Your Questions About Electric Car Conversion

admin answers:

Do you want a motor or a generator? Motors don’t produce voltage, they require a particular voltage to be applied to make them run. The size is not really important either. The power of the motor depends on the voltage and current you apply; it will normally have a rating in amps or horsepower. If you are looking for a motor to run from batteries, a lower voltage would probably be easier to work with, since batteries are not usually over 12 volts. The mechanical power you get from the motor is proportional to the electrical power you put in, which is equal to volts times amps.

You can make an electric motor, but a large one, with a reasonably high efficiency, would be difficult to build without specialized equipment.

admin answers:

You know the guy down the street who restored a classic muscle car? The guy did not get that fine machine by sitting in the house drinking beer Needless to say he spent a great many evening and weekend that he could’ve spent doing something else, “more fun”. He learned 100 new craftsman skills. He skinned a few knuckles. A lot of people would wonder why. “Can’t he hire that done?” Um, nope… You couldn’t afford to pay people to do that detail of work. Besides the project isn’t exactly portable. Face it – for this guy it was a labor of love.

That’s what it takes to convert an electric car cheaply. It won’t cost nearly as much as hiring the job done, but it will be “your baby” and thus, priceless to you.

If you want to do it, hit http://www.evdl.org/

admin answers:

Here are some websites 3 that you can buy and one that you can make

http://www.electroauto.com/

http://www.electricmotorsport.com/EGPR/egprPage.htm

http://www.austinev.org/evtradinpost/index.php?method=showhtmllist&list=classifiedscategory&rollid=17&fromfromlist=classifiedscategory&fromfrommethod=showhtmllist&fromfromid=13&clearoff=1

http://www.austinev.org/evtradinpost/index.php?method=showhtmllist&list=classifiedscategory&rollid=18&fromfromlist=classifiedscategory&fromfrommethod=showhtmllist&fromfromid=13&clearoff=1

http://www.austinev.org/evtradinpost/index.php?method=showhtmllist&list=classifiedscategory&rollid=19&fromfromlist=classifiedscategory&fromfrommethod=showhtmllist&fromfromid=13&clearoff=1

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OH, and here are the MANY makes and models of the various PROFESSIONAL and homebuilt ones. SOME OF THEM ARE VERY COOL!!! I hate the “Corbin” EV’s but they are prefessional.

Http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/type

admin answers:

I don’t think you will find any kits to get a VW Bug converted for highway speed, at least not for very long. This requires a motor with a continuous rated power between 50 to 60 HP (and forget acceleration, you won’t have any). Also, climbing a 10% grade at 35 mph is about the same as driving at 60 mph down the highway.

Most of the electric motors out there are not capable of delivering this with anything less than 220 volts (19 batteries). Most of the DC motors used in these conversions are small 120 V motors (20 HP continuous, 60 HP peak), and will suffer serious heat damage if run at highway speeds for more than a few minutes. Also, a chain of 19 starter batteries would only be able to power highway speeds for about 30 minutes. The 10 battery chains used in these kits would only last about 16 minutes on the highway.

And BEWARE! The starter batteries used in these conversions are designed for short, high-current applications (i.e. Starting). Their electrodes are not designed for continuous draw (deep cycle) use. When used in a continuous application (electric car, backup sump), the electrodes rapidly deform, and the battery dies (probably within a few months to a year). You must use deep cycle batteries, and do not expect even a deep cycle lead-acid battery to last more than 3 to 5 years.

You can certainly convert a Beetle, as the links below show, but don’t expect cruising down the highway, or going much beyond a 30 mile range. If you want more than that, you will need a professional conversion using advanced motors, controllers, and Li-Ion battery packs.

PS: There are hybrid conversion kits. You might try one of those.

admin answers:

Many people have converted porsche 914s to electric due to the large amount of cargo area and space for batterys, not to mention the fact that the mid engine configuration allows more cargo space and better weight distribution

admin answers:

The short answer is no, there are no kits for anything but small cars, trucks or vans. The weight of a medium or large car generally detours builders from trying as the ratio of batteries to original vehicle weight is a big deal.
As for getting components yourself, many electric cars use a DC motor and lead acid batteries. So there isn’t the wealth of information on AC motors and lithium batteries. The reason for this is it is very expensive. A $30k budget, assuming you already have a car you want to convert, would give you about $11k for motor, inverter and DC/DC converter, leaving you with $19k for mating the motor to the transmission, not cheap or easy if it hasn’t been done before, and your battery system. Figure about 2-3,000 for the battery management system, you definitely need one for lithium, another couple hundred for a charger and then the rest can be spent on batteries. So at most I figure you can get $14k worth of batteries, which won’t go 100 miles in anything but a small car.

