Howdy Folks It's been years since I posted here (ever since discussions of drag racing were banned), but I do still read the EVDL on occasion and credit the folks here with providing an initial crash course for me on EV technology.
The conversion issue made me want to chime in. The days of inexpensive lead-acid and DC motor conversions are long gone. I've been around this industry for 25 years. It's a completely different animal now. There were no factory EVs available then and folks were forced to accept extremely limited range (good luck telling someone they can only go 50 miles max on a charge now and that 50% of vehicle weight in lead batteries is required to do it). IMHO, If you want to convert a modern car, your best bet by far is just to get a factory made EV. You could buy a handful of Nissan Leafs by the time you pay someone to do a modern vehicle conversion with decent power and range. Just getting the onboard computerized systems of a modern vehicle to play nice with a completely foreign drivetrain is a herculean task all by itself. Plus you are pretty much tied to the person or shop doing the conversion for maintenance or repair issues into the foreseeable future. In fact, there is little that's inexpensive or easy about it now compared to then. The target market for conversions now is classic vehicles from back in the days of ignition points and carburetors. Like a collector car that a person would keep for decades. You need substantial bank to even consider having a nice conversion done for you. A $100K+ price tag is not unusual, especially using brand new components and including the cost of the donor vehicle. For that you could likely find a Rivian, Lucid, or Tesla Plaid. Especially on the used market. One positive aspect is that used EV components are now available from wrecked EVs. We didn't have any of that back in the day. It's hard to beat a Tesla rear drive setup. It's nice to see folks still involved here that were posting on the EVDL 25 years ago when I first got into EVs. I must say that some of those same folks are recommending books on EV conversion that are like 25 years out of date. I personally don't see this as being helpful to those new to EVs that want to learn how modern ones operate or how to convert one, especially with an abundance of free and modern info available on YouTube and other online sources. Wanna learn how to set up an Orion BMS? There are videos on that. Please remember that the days of 96 volt VW Rabbit lead slugs are long gone. Though I've been predicting for years that unmolested examples of those early clik-clak DC and lead-acid conversions are the future EV collector's items. They are disappearing quickly. Roy LeMeur On Fri, Apr 26, 2024 at 2:42 PM Harsha Godavari via EV <[email protected]> wrote: > > > https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/how-volvo-landed-cheap-chinese-ev-us-shores-trade-war-2024-04-24/ > > > ----- Original Message ----- > From: EV List Lackey via EV <[email protected]> > To: Electric Vehicle Discussion List <[email protected]> > Cc: EV List Lackey <[email protected]> > Sent: Thu, 25 Apr 2024 21:18:34 -0600 (MDT) > Subject: Re: [EVDL] '91 BMW 318i conversion to electric > > On 25 Apr 2024 at 10:48, (-Phil-) via EV wrote: > > > In our case, no OEM has stepped up to make a decent van with good > range > > that's supremely reliable with a low cost-of-ownership. > > So what E-vans DO y'all have there? > > I don't know about Asia, but there are several choices in Europe, > most of > them EPTOs of Diesel vans. > > Some listed here: > > https://www.drivingelectric.com/best-cars/586/best-electric-vans > > Also small, medium, and large vans from Renault. They've just > updated their > Kangoo and Master E-Tech vans. The Master has a 3600 lb payload, and a > WLTP > range of 285 miles with the 87 kWh battery. > > Most of the EU brands, such as Citroen and Renault, don't have a US > presence > that I know of. However, the Ford E-Transit and the VW ID Buzz Cargo are > available there, right? > > Or is it mostly pickups rather than vans in the US? (Tradespeople here > usually drive vans, seldom pickups.) > > 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 > > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > > In politics, stupidity is not a handicap. > > -- Paul Graham > > = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = > > _______________________________________________ > Address messages to [email protected] > No other addresses in TO and CC fields > HELP: http://www.evdl.org/help/ > > > _______________________________________________ > 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/20240427/f1614e3d/attachment.htm> _______________________________________________ Address messages to [email protected] No other addresses in TO and CC fields HELP: http://www.evdl.org/help/
