Just checked the odometer: the car has gone
4814 km (2972 mi.) since the conversion.
Assuming I could have gotten 60 mpg US (3.92 L/100 km) in the same driving conditions, that's 189 litres (50 gal) of gasoline not burned. 5 tanks worth.
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Received this question via email:
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I have watched all your videos and I gotta say, I'm impressed with what you have put together.
Can this be done with an Automatic? You know the saying "Can't teach an old dog new tricks" lol I could never get the hang of shifting a standard and would love to build an EV.
I always see affordable Swifts out there.
ThanX
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Answer is: yes, it can be done with an automatic. It's less efficient though (losses in the torque converter, plus some automatics require the electric motor to "idle" even when coasting/stopped, to keep up pressure in the automatic's transmission fluid pump).
From what I've read you should expect about 10% less range with an automatic transmission conversion.
That said: you can design an EV conversion with a manual transmission that is effectively an automatic (meaning, no need to shift, or very infrequent shifting). Much of the time, I just leave the ForkenSwift in 3rd gear, and do all my in-town (level grade) driving without any need to shift.
All the commercial/production EV's I can think of have direct drive, single speed gearboxes (not torque converter based automatics). You can get away with this if you have enough power from your batteries / controller across the range of speeds you expect to drive.