[MetroMPG]

budget ev update. been following the ev list and reading up on some conversions...

(yeah, i'm still thinking about this.)

- 48 volts is the minimum you can get away with for a small car. with a light car you could do 30 mph max and 20 miles. 72 volts is more reasonable (saw one 72v conversion rated at 50 mph/40 miles)

- motor controllers above 72v get pretty expensive

- motor continuous ratings of 5-10 hp will work for a small car (metro)

- you can opt to go without a controller and just use use a contactor. a low power pack with one controller would work like a golf cart: a binary accelerator

- that makes parking and low speed maneuvers kind of tricky, so you can also set up a "contactor controller" arrangement, where you split the pack so one contactor gives you partial voltage and the second gives you full.

- flooded lead acid batts are cheapest (no surprise there), but need maintenance (watering)

- you don't necessarily need to add a vacuum pump to the brakes. apparently by drilling through the vacuum assist "canister" (the big black round container behind the master cylinder) and puncturing the diaphragm inside, the pedal action becomes relatively easier and you can stick with manual brakes

- still not sure where to source a motor, but there's a fork lift company in town that we're going to talk to (surplus or used would be good).

- changing a car's registration from gasoline to electric is a simple matter of dropping by the licencing office (in ontario anyway); no special paperwork needed (if only i'd known, i could have been skipping those pesky e-tests all these years with my "electric" cars...)

- i think we're actually going to do this. we'll probably aim for essentially a metro golf cart - lo-tech, not sophisticated. waiting to hear back on a potential host car: 84 civic from the west coast (rust free), but she wants too much money for it (relatively speaking). going to look at a couple of dead metros tomorrow also.