A completely new sort of EV

[ShadeTreeMech]

and BTW the White Zombie is the inspiration for this crazy idea

[Ryland]

My 1,400 pound EV has a 6hp motor that puts out a peek of 45-50hp from a dead stop, tops out around 40mph, I would think for a vehicle your size you would need a 15-18hp motor to get your 60mph with all of the weight you will have.
what is your current curb weight? what kind of range do you need?

[ShadeTreeMech]

I apparently have a curb weight right around 4k lbs. What the weight would be after deleting engine and transmission etc then adding batteries is a mystery, but it could push 5k lbs I suspect. Someone posted a link to evalbum.com and it made for interesting reading. For sure, what I'm wanting to do will be a challenge, especially on a budget. This link here Jim Donovan's 1992 Ford Ranger XLT has a Ford ranger of similar vintage to my Explorer, and I believe they share several components.

I came to realize the hugely high cost that could be incurred by building this as solely an electric car, so I'm starting to hedge toward making it a hybrid, with the motor pushing one of the axles. Would it be better to drive the front or rear with an ICE though? The front car be disengaged on the fly, but the rear would constantly be going. I suspect I could get the 4 cylinder motor available for the Ranger to fit in the Explorer fairly easily, which could potentially improve my economy, and I would still have the electric motor for power assist and slow driving. I suppose if I made the ICE run the rear wheels and I put in a fuel pump kill switch, I could easily roll start the thing when needed and make it more of a hybrid.

Thoughts?

[bennelson]

If you did want to try a hybrid, with one engine and one electric motor on each pair of wheels,

I would put the electric motor on the set of wheels that can be "disconnected".

If you are using a brushed DC motor, you are always going to have wear on the brushes and bearings, and (possibly) could even blow your motor from it spinning from being pushed around by your gas engine.

If you used a motor, such as an AC or a shunt-wound DC, you could rig up regenerative braking as well.

Another thought on the Open ReVolt controller - since it is so reprogrammable, the software could be custom tweaked for Hybrid use, instead of EV use. The EMIS system uses a "black box" that takes information from the OBD2, and feeds it to the EV controller as throttle information. That way, you only use just your existing gas pedal to control the car. I'm sure something similar could be done with the ReVolt.

[ShadeTreeMech]

Ben, since you have a working knowledge on this matter, what would your conservative estimate be on making it a full blown EV before I dismiss the idea entirely? I would think it would cost double that of a regular EV, but maybe I'm mistaken, due to the extra weight.

[bennelson]

Wow - it would really be ball-park numbers I would be shooting at you.

It also depends on what you mean by "regular ev". A Forkenswift or Electro-Metro CAN be done for around a grand.

Various places sell EV Kits - those might be a good place to start in terms of getting some better pricing ideas.

I have seen kits that range in price from 6 to 14 thousand dollars.

A friend of mine who built an Electric S10 spent about $10,000 on the conversion for a 9-inch motor, 144V system, charger, controller, and 24 6v batts.


If you built a hybrid, you might be able to get away with a lower system voltage, smaller motor, and less costly parts. Certainly fewer batteries.

In general EV conversions really are NOT cheap, unless you are really good at salvage.

My friend Tom has a 300V Dodge Neon with an AC motor in it. He only has several thousand dollars in that project, but a pallet of batteries, and AC motor and drive all showed up at his recycling business one day.....

[ShadeTreeMech]

I hadn't any idea of the possible costs involved in making that thin electric. I may flirt with the hybrid idea at a later date, but i think putting a diesel into the ole girl makes a ton more sense at the moment....

Thank you for giving me a severe reality check!