|
I don't really see you lightening up the car by converting to electric. If I had to guess I'd say you're probably going to add weight. By using lithium it won't be a ton of weight, but it will be heavier.
As for the aerodynamics, the Neon unfortunately isn't really amazing (though the Leaf isn't amazing either). The Leaf has a CdA of approximately 6.94, the Neon is slightly worse at 7.13. Throw a grill block on and you can probably say they're the same. So, you can probably compare these two vehicles pretty closely at least for highway driving.
There are some things you'll need to take into consideration though. First off, the Leaf has regenerative braking and unless you go with an AC drive system you won't have regen. This might not be a big deal if you're doing mostly highway driving, but in city driving it will be a much larger issue.
Even at 55-60 mph I'd go with a higher system voltage. Its almost always worth it to go with as high of voltage as you can. For most 144V seems to work out well and there are a decent amount of components for this voltage.
If you got 45 160Ah cells would get you 23 kWh and you'd be real close to your 80 mile range... in summer. In winter, you'll see range reduction due to the cold and its many effects on mileage. I would try to search through the leaf forum to see what kind of range reduction they are seeing in winter.
|