Friday, February 12, 2010 - 06:23 pm, by: Mike Beck(Gold_40gt)
I usually don't like the idea of electric cars, as internal combustion engines are just that much cooler, make lots of sound and are so workable
Accept electric cars kind have the appeal if they are build to be sporty, a difficult challenge but never the less would be cool, especially a multiple engine setup with a gearbox that could handle all the torque.
Of course they need some serious engineering and time.
But I was think well how much would it cost to make your own one, even if its not fast, just convert a car into your own personal electric car for around town, heaps of people have done it with success, they arent rocket ships but they work.
So I had a look around and worked out the costs bellow.
Power source
Well its going to need a bunch of batteries, lead acid deep cycle ones are the most cost effective, depending on how much power you want to make the weight will vary but say you wanted 312v DC you would need 26 12v batteries, the lightest I've found were Century 43T's at 12.7kg with AH @ 20hr of 40hr, so that is already 330kg or batteries, the next model up has 50hr which is 400kg, the rest rangine from 75-200hr's range from 600kg to a completely pointless 1600kg.
Cost wise your looking at about $150 per battery x 26, no change from $4000!
The electric motor
The answer is a 3 phase AC motor, you would want a good balance of RPM's KW and Torque. One I found had peak rpm of 11,000 and a peak of 53kw and 223nm. They weigh about 60kg's
From an American company, your looking at around $8,000
DC-AC inverter / controller
Obviously you need this vital piece to get the frequencies to control the Motor and deliver the alternating power. Fairly complicated, so that is another
$7000
A car
A ute is probably the most practical so something like a Hilux so you can have the batteries in the back tray, A Holden Ute could also be good. Key is accessible space for the batteries and a good strong body that can take extra weight as
so budged about $5,000 I would say
Other costs
Any trial project like these would need lots of back up funds
Probably at least $5000 of miscellaneous parts.
So that makes it already at about:
$30,000!
You could probably do it cheaper using different AC motors and inverters/controllers but getting high rpm and torque ones is the key.
I would imagine your still looking at $20,000 at least!
Fair big spend when it could all go up in smoke if you buggered it up, running 26 12v batteries in series would be quite bad if something shorted, but you should have safety setup of some kinda.
Anyway just thought I would ramble about that for a bit, I found it somewhat interesting.
Also learnt how fantastic petrol is, all you need is a few grand for a 2JZGTE or 1UZFE and you have a cool as heck fire motor that will kill any electric car!
Friday, February 12, 2010 - 09:49 pm, by: Damian Ware(Frozenpod)
Mike not sure where you found most of that but it is very out dated thinking and the pricing is so far out dated it is not even relevant.
I know someone who has done an electric conversion all up cost was 3k and it would have been 5k to make it high performance ie low 12 second car with longer lasting batteries.
Friday, February 12, 2010 - 11:22 pm, by: Damian Ware(Frozenpod)
It was a car they already had about 30 years old Ford (Cortina I think) with a blown motor that was going to be scrapped or thrown away.
I have seen a very nice conversion done with a HQ ute which was up around the 20k mark which half of the cost was top of the line Lipo batts and had a range of about 650km to 80% DOD. Given the ute layout heaps of room for batts and the installation was very easy.
Miles Baker Goo Roo Vic 66 Mustang GT Convertible, 55 Chevy Bel Air, 69 Firebird 455, 69 Nova SS Clone, 65 Mustang Fastback, 67 Mustang Convertible, 67 Camaro RS/SS
Saturday, February 13, 2010 - 12:32 am, by: Damian Ware(Frozenpod)
I don't recall but it was not a small amount. Even with Lipo batts which have about 14 times the energy density of NimH the car was essentually a battery with wheels.
I do know that from NREL research a large SUV requires about 65kw to keep them going at 100km/hr I would expect a HQ would be about half that.
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