Any Amiga.org users have an EV? Homebrewed?

[redrumloa]

Electric Vehicle of course. I was holding out for a Fuel Cell vehicle, but that seems way too far off and costly. I am now very seriously considering doing an electric conversion myself. My daily beater is a 92 Ford Ranger, plenty of room for batteries and (of course) already paid for. Since this truck is a crappy beater I want to do a conversion on the cheap, with little concern for asthetics.

So Amiga.org fans, anyone here own an EV? Experiences, thoughts? I'd love to hear it.

[mikeymike]

I read it as EEV first time, and thought it was a tad premature considering I don't have a spacecraft :-D

[FluffyMcDeath]

redrumloa wrote:
Electric Vehicle of course. I was holding out for a Fuel Cell vehicle, but that seems way too far off and costly. I am now very seriously considering doing an electric conversion myself.

I was starting to look into that myself. Our old car is starting to get to the point where we have to put $300 a year into the motor and that seems like a good time to change the whole drive system!

But looking around it seems expensive to convert. I was looking at brushless motors the other day and I can't see why they are so much more expensive than brushed motors. Maybe it's because they're newer, maybe it's because you can pack more copper into them, maybe it's a premium they charge for the extra efficiency, whatever...

Another thing is energy density of the batteries, and how far do you want to go? Lead acid is cheap and lithium sulphur is ... well, both expensive and not in production.

Vehicle weight is another important consideration. Just a back of the envelope calculation says it takes 40 kiloWatts to go from 0 to 30 mph in 4 seconds for every ton.

Anyway, I've just joined the local EV club and I'm looking forward to seeing other peoples conversions. There is probably an EV club down in your neck of the woods too. These clubs seem to attract nerds and electrical engineers. Can't understand why.

[redrumloa]

Our old car is starting to get to the point where we have to put $300 a year into the motor and that seems like a good time to change the whole drive system!

My truck only has ~105K, but previous owners were quite rough on it. I figured I'd yank the engine and sell it while it still runs good.

But looking around it seems expensive to convert.

Depends what you are looking at. CyberEye has done quite a bit of research, and from the little I've done it seems you can buy a pretty complete kit, and add batteries, for about $8,000. The kits I'm looking at only require about 40 hours labor for a half competant person to do their own conversion. I consider myself half competant  :lol:

The thing to look at is cost of maintenance. Bateries need to be changed about every 4 years on an EV, and that's it. Cars need oil changes, parts break down and need replaced. There are just so damn many points of failure on an internal compustion engine it isn't funny. Electricty is cheaper than gas, but less than I expected.

Anyway, I've just joined the local EV club and I'm looking forward to seeing other peoples conversions. There is probably an EV club down in your neck of the woods too. These clubs seem to attract nerds and electrical engineers. Can't understand why.

 :lol: That's funny. It's a good idea, but I wonder if I have the free time:-/ We'll see.

Right now i am gathering as much information as possible. I'd like to do a conversion as cheap as possible, so I'm hoping to find a solution cheaper than $8,000.

[cecilia]

when I 1st went to LA (california), i found out about a group of people who converted cars to electrical.
They had a meeting in Pasadena. I asked to drive the guys car in the parking lot. (i think the meeting was at the college there).
aside from turning the key and not hearing a sound, the car felt normal.

I'm sure if you searched you could find groups there that would have alot of helpful info. they have been doing it for years!

[iamaboringperson]

petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol petrol ...

[that_punk_guy]

iamaboringperson wrote:
petrol x1000

It wouldn't surprise me if you went round dumping oil into the sea because only hippies and communists refrain from doing so.

[iamaboringperson]

that_punk_guy wrote:

iamaboringperson wrote:
petrol x1000

It wouldn't surprise me if you went round dumping oil into the sea because only hippies and communists refrain from doing so.

Why, would 'dumping oil into the sea' make my car run faster, have better acceleration & torque, and cause it to produce a pretty noise?

NO! So why would you even write such a thing??? :X

[mikeymike]

make my car run faster, have better acceleration & torque, and cause it to produce a pretty noise?

Is that what matters to you in life then?

[sumner7]

mikeymike wrote:

make my car run faster, have better acceleration & torque, and cause it to produce a pretty noise?

Is that what matters to you in life then?

I think it is. ;-)

[Floid]

I can only wish, myself... but if you're serious about it, a Honda Insight might be a shortcut, with the caveat that what was once starting to become affordable in the used market has regained value for the higher pump prices... and it still does need a bit of gas, though you can charge the electric portion with a windmills or the like.

(Someone's currently moaning about poor MPG on the Civic Hybrid, but that was intended to be the 'cushy,' completely 'normal car'-alike model.)

Depends what you intend to do with it...

[T_Bone]

mikeymike wrote:

make my car run faster, have better acceleration & torque, and cause it to produce a pretty noise?

Is that what matters to you in life then?

Yea baby!  :lol:

[KennyR]

iamaboringperson wrote:
Why, would 'dumping oil into the sea' make my car run faster, have better acceleration & torque, and cause it to produce a pretty noise?

No, but even internal combustion is very old, very bad tech, and modern cars are slow and have poor efficiency and performance. It's the steam engine of the 21st century. If you want a powerful car it might be worth moving your mind on to more advanced technologies. Especially those that don't use a resource that's fast running out and the price of which is going through the roof.

Anyway...don't you remember the anecdote about how men who like fast cars are 'lacking' in a certain part of anatomy?

[redrumloa]

Oh wow this thread is getting political, I guess I should state my thoughts.

I love muscle cars, I appreciate internal combustion. Nothing wrong with them. However I also love technology, and the internal combustion engine is terribly outdated. Too many moving parts, too many points of failure. Also there is far, far too much dependance on big oil and OPEC. But mainly IMO the strengths of a pure EV is starting to outweigh the weakness, for a daily driver in many cases.

To people who think an EV has to be slow, not exactly. Want to see the future of EVs? Read THIS.

Here's a clip.

AC Propulsion' s tzero out-accelerated a Ferrari F355, a new Corvette, and a Porsche Carrera 4 in a series of impromptu 1/8 mile drag races held last weekend at Moffett Field in Mountain View, California, and at Calstart' s northern facility at the former Alameda Naval Air Station. The tzero was driven to the Bay Area from southern California last week. That journey spanned more than the geographic distance between those two areas, it spanned two cultures as well. Hot rodding, coming from the garages of Los Angeles, and high tech, growing from a garage in Palo Alto, are combined in the tzero.

The tzero is a silicon hot rod. It starts with the hot rodder's holy grail, horsepower - 200 of them. But the tzero harnesses the power with 120 IGBTs, equal to 7200 square millimeters of silicon-based control. The result is acceleration to 60 mph in 4.1 seconds, efficiency equivalent to 70 mpg, and emissions equal to zero. The tzero is an electric car.
 

[redrumloa]

@KennyR

Stop that!!! I'm not supposed to agree with you!!(except the part about male anatomy) :nervous: