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Old 07-21-2010, 08:09 PM   #10 (permalink)
Patrick
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Quote:
Originally Posted by basslover911 View Post
Well the way I always though of doing this was with super inExpensive golf cart motors. Sure one golf cart motor is only 48v and 10hp. But multiply that by 4 and you get 192v and 40hp which is quite a bit!

And what i was thinking you could run only two motors (96v) for under 35mph (city driving) and then the other two for highway. And if you can make the battery array output either voltage then during city driving you would get double the range
You can split the pack in half then use contactors to connect those two halves either in series or parallel to change the voltage. But changing the voltage won't get you double the range. The range is dependent on the power (kWh) available in the pack, which is constant regardless of how you set up the voltage.

If you have 4 motors you will get 40 hp at their rated voltage of 48, no need to run them up to 96V. And, I wouldn't run a 48V motor at 96V for very long because it may fry. If you do, at least add some more cooling for the motor.
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