Lately I've been thinking a lot about doing an EV conversion with my Insight, or a second Insight, and I've just started doing reading and research on it.
I was looking at battery weight:
Looking at the (old) Volt's pack, it appears to weigh about 400lbs and have a capacity of ~18.4kwh (0.046kwh/lb). The 24kwh Leaf pack, best I can tell, is ~650lbs (0.037kwh/lb). The 30kwh Leaf pack is ~700lbs (0.043kwh/lb). The new Bolt's pack is ~60kwh, and ~960lbs (0.063kwh/lb).
Given that these vehicles are much larger and heavier than an Insight-EV would be, I have only a vague idea how to estimate range, but I don't think I could get by with less than 150 miles of range, and 200 would be better; I regularly do 110+ miles of driving in a day.
The old Leaf pack is probably the easiest to acquire but (if the numbers I've found are correct) easily has the worst energy density. It might or might not give me my desired 150 miles of range Bolt packs will probably not start showing up for several years, but are far and above the best in terms of energy density.
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The Insight weighs about 1850lbs. With engine, transmission and battery removed, it's down to about 1550lbs. I'm going to assume an electric motor and controller will weigh in the area of 100lbs (please correct me if this is way off). If I were to drop in a Leaf 30kwh pack, rated at 107 miles in the Leaf, I'd be up to around 2350lbs (give or take), which is about a thousand pounds lighter than the Leaf is.
The Leaf has a CdA of 6.94, whereas the Insight has a CdA of 5.00, 28% less. Given that once the ICE is gone, I can probably almost completely seal up the front of the car, and completely seal the bottom, I can optimistically get that 5.00 down to ~4.00, which is ~42% less drag. With this in mind, getting 150 miles out of a 30kwh pack seems pretty reasonable, especially if I drive with economy in mind.
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Another factor I need to consider is size. Ideally, I'd like to pull the Insight's fuel tank and bolt an aluminum box under the car where it was, and pack it full of cells, with potentially some spillover into the Insight's cargo box or hatch area, which is approximately 4' x 4' with the existing IMA system removed. It's likely I could fit an existing leaf battery module whole into the hatch of the Insight intact, but that would be very inelegant.
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I would imagine that simply taking all of the existing electronics out of the donor vehicle would be the easiest way to make this work, but I realize I could be seriously wrong. I have no experience with 3rd party motor controllers, what the advantages and disadvantages would be, but I'm very mechanically inclined, with a fair background in programming, and I'm certain I can eventually puzzle something out.
I'd love some feedback on the aspects of selecting the proper doner, with some ideas for mounting the battery and motor, and with how best to work out the electronics side.