I haven't been following the Open Revolt; I had no idea it was so cheap. Bravo.
Would that forklift motor handle 144V at 125 amps for about an hour without overheating? That's about what you'd need for a 50 mile range at freeway speeds (55-65 mph.)
This conversion (
Dean Holden's 1994 Geo Metro) seems close to what he's looking for. Add two more batteries to bring up the voltage to 144V and increase the range by another 20% (from 41 miles to 49.2 miles) and it's really close without getting too crazy-heavy. And Trojan 1275s are $145 each, so about $1,740 for a brand new pack.