Making plans for an EV conversion (Choosing car and batteries)

Well, you will need a garage and to learn a lot of stuff, but I guess that is part of the fun.

http://www.electroauto.com/index.html

A DC system might be better for you. It is simpler, lower cost, and meets your performance needs with a wide robust torque band.

The link above has kist for a variety of cars. The Porsche 914 is popular for conversion and is a good autocross car. The problem with those will be rust. A 924 or 944 may be a good alternative.

A friend recently finished a Toyota MR2 conversion. The car and alll the parts cost him about $15K, which is a lot of part time hours for you!

Wow, that kit for the 914 looks great. The problem is that I'll probably have a hard time finding compatible parts for the car (suspension parts, et cetera) and they'll probably be pricey as well. It doesn't have the best top speed in the world, but it'll be great for autocrossing. Is there any way to increase the top speed on it by changing the gear ratios or something?

There is a whole cottage industry for the 914, including parts.

Yes, you can adjust the final gear ratios. I think the transaxle is a model 915 and there are all kinds of mods available.

To answer your question ; small car Honda civic and smaller .

In Britain , Plymouth exactly an Electric car conversion company got the excise tax paid by the previous owner of the gas car , refund for electric conversion.

In other word if the cost of conversion is $8,000.oo less the excise tax $5,000.00 .that would be exciting and would create lots of job in America and reduce pollution on the long run , same as outboard motor 2 strokes highly polluting motor could retrofit to electric propulsion.

But we need legistlation from goverment and Al Gore Society et all to push it .

We try in Canada in 97-98 no luck we give up.

With a good battery bank with a small car you could get an autonomy of about 60 miles, Good for a second for small run .

Louis Joannette

Electricar Canada

Well, I am a fan of electric cars, but I don't feel that the general population should pay for my conversion or anyone else's car.

When the government pays handouts to people that money has to come from someone. It turns out, much to the surprise of many, that it comes from their taxes. Of course, the government takes a cut, too.

With gas prices high and going higher (primarily due to our government), people little little incentive to seek higher ground on the issue.

This is called a self correcting problem. The free market will force adjustment of itself.

This is why people are moving toward electric propulsion or even smaller more efficient cars. If the government would simply get out of the way and let the market fix this we would all be better off sooner.

Er, why does a motor have to be AC in order to provide regen??

AC isn't necessary, there are a couple ways of going about it...

The biggest problem with regen is the cheaper brushed motors that get use the most often. The brushes get 'advanced' to allow the best current transmission for acceleration. In order to get effective regen, these brushes would have to be moved back, beyond their original position to prevent electrical arching (which generates a lot of heat and will fry things). From what I've heard, since I haven't done it myself, leaving the motor at it's advanced position (for acceleration and 'forward' optimised use) a carefully built regen system will only contribute about 10% of the cars energy back to the batteries...hardly enough to justify the extra expense and wear on the components.

Brushless, permanent magnet motors can do regen with an appropriate controller as there is no stator or brushes. The downside to a big permanent magnet motor is the big permanent magnets. I watched a myth busters where they used a very small rare earth magnet to pick up close to 25 pounds of steel...imagine your hand or finger pinned between the motor (which a whole bunch of these magnets) and a wrench or something! Ouch! And the hole in your wallet after finding a titanium or monel set of tools...double ouch! Actually these motors are very powerful for their size...one permanent magnet wheel motor can have up to 170hp! droool..... These motors are impressive but can't yet accomidate the rule that exists in many places, stating that each wheel needs it's own mechanical brake...and regen doesn't qualify yet.

AC inverters for EVs have all the necessary hardware already onboard for regen so it is just a matter of software and a wee bit of extra hardware (progressive regen needs something along the lines of a throttle to govern how much regen is applied) to get it working. No split stator means no brush advancing/retarding needed to get the best accel/decel.

Hi,

On a recent episode of Discovery Channel's Planet Green, there was a feature about a conversion of a Toyota Pirus to a plug-in version. I've only driven a Pirus once (a rental) and was not disappointed, but I learned via that episode that the market focus of hybrids was "non-plug" because consumers didn't have the easy resources to literally 'plug in' conveniently. It this episode, the conversion process was shown, and the net was a 100mpg+ vehicle.

Of course, none of this is inexpensive, but it shows the potential.

The show also announced that Toyota and others are not 'reconsidering' their marketing about plug-in cars, so hopefully, there will be some on the market soon.

Here are some sites that discuss the various 'kits' for conversions ... maybe they can help.

Take care, good luck, and keep us all posted on your progress.

http://www.calcars.org/priusplus.html

http://www.soultek.com/clean_energy/hybrid_cars/hymotion_plug_in_conversion_kit_announced_today.htm

http://priuschat.com/forums/prius-hybrid-news/19377-new-plug-prius-conversion-option-5-000-a.html

I've heard about these prius kits. There is a prius model in the states (...not in Canada for now...don't know about availability elsewhere) that has an 'EV' button in it to run in electric-only mode. I guess this would make it quite simple to add a charge and bigger battery pack.

Hopefully they (toyota) push things a bit more...it'll bring some other big players into the game and some good, healthy competition is always good.

I believe a good way to go is to find a front wheel drive vehicle with a bad engine, and replace the bad engine for a new smaller one, say 20 HP or so, and then build an electric drive for the rear axle. That way the ICE engine will give good mileage on the highway with a long range, while allowing the use of electric only in the city. When the batteries need recharging the engine would start and power a generator. Have an onboard charger to plug-in at night to top off the batteries. I'm working on such a plan now with a VW Rabbit PU with a dead diesel, too bad, it got 50 MPG.

Take a look at the XR3 from rqriley.com...it does just that. An electric drive in the back that is completely independant of the little 28hp diesel in the front.

That's a very interesting concept for a hybrid.

The original poster wanted to include autocross as one of the requirements, so in that case the dual drive will probably be a negative.

A friend converted an MR2 and that worked very well for autocross. In this case a light weight chassis with a low center of gravity and with a high torque DC motor would probably be the cat's meow (bee's knees for those of you allergic to cats).

Have you considered a 79-85 Mazda Rx-7? (The next generation Rx-7 gets heavy.)

They are light weight. Rear wheel drive. Lots of room front and rear for a conversion. Inexpensive to buy. Parts and upgrades for autocross are available. Available in limited slip rear differential (gsl model).