Research for a 1:1 electric car
 

So I have decided to sell off a fair amount of my r/c and stero stuff, and focus on my larger projects. 1st up is getting the lightning over 500 wheel hp, and making it hook up. That is easy, and should set me back 3 grand or so...

So I was thinking about the future, I will be moving farther away from my business. I currently have a 3 mile round trip every day, and I will be moving out of the town to a place about 8 miles from the shop. So a 16 mile round trip. I will also have to drive about 4 miles to get to a gas station or supermarket, now it is less than a mile.

So I figured that I could make myself an electric car to do the commute, and running errands. Range can be as little as 30 miles, as I could charge it daily at work (3 phase setup there, so charging could be done faster and cheaper).

I have 2 current candidates in my fleet, a 97 4dr sentra, and a 98 lincoln mk8. Both are in a state of disrepair (mk8 flooded in katrina, and the sentra was involved in a minor front end collision). I am currently leaning towards the sentra, as it is lighter, and has 4 doors, plus it has more useable room to accomodate the various gadgets.

Now I have some elctrical knowledge, and plenty of mechanical capability. I also have a full body shop with frame and welding equipment, plus 2 machinists that I can call on. Plus my dad is a mech engineer with 40yrs experience in the space industry.

What I need is a bunch of info to read. I know that many here have looked into electric cars, and at least one guy has a project truck, not sure who though. Any online info that would cover DIY electric cars, motor selection, where to get a controller, etc...

Not looking to build a hot rod, 80hp and 100ft/lbs or torque would most likely be plenty. I will lighten the car as much as possible, and attemp to retain the factory weight balance. Not really worried about creature comforts, but A/C would be nice (might have to do some sort of stand alone setup, or a "swamp cooler").

The car has an auto tranny, but I figure that I can run a single speed setup, as I am not looking for much more than 60mph. I was actually considering mounting the motor directly to a small truck rear axle, and replacing the rear beam type axle of the sentra with that setup. Kinda like a golf cart. It is front wheel drive, but I would remove all of the drivetrain and cv axles. The use of a truck rear axle would give me some flexibility in gearing, as the ring and pinion can be altered somewhat. Finding an axle that is narrow enough may be a challenge, and i really do not want to narrow the housing (but i can do that if necessary).

I figure the car is setup for the bulk of the weight to be under the hood now, and the engine, associated parts like radiator, tranny and axles must weigh around 500-600lbs. So the batterys would go under the hood. Not sure what to use for batteries, deep cycle lead acid would be the cheapest, but heaviest choice. Maybe some optima blue tops, but they are closer to 200 a piece. Not sure if i want to get into lithium cells, depends what kind of chargers are available and the cost. I know that lithium should last longer...

I may be able to get m hands on the battery out of a hybrid escape, as the local ford dealership has one that has a damaged case (my buddy works there).

As far as the controller goes, I do want regen braking, and I would most likely air cool it, but can do liquid cooling too.

So any info or links would be greatly appreciated, as will your thoughts!

If you need some help with the labor I have lots of free time. I would love to see this come together for you. :yes:

I don't know if you have see this or not http://www.opb.org/programs/ofg/vide...ic-Drag-Racing

zeropointbug was doing the conversion, haven't seen him here in a while.

Definately, Any help is greatly appreciated! I will be doing a ton of research, that is for sure.

Thanks, I did think it was ZPB... Never got around to looking up his profile.

Great news.
 

This is great news James since you already have a great facility and probably some good tools to do this. I have been watching this market for quite a while now, and there is a ton of good ideas out there already that can help inspire and lead anyone in the right direction for this project. I will say that the best platform on the market today is the "Tesla" company. This company is at the leading edge for electric vehicles. The Tesla sports car is number one right now with an impressive 0-60mph in 4 seconds, and a top speed in the area of 130mph. They are releasing a sedan version some time this year. The drivetrain is nothing new really, but they are using lithium ion technology for battery storage and seem to have pretty much perfected the method with one of the longest range parameters. I believe it is something like 100 miles or more.

The European "Smart Car" also has an electric version being driven in the UK that seems to be doing well. I hope you have some fun with this and seeing your reports in here will be a nice treat. Good luck with your project James.

Linc- I like it. I would lean toward the Sentra, also. Check out evparts.com. A 30kW motor/controller setup will run about $3000. You might have to upgrade to make 60mph. On batteries- Pb will be cheap, Li will be expensive. I would start with the Pb type. If it works well then sell them and put the money toward the Li batteries.

It's (conservatively) 200 miles per charge with the Roadster. :yes: I would think the sedan will have better mileage, if it isn't being made as powerful.

I know you were saying you dont want it to be a hotrod but in this link there could be some valuable info. When I first read about the White Zombie I would think instead of trying to run all that voltage, try increasing the capacity. I would go with the Sentra

I went through his site and the "Blur Meanie" looks to be more of what you are trying to do

http://www.plasmaboyracing.com/bluemeanie.php

This is also an alternative to building it. Buy one that is not too expensive.
Zenn Car Motors

If you click "view" then "videos" and then "Rick Mercer Report" you can see a funny but informative interview with the CEO and a bit how they build it and also a test drive.

It's only got two doors but you can fit 20 cases of beer and a box of cereal in it.

I've looked at a bunch of EV forums and the best one I found was diyelectriccar.com. I was thinking about converting something a little smaller like a quad and I want to convert a car when I'm older. I am now converting an electric bike with a BL outrunnner from hobbycity...

Check this forum out, you'll like it.

First - I'm really interested in seeing what you end up determining a "fair amount" of your RC's is!!!!

I would almost give the nod to the Lincoln chassis. The Sentra chassis MAY not be able to handle the weight of the batteries, and the suspension might also suffer - but thats hard to determine right now.

Second, it sounds like you are looking at RWD - which also points towards the Lincoln.

Narrowing a rear end is EASY...dont spend much time worrying about that. You may even be able to find one out of a drag car or even a stock car. Advantage to that they are often set up with quick change gears, which will make it easy for you to change gearing if need be.

Will have to check this out, yay more reading!!!

20 cases of beer huh... Sounds like I need to move to a college town and start a delivery service!

Will do, thanks for the info!

After looking around a bit it seems like a may have to find another platform. Seems like the majority of conversions center around a manual tranny. Seems like direct drive is difficult to control, and having a clutch is a good idea. Plus the bulk on conversion kits seem to be made for manual trannies. I need to sign up to some of the ev forums and have a look at their builds. I read thru once guys online build of an s-10 last night. Seemed like alot of wiring and a dc to dc convertor was in there for some reason, he also had an alternator. Not sure why but I guess there is some reason for it. I need to do more reasearch on the electrical components, as theuy are obviously a bit more complicated than I thought.

I am also debating using a belt driven power steering pump to work the power steering and power brakes. I would go with manual steering and brakes, but that depends where I put the bulk of the battery weight. If it is in the back of the car I can probably go with out power steering. Seems like a fwd car would be best, most likely a honda as there seems to be quite a few conversion kits available for them. My motor on back axle may be a bit complex, as I had not take into account the need for forced air cooling for the motor. Plus I am not sure if I want to have 2 seperate battery sytems, one for the motor, and another lower voltage to run the rest of the lectrical system. I plan to keep this very simple, so I may not bother with anything other than running lights, no radio, ac or other stuff. Maybe the alternator is necessary for the headlights... not really sure right now.

I have alot of research to do...

The dc-dc converter runs things like lights and radio, IIRC. I don't know what the alternator would be for. Maybe regenerative braking?

I don't know if this has been posted, but the motors in the whit Zombie are two 9 inch electric fork lift motors running on a couple hundred volts of electricity.
there was article in a magazine, I read all about it.

Not a bad idea.
 

Thats not a bad idea finding an old electric forklift and using the motors and whatever else you can from it for the project. using an alternator would be best for running the vehicles electrical system seperately using just one 12 volt battery, which can run everything but the drive motors. Leaving you only to have to configure the drive/electrical system. You really don't want to drive this thing without power steering and power brakes. It would be way to uncomfortable to drive without them. A/C is easy once you setup the rest of the system. This can surely get complicated very quickly and it rarely gets done in a short time either. This kind of project can take a year or longer to get it rolling. Too bad we are not all living close enough to help you with the build and design.