Electric car conversion: Project ForkenSwift

[MetroMPG]

SVOboy:

What do you think you'll be ending up with as a final range when you're done?

On these batteries, looks like range to 100% depth of discharge in slow/hypermiling mode may be as much as 40 km. Halve that for "normal" driving, or a higher avg. speed.

Then halve it again if you want to be nice to the batteries, and make them last.

So... let's say 10-20 km, in warm weather, depending on the driver, to 50% DOD. It's all very wishy washy, eh?

The owner of the 1915 Milburn that I got a ride in told me his range was 80 km ! That's with 36v (6 floodies), a contactor controller (100% efficient once at cruising speed) and a direct motor connection to the diff (fewer driveline losses). His top speed is around 20 mph (35 km/h) though.

[MetroMPG]

http://www.twobikes.ottawa.on.ca/sha...854-156-1d.htm

I didn't get a chance to look at this e-scoot, but I believe it's legally an electric bicycle in Ontario. Which would mean 500w motor max continuous rating, and probably 36 or 48v worth of gel batteries. Max speed would be electronically limited to 30 km/h. Don't know about range...

Ben:

Interesting, interesting to the max.

[MetroMPG]

Almost forgot: while I was out lapping the neighbourhood today, I went past the house where I bought the blue car, and the lady was getting out of her "new" car (Pontiac Sunfire, I think).

So I stopped.

She didn't remember me right away, but as I was walking towards her, I saw the light bulb go on when she realized it was her old Metro. She couldn't believe it. Then when I told her it was now an EV and showed her the motor/batts, she was amazed. Great reaction. It was fun.

[MetroMPG]

Vanity shot:

[MetroMPG]

For comparison, I don't really have a clear "before" shot of the car. This is pretty much it, snapped before we actually bought it:

[MetroMPG]

Oh man, I love driving the ForkenSwift. Went out to snap a few more beauty pix before the wax goes away and the paint fades down a little. Drove a couple of km.

I'm really looking forward to getting it done & legal. It's going to be highly addictive!

[MetroMPG]

2 more photo galleries posted of the EV Expo the ForkenSwift attended at the end of May:

http://tricolour.net/photos/2007/05/26/evco.html

http://web.mac.com/allan.poulsen/iWe...EV%20Expo.html

[MetroMPG]

This evening I rotated the motor 90 degrees to move the terminals out of the way of the battery rack that will sit above it.

Didn't even have to remove it or the adapter plate - just unbolted the motor body from the drive end cap (which is bolted to the adapter plate), turned it 90 degrees and slid the bolts back in.

Currently I'm trying out another charger: a 10 amp 24v smart charger. 10 amps will be slow, particularly if we have to recharge the 48v pack in 2 halves!

Consider that if we drain down to 1/2 capacity, that's about 120 amp hours that need to be replaced (assuming newish, full capacity batts), or 12 hrs (not counting losses) @ 10A. And that's only half the pack. Hmmm.

Could split the pack and join in 2 parallel 24v strings for charging, but I wonder if the charger will work as well doing that. It specifically states "12 cells" on the specs plate, which is what four 6v batteries have.

[MetroMPG]

Wow - just found a PDF from the company who makes the 24v/10A charger. They state 16 hrs required to recharge 100 amp hours! This is probably conservative, but still...

[MetroMPG]

An educated EV person reminds me:

I am by no means an expert on EV stuff, but what I've picked up from the EVDL list is that there is one part of an EV not to skimp on if you want to limit headaches, and that is the charger(s).

I know the whole idea of Forkenswift is to keep costs down, but be sure to get a charger with good current and voltage limiting, as even a mediocre charger can dust quality batteries well before their time. I am leaning toward multiple parallel chargers myself for optimal battery balancing.