Here is an example of a medium sized car that meets your specs (other than no DC and budget): http://www.evalbum.com/2256
Unfortunately this car isn’t even close to your budget.
If you really want to make an electric car you need to really plan it out before hand and I mean everything. That way you have a budget, a parts list, a means of fabrication and hopefully a good idea of how to get from what you have to what you want.

admin answers:

First what kind of shop do you have? If your good at wrenching then you can convert it’s not hard. As for a business, Maybe, I’m still thinking of doing this professionally but it opens up a can of worms as far as customer service. Selling them is not a problem but if you plan on doing more than 12 a year you’ll need a dealers license. Once converted they’re retitled as home built and remain called what they originally were, in other words you can’t call it the anthonymobile unless you pick 1 model negotiate with the manufacturer for a license fee and absorb this into the cost. This is what Tesla did, it’s actually a Lotus espree they pay around $30k per unit plus the cost of the raw chassis for the privilege of renaming it that’s why it costs $99k. On the other hand building from scratch is not easy either, ever hear of the 35 mph crash tests, insurance companies kind of insist on this, then you’ll need to set up dealers make all chassis repair parts available. Etc but if you did your grand kids would be rich.

admin answers:

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Turns out you have quite a few choices.
If you can spend lots of money, there’s the Tesla – it’s the ultimate electric car – The Tesla outperforms most sports cars:
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http://www.teslamotors.com

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If you have about $25,000 to spend, there’s the NMG (no more gas) vehicle:
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http://www.gotoreviews.com/archives/cars/the-nmg-no-more-gas-electric-car.html

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If you’ve only got $10,000, and you don’t need to get on the freeway, there’s the ZAP:
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http://www.zapworld.com//cars/xebra.asp

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But if you want to do freeways, but haven’t got much money, there’s a bunch of used EVs, hobbyist-built EVs, and converted gas vehicles for sale at places like this:

http://www.grassrootsev.com/convert.htm

and http://www.austinev.org/evtradinpos
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Conversions of gas vehicles are done by GrassRootsEV above, and also by:

http://www.leftcoastconversions.com/index.php

and http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6063682615
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You can also look on eBay. I bought a used EV on eBay for about $2000, and spent another $4000 to fix it up. These are old technology EVs, which means a 50-mile range, not a 100-mile range. But I still drive mine almost everywhere. My electricity cost is just a little over 1 cent per mile. Beat that!
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admin answers:

Their website has specifications on about 12 different types of batteries like the one you show. There is no pricing avaialable on their website. They are expensive though. Here it is: http://www.cebi.com/cebi/content/index_en.html?a=5&b=9&c=19&d=72

Zebra battery
The zebra battery, which operates at 250°C, utilizes molten chloroaluminate (NaAlCl4), which has a melting point of approximately 160 °C, as the electrolyte. The negative electrode is molten sodium. The positive electrode is nickel in the discharged state and nickel chloride in the charged state. Because nickel and nickel chloride are nearly insoluble in neutral and basic melts, intimate contact is allowed, providing little resistance to charge transfer. Since both NaAlCl4 and Na are liquid at the operating temperature, a sodium-conducting ?-alumina ceramic is used to separate the liquid sodium from the molten NaAlCl4. This battery was invented in 1985 by a group led by Dr. Johan Coetzer at the CSIR in Pretoria, South Africa, hence the name zebra battery (for the Zeolite Battery Research Africa Project), and has been under development for almost 20 years. The technical name for the battery is Na-NiCl2 battery.

The ZEBRA battery has an attractive specific energy and power (90 Wh/kg and 150 W/kg). The liquid electrolyte freezes at 157 °C, and the normal operating temperature range is 270–350 °C. The ?-alumina solid electrolyte that has been developed for this system is very stable, both to sodium metal and the sodium chloroaluminate. Lifetimes of over 1500 cycles and five years have been demonstrated with full-sized batteries, and over 3000 cycles and eight years with 10- and 20-cell modules. Vehicles powered by ZEBRA batteries have covered more than 2 million km. Modec Electric Van uses ZEBRA batteries for the 2007 model.

When not in use, zebra batteries typically require being left under charge, in order to be ready for use when needed. If shut down, a reheating process must be initiated that may require up to two days to restore the battery pack to the desired temperature, and full charge. This reheating time will however vary depending on the state-of-charge of the batteries at the time of their shut down, battery-pack temperature, and power available for reheating. After a full shut down of the battery pack, three to four days usually elapse before a fully-charged battery pack loses all of its significant heat.