Using Rav4 rear drive to hybridize a Ridgeline?
 

The RAV4 hybrid uses a separate EV drivetrain in the rear. There is no mechanical connection to the front drive. The battery pack is under the backseat.
Could it be possible to use the RAV4 ev system under the bed of a first generation Honda Ridgeline? The bed has an underfloor compartment, probably big enough for the battery pack of the RAV4.

The RAV4 axle is similar to the Toyota/Lexus part. I laid on the ground and looked at one once. IIRC it has twin motors which might mean an electronic locker. The Lexus is an open diff.

No help on mixing and matching Honda parts, unfortunately.

I think there's an easier way. The RAV4's rear drivetrain is an all-in-one motor, reduction gear and differential, but the Ridgeline already has a bolt-in rear differential. Better still, that rear differential already has off-the-shelf axles which plug into off-the-shelf rear knuckles, because the Ridgeline was offered in AWD. No need to reinvent all of that.

My advice would be, rather than to try to fabricate into place Toyota's motor and differential, to gather all of the rear driveline stuff from an AWD ridgeline (knuckles, axles, differential), as if you were to be doing an AWD conversion. Except, rather than putting a driveshaft between the rear differential and a front transfer case, simply bolt an electric motor of your choice to it.

You'll need a controller and battery, but you would need that for the RAV motor too.

Finding a motor suitable to fit the same space a driveshaft would be supposed to go is far from being the easiest task, yet I remember some years ago there were plans to release one commercially. On a sidenote, too bad repurposing the setup of a CR-V or Accord hybrid into a Ridgeline would be mostly out of question.

This is the simplest solution.

For reference the same thing has been done by large companies. That box in front of the rear axle on this 1st gen eM2 contains a motor with a driveshaft to the standard rear axle.

https://media.daimler.com/marsMediaS...&mediaTypeId=3

In a longitudinal-engined RWD platform, seems like clearance issues are not so hard to overcome.

The Ridgeline has a driveshaft running from front to back. Placing the motor were the center carrier bearing is located seems doable. The Ridgeline has 7.6 inches of ground clearance.

https://www.ridgelineownersclub.com/...wq-jpg.397611/

I didn't mean ground clearance. Take a look at some random RWD platform and you'll see the amount of space it takes for the transmission, and a transfer case whenever it applies. Besides providing more room for a motor, it would also be easier to fit the battery packs in a way that would eventually lead to a better weight bias.

Sure there is a lot more room under a truck with a ladder frame than on a unibody. However, there appears to be space under the Ridgeline for a mid-mounted motor driving a stock rear end.

As Ecky said, it is would be far simpler to use stock Ridgeline rear suspension parts and only need to fabricate one motor mount than to completely fabricate a rear suspension to use a RAV4 motor.

jojogunn already said he is thinking of putting the battery is the rear trunk which seems like a very logical place for the battery, charger, and controller.

I didn't even refer strictly to a truck with a ladder-frame when I mentioned any RWD platform. Odd enougn, even some unibody platforms with FWD drivetrains such as the Ford Contour for instance are surpisingly roomy enough to go RWD and EV, as it was originally intended to eventually resort to both a transverse engine with FWD (and it also had AWD available in Europe for some versions) or even a longitudinal engine with RWD.

The Ridgline is one of those FWD transverse engine unibody vehicles specifically designed for AWD and a driveshaft running the length of the vehicle.

Indeed, but as the transverse engine and transmission usually require fewer clearance the driveshaft tunnel for a transverse-engined AWD-capable unibody usually remains smaller than the tunnel of some longitudinally-engined platform more oriented toward RWD even when it also features AWD capability. Usually it's less of a PITA to switch from longitudinal engine and RWD to transverse and FWD than the other way around for instance, and it would also provide more room for a through-the-road hybrid AWD setup resorting to an electric-driven rear axle.

So you don't think an electric motor will fit near the center carrier bearing between the metal fuel tank guard and exhaust on the Ridgeline?

It will most likely depend on engine size, and the controllers will also require some room. And most electric motors that I have seen that would be capable to provide a reasonable all-around performance for a Ridgeline would be a tight fit.

Seems like something like this would work:

https://www.evwest.com/catalog/produ...roducts_id=286

7" in diameter, 35 hp / 82 lb-ft. Comes with the controller. The logical place for the controller is in the truck with the battery.

Some of the belt driven 48V hybrid motors might work as well for junkyard prices.

It really depends on what the OP wants his hybrid to do. Is this hybrid system for low speed parking lot speeds and boosting performance or is he looking to run in a full EV mode and road speeds?


Still seems simpler than trying to make a RAV4 motor physically fit and then the programming hassle of trying to work with a 2 motor / electric differential motor unit.

Maybe it could work, yet I would be concerned about the impact of not relying on the belt-drive for dampening of some efforts which could eventually damage the main shaft of such motors.

Since motor current tends to be a multiple of battery current, the trend is to place the controller as close as possible to the motor to reduce the abnormally large conductors.

Prolly won't hurt the motor shaft, but it will take the bearings out really fast.

Close is better electrically. Protected is better for damage mitigation.

Which is why you would want a carrier bearing close to the motor.