for a very reasonable price. Of course, the project needs to fit your basic needs, with a similar weight and voltage class, but adapter plates are available (or can be made at a machine shop), along with the battery boxes to fit the design needs of the vehicle. One of the cool truths of EV's is that the motor, controller and battery pack are basically independent of each other (I realize that some AC systems are more picky about matching the controller than others), so you start with what you can afford and upgrade as the opportunities present themselves. We changed battery systems several times during the racing career of our Silver Bullet 280ZX from the late 1990's until retiring it in 2005. During that time we enjoyed the experience of setting 8 consecutive world speed records, and inspiring the Nedra rule of participating in one voltage class per event (we melted a battery post setting a record, and kept reducing the voltage in 12V increments from 144V until Dave Cloud stopped us from running in the 96V class, setting new records in each as we went). Naturally, if you need to hire the work done, it will be very costly. In that case, you are probably better off buying a manufactured vehicle with a warranty. - My 2 Watt's worth, -Tom True
On Thu, Apr 25, 2024, 1:27 PM EV List Lackey via EV <[email protected]> wrote: > On 25 Apr 2024 at 9:14, (-Phil-) via EV wrote: > > > One common "old school" method was to bolt a DC motor to an old ICE > > transmission with an adapter plate ... it's mechanically easier, but > > you end up with a short range low-performance conversion. > > Exhibit B is the Solectria Force. It was an early- to mid-1990s > conversion > of the Geo Metro (Suzuki Swift). With regenerative braking from a high- > efficiency AC induction drive, and a low-friction custom aluminum > transaxle, > it achieved better than 150 Wh/mile in city driving. > > But it wasn't exactly a shadetree conversion. The folks who designed it > had > engineering degrees from MIT. > > Also, a Geo Metro and a BMW 3 are almost from different planets. > > David Roden, EVDL moderator & general lackey > > To reach me, don't reply to this message; I won't get it. Use my > offlist address here : http://evdl.org/help/index.html#supt > > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > > Finnegans Wake is the best example of modernism disappearing > up its own fundament. > > -- JG Ballard > > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > > _______________________________________________ > Address messages to [email protected] > No other addresses in TO and CC fields > HELP: http://www.evdl.org/help/ > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://lists.evdl.org/private.cgi/ev-evdl.org/attachments/20240425/705a219b/attachment.htm> _______________________________________________ Address messages to [email protected] No other addresses in TO and CC fields HELP: http://www.evdl.org/help/
