anyone done an electric conversion ?

[jimbob-mcgrew]

looking for some info regarding ok motors to use for a sub 1000kg car, and the volt/amp/watt drain they require

[totalnova]

You talking about a electric driven Nova? If my bad memory serves me right I'm sure someone attempted years ago.

[mowgli]

no matter what the car is, you'll end up needing 1000kg of batteries, and then end up with a car capable of about 60 miles or a range of 30.

there is a reason there aren't many electric cars in regular use outside of city councils, universities or car mfr test facilities.... they are not that good, and cost frightening amounts of money to develop, and run.

ask Stuart, he was involved in a project to build a sporty elec car some years back. he'll have lots of answers

[meritlover]

1hp is roughly 750w so you can take a rough stab with that depending on what voltage cells you use you can work out the current.

[Stuart]

I helped design a battery pack that gave approx 38Kw/h of "power" and weighed in at about 350Kg. Problem is they take up a shed load of space and there simply isnt that space available in a nova....unless you lose the boot/rear completely. This pack, of cells alone (not including the management system) was circa £12K and you needed to buy 20% more cells due to duff cell attrition.

Motors, well I'm sure there are some "homebrew" ones that work, but we were looking at yasa motors for proper output.
and then a motor controller... ohh fun. Sevcon make decent ones but they are huge.

Then you need to decide if you want a gearbox or not, and the fun and games with that.
volts wise, you are looking at 320-340V.... DC, from a lithuim source.... DANGER

Its an honourable idea but sadly the nova isnt the ideal platform, an Omega would be a good one to use imho as the boot is crazy big etc.

[craig green]

There were pics in Perf VW a couple years back of a 6N Polo with an elec motor bolted to the side of a regular gearbox. No idea beyond what I saw but it wasn't in the bull5hit section at the back where random internet found drivel is shown, but actually in the 'news' pages I think.

[edit] Not the one I had in mind, but here's the recipe of one way to build it;

http://www.evalbum.com/3577

[Stuart]

there are forums where people convert stuff.
I've seen a smart fortwo converted but it had pitpful range due to the pack size, but I think the person only used it as a glorified mobility scooter so it didnt matter

[jimbob-mcgrew]

no matter what the car is, you'll end up needing 1000kg of batteries, and then end up with a car capable of about 60 miles or a range of 30.

there is a reason there aren't many electric cars in regular use outside of city councils, universities or car mfr test facilities.... they are not that good, and cost frightening amounts of money to develop, and run.

ask Stuart, he was involved in a project to build a sporty elec car some years back. he'll have lots of answers

yeah, im not a fan of the millions of batterys, and limited range, so i was looking into alternate power sources, to generate juice 'on demand'.

I helped design a battery pack that gave approx 38Kw/h of "power" and weighed in at about 350Kg. Problem is they take up a shed load of space and there simply isnt that space available in a nova....unless you lose the boot/rear completely. This pack, of cells alone (not including the management system) was circa £12K and you needed to buy 20% more cells due to duff cell attrition.

Motors, well I'm sure there are some "homebrew" ones that work, but we were looking at yasa motors for proper output.
and then a motor controller... ohh fun. Sevcon make decent ones but they are huge.

Then you need to decide if you want a gearbox or not, and the fun and games with that.
volts wise, you are looking at 320-340V.... DC, from a lithuim source.... DANGER

Its an honourable idea but sadly the nova isnt the ideal platform, an Omega would be a good one to use imho as the boot is crazy big etc.

it wasnt necessarily for a nova, although they would make a good start, being lightweight, with manual steering.
i was looking into electro magnet driven generators for a power source, but with limited space and funds, i think i could probably only get 15 kw out that way. 38 kw is mega juice.

some of the lower range motors that the americans use, are about 80 horse, and 120 torque, which sounds acceptable in a sub 1 tonne car.
the main problem is generating enough power, to get the get a high enough rpm out of it, so it can go more than a sluggish 40 mph.
messing around with gearbox ratios might help, to give you more speed with the less rpm, but its going to stress the motor more, and might not work as well as planned.

[Andy]

Just forget it

[Andy]

When i saw the author of the post i imagined it to be a plan involving 600smoke alarm batteries and 400scalextric motors