So, you want to drive an electric car on the cheap? And you have an old gasoline car in the back yard, that you would want to convert to run on electricity, if you knew how? Then this is for you!
I would like to see how much it would cost to do so, what the options are and what would be the hard parts. Because I am thinking about doing so myself.
The goal:
Refitting a gasoline car to all electric for the same money it takes you to drive the gasoline car for one year if you want it cheap, or 3 years if you want high performance and/or a longer endurance between refills.
The running costs of that all-electric car are almost zero (fill up your tank and drive 100 kilometer for 10-90 Euro cents, depending), while you would pay quite a bit more otherwise (that same 100 km would cost you between 5 and 50 Euro, depending).
Let's say it costs 0.5 cents/km on electric, and 22 cents/km on gasoline, so our electric car is 44 times cheaper per kilometer. The average daily commute is 30 km in Europe and 30 miles in the US, so that makes 37.5 km/day. Let's say 40 km/day, every day, including shopping and recreation. That makes about 15000 km/year.
Although the above calculation doesn't take into account, that many people who live close to their job don't use their car to get there, so in reality the people who do drive their car daily tend to use it 20,000 km/year, which fits the statistics.
So, we would have 20,000 * 0.22 - 20,000 * 0.005 = 4300 Euro to spend. For convenience, let's say 4000 Euro. Or 12,000 Euro for the high performance/long duration package.
What we need:
1. An electric motor (AC, DC or brushless, 50-200 kW), or 4 wheels with motors in the hub if you want the best.
2. Batteries. Lead-acid would do for the cheap package, but NiMH would be better, and LiIon would be best.
3. Electronics. Those go from simple for a single, straight DC motor, through reasonably complex for a single AC motor, to quite complex for 4 brushless motors in the wheels.
4. Mechanical adjustments. From battery clamps, through installing the motor, to ripping out the complete drive train and fitting hub motor wheels.
5. Controls. Fit sensors and rewire the paddles and other controls.
6. Instructions. How do you install all that?
So, does anyone knows where we can get the parts, and has a good idea of how we could fit it all?
I would like to see how much it would cost to do so, what the options are and what would be the hard parts. Because I am thinking about doing so myself.
The goal:
Refitting a gasoline car to all electric for the same money it takes you to drive the gasoline car for one year if you want it cheap, or 3 years if you want high performance and/or a longer endurance between refills.
The running costs of that all-electric car are almost zero (fill up your tank and drive 100 kilometer for 10-90 Euro cents, depending), while you would pay quite a bit more otherwise (that same 100 km would cost you between 5 and 50 Euro, depending).
Let's say it costs 0.5 cents/km on electric, and 22 cents/km on gasoline, so our electric car is 44 times cheaper per kilometer. The average daily commute is 30 km in Europe and 30 miles in the US, so that makes 37.5 km/day. Let's say 40 km/day, every day, including shopping and recreation. That makes about 15000 km/year.
Although the above calculation doesn't take into account, that many people who live close to their job don't use their car to get there, so in reality the people who do drive their car daily tend to use it 20,000 km/year, which fits the statistics.
So, we would have 20,000 * 0.22 - 20,000 * 0.005 = 4300 Euro to spend. For convenience, let's say 4000 Euro. Or 12,000 Euro for the high performance/long duration package.
What we need:
1. An electric motor (AC, DC or brushless, 50-200 kW), or 4 wheels with motors in the hub if you want the best.
2. Batteries