what do i need to convert my car to electric

[550fingers]

i want to convert one of my cars to electric, the car has an existing kerb weight of approx 800kg, dont know what it will be once the engine, petrol tank, etc are stripped out
i would like to get a range of approx 60-80miles and top speed of 50+mph
what is the best way (and cheapest!) to do this, are these figures achievable at a reasonable cost
am i better keeping the gearbox or getting rid of it (its a Fiesta XR2), if it needs to come out how do i get drive to the wheels
what about cabin heating
sorry for the long list but this is all new to me, kit cars are alot easier to build !

[electricvehicles]

Try our fellow member geekygrilli. he has recently converted a car to electric and kept the gearbox with the motor mounted directly to the flywheel.
Keep us posted of developments.
Good Luck
Regards
Dave
electricvehicles@aol.com

[Tom Thomson]

550
I have a similar sized vehicle (Mitsubishi pickup-2000# ready to go) so my experience may be helpful. I went with 6 12V marine batteries and a fixed ratio drive. I will do things differently next time. 72V gives good acceleration but marginal top speed - 35 mph, while 80Ahr allows only 15-20 mile range. I have read that the weight of lead acid batteries will give an approximation of range; 20# of lead for 1 mile of travel. This has to be the loosest kind of comparison but in my case is is true.
For the drive, I welded a bracket to the rear axle housing, mounted the motor to that, made an adapter for the diff input shaft and bolted a 2 groove sheave to that. I then connected the two with a pair of Vee belts. (If you do this, make sure to use a matched set of belts) I have ended up with a final drive ratio of 8.36:1. I believe that I could achieve more top speed if I could vary the ratio. The advantage in doing things this way is cost; I have only $2300 in my conversion.
Good luck
tommyt

[Tom Thomson]

550
Wait wait there's more! Try EV Album on the web. A large number of conversions with pictures and descriptions.
tommyt

[Geoff]

And in particular you might like to look at Rich Rudman's electric fiesta drag racer

http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/599

You might also find it useful to look at Jerry Halsteads EV building blog. While this is quite old now it talks one through the steps involved quite well. It also has some good links to useful tools & web sites.

http://jerryrig.com/convert/

Good luck with the project

Geoff

[ChrisB]

i want to convert one of my cars to electric, the car has an existing kerb weight of approx 800kg, dont know what it will be once the engine, petrol tank, etc are stripped out

Think you'll lose about 150-200kg from memory when I did mine

i would like to get a range of approx 60-80miles and top speed of 50+mph
what is the best way (and cheapest!) to do this, are these figures achievable at a reasonable cost

Depends what "a reasonble cost is"
Honestly for that sort of range you'll be needing li-ions which gives you a bill of at least 4K or more before you even start.
50mph + is easily acheivable my fiesta would do 75mph flat out using a pair of lynch motors, but to maintain that speed cost me 200amps ALL THE TIME

am i better keeping the gearbox or getting rid of it (its a Fiesta XR2), if it needs to come out how do i get drive to the wheels

I left mine in and it did make for a spritely drive

what about cabin heating

Whats that I never had any in my fiesta

sorry for the long list but this is all new to me, kit cars are alot easier to build !

No probs we all have to start somewhere, I think first off you need to decide how much money you have available for the project.
Lots of people think its going to be a good way to get cheap motoring by building an EV, certianly you can build a EV fairly cheaply but dont expect long range of fast speeds if you go down the cheap route, to get long range and fast speeds you need to spend money and a fair amount of it !!!

ChrisB

[550fingers]

many thanks for the advise and links so far, i didnt know that ev's could produce so much tyre smoke !

the car will be the wifes daily drive, most of the time it will be short journeys 10-30miles along winding country lanes, but every couple of weeks she pops down to see her mother about 35miles away, hence the need for good speed and range (although the car could be part recharged at her moms)

as regard cost i would prefer to stick to std batteries at first and then possibly upgrade in a few years time, if this is possible, as long as std batteries would still give me upto 40miles range for general day to day use, and she can always use my car for the run to her moms

with regards to costs how long will a set of batteries last, as all the people i've spoken to always quote a running cost per mile that only takes into account the electricity used to recharge the car, and dont seem to take into account battery costs, if a set of li-ion batteries are going to cost me £4k, and they last four years (guess) that works out at almost £20 per week just to cover the cost of the batteries, which on the mileage the car will be doing is approx 15p per mile (against 9p per mile for petrol in the Prius or .7p for lpg for my Banham kit car)

i seem to be talking myself out of a conversion !

[ChrisB]

Sadly a lot of the time it actually isnt as cheap as peeps think they are especially for conversions.

I've only ever done/modified a conversion and the cost envolved really didnt make it "cheap" motoring in the long term

Buying second hand mind you can, as I've always said look for a conversion or production built vehicle and buy that, then "adjust" it to your own flavor

Conversions are really I feel for the hardcore EV'er, maybe someone will say I'm wrong
My fiesta was running on flooded lead acids and never managed much more than about 35miles TOPS and that was driven very carefully, that was running 120v @110Ah i.e 10x 12volt , maybe if I had moved up to gel batts I might have got better but then that would have added to the cost further.

The berlingo (yeah I know I'm raving on about it AGAIN ) has to be the best out of the 3 EV's I have owned, 40miles range pretty much regardless what you do with it, and 60+ if you are careful.

Have you thought about a G-wiz ?? second hand ones of those are coming up and they are fairly cheap.

ChrisB

[550fingers]

we have looked at a g-wiz but are put off by its size, and as we have both driven kit cars over the past 20 years, dont really want to go away from them, i know i said i was looking to convert a fiesta, its actually a Quantum 2+2 ( i just assumed everyone would know the fiesta but not the quantum !)

i would consider a belingo or 106, if i could get one, or even an insight or another prius (for some reason i didnt like the drive in the civic ima, eventhough i think the car looks better than the prius)

regards

Rob

[ChrisB]

Ah a Quantum, speak to our man qdos hes a kit car sort of person

Blingos are fairly thin on the ground and can cause 101 problems but when they are running they run VERY well.

I think first off look at what you want to budget for, I think I'd look at say motors first, they sort of govern the performance, once thats done look at speed controllers as they of course control the motor ( cant do much without it ) and then once you have those two decided on and costed its then batteries and these will then give you the range.

Once you have all three items then its just a case of fitting them in the shell and in fact I felt a electric conversion was actually easier than making a kit car with an engine as you dont have this huge heavy thing called an engine that needs hoists and cranes to move it, everything is far more manageable.

ChrisB