WIKISPEED build for Electric Motor Module
 

The WIKISPEED car is a modular design.

The present 'motor module' is an Internal Combustion Engine, a 1.8l Honda civic engine from 2006+. That is not on topic for the Ecomodder Fossil Fuel Free group, so ...

This is not a build of the WIKISPEED car, at least not yet. This is a build of the Electric Motor Module for the WIKISPEED car (this replaces the ICE motor module with an electric drivetrain).

This first posting will be updated regularly to contain the latest status of the build. Eventually, this message will have a bit of an index of posts.

Post 3 - Links
Post 15 - We have a plan.

Are you going to use a kit car for the body and running gear?
Why the need for the massive 1.8L gas hog?
What kind of battery did you want to use and what kind of motor did you want to run?

Car and Body for WIKISPEED build
 

My apologies. I tried adding links to the first post and it failed because I only have 1 post. (This has been fixed - the links below are live now)

The rest of the car is done, sort of. There is a car design available, but there are many people in small teams all over the world working to improve the design. The design is modular, so different teams each take a portion of the design. As the new designs are tested and revised, they can be incorporated into the standard package.

Right now, you can purchase:
- a prototype, called SGT01, assembled and ready to drive with an ICE engine module

Read more about it here

www.wikispeed.com/store

There is a kit planned as well, where you purchase everything and assemble it yourself. Right now, it's more of a list where you purchase all of the pieces and they are shipped to you.

The drawings for the custom parts are almost all available as Open Source from here. I say almost since there are delays in posting drawings after the changes have been added to the standard build.

www.opensourceecology.org/wiki/wikispeed_SGT01

The rest of the parts are OEM Honda Civic parts and can be purchased from a number of places, but the prices at the WIKISPEED store are lower than most.

I'm not too sure how to answer that one. That design decision was made a long time before I joined the project.

The car was initially designed to compete for the 2010 automotive X-prize. Besides the requirement of getting 100 mpg or better, it was a race. The fastest circuit time while meeting the 100 mpg criteria was the winner. I don't have all the history on the project - this is my guess based on the history that I do have.

The Electric Motor Module that is the topic of this thread will initially be low power. The exact motor to be used is not decided as yet. The simulation team has asked for a power plant capable of delivering 50 HP so that the car can accelerate from ... I think it's 40 mph to 60 mph in 5 seconds? ... I can't locate the reference right now. It was one of the requirements for the X-prize to have a vehicle that people would want to drive.

I would like to run an AC three phase motor on Lithium Ion cells. All other things being equal, an AC-50 with controller running on CALB-40's would be great. I think that the extra parts required for water cooling would make this solution too large.

The car presently weighs 1404 lbs, with the ICE module installed, all of the fluids for the ICE, and 4 gallons of gas in it. Since it is SO LIGHT I think it is an excellent start for an Electric Vehicle. I expect that the weight will rise a bit with the Electric Motor Module instead of the ICE module.

Like every build, we have a tight budget, so this module design will begin with whatever can be sourced locally and almost free. As the design is firmed up and decisions are made, we'll see what we end up with.

There is much work to be done to determine how many cells, and of which chemistry, can be fit into the Electric Motor Module. 40 x 40 x 20 is not a lot of space to hold the motor, transmission, batteries, controller and battery charger.

Hello the Wikispeed car really interests me and how its opened sourced.

I have a large homemade CNC machine which I would like to design my own body for this car, but the price for a complete car is too much for me so I hope I could partner up with a local mechanic in the future to make our own.
Ive seen the newly created Wikispeed Canada facebook btw.

I read the chassis can be bought for $1000 at the Seattle home base, will you guys ever make a guide on how you got the cars you have for sale road legal?

Also do you think the electric drive train could be (low spec, heavy setup) cheaper then the sourced out Civic one?


Ideally I would like to purchase the Chassis and make it into a road legal hardtop convertible by using a $1000 donor for parts... proper a-pillars, windshield, suspension etc.

P.S. I mixed a couple super cars designs on top of the Wiki Chassis which can be seen on YouTube called - WikiSpeed Chassis overlay

A build with a local mechanic sounds practical. There are Team WIKISPEED members in BC that you may be able to connect with, if you would like to. Send an email to info@wikispeed.com if you'd like to join the team!

Your CNC machine would come in handy for all sorts of things, I'm sure. The car body is structural carbon fiber. This is not my area, but I think that it takes some practice to get it right.

I was told that a WIKISPEED car has been sold to someone in Canada. I don't have details or timing. Whatever paperwork, or crash testing, or changes are required in order to license it in Canada and drive it on public roads will be done. I'm just not sure when. I'll cross-post your questions to Team WIKISPEED and see if someone can answer them better than I can.

I am involved in the Electric Motor Module build. It is far too early to tell for sure, but my feeling is that the purchase-from-WIKISPEED electric version of the motor module will be more expensive than the Civic gas engine motor module. That does not mean that you cannot build an Electric Motor Module for less. Costs could be reduced by sourcing the motor, the controller, the charger or the batteries for less, recycling used parts, etc.

I'm not sure I'm qualified to comment on this one. A hardtop version of the car is in development. I haven't heard of any teams working on a hardtop convertible - but I would not know.

The car has a 5 star crash rating. I think the A pillars and windshield are fine for road legal. There are a number of prototypes on the road in the USA, licensed and insured. There are a few different rules in Canada, so it takes time to meet the requirements.

The suspension is actually quite impressive on the WIKISPEED car.

I think that the windshield is a stock item from a Miata - but I don't know which model or which year.

Thanks for you help.

"That design decision was made a long time before I joined the project".

There is the problem there weren't really any new sub 1.8L engines in N. America till here with in the last 2 years. You would have to go with a late 1990s engine if you wanted sub 1.8L.

3 phase AC systems are not cheap, unless there is a cheap off the shelf unit I havent seen.
Going AC costs something like 3 to 10 time as much as DC.

It might be because the engine is readily available and smaller than most other current engines. Also, the K-series engine's ECU (beginning in 2006 I think) is easily modded, apparently. Hondata focuses a lot of energy on the k-series ECU now.

And I didn't realize they wanted it to be fast too.
A 1.8 in a car that size will really move.

Electric Motor Module info
 

Update this week - the target price for the Electric Motor Module is under $5000 US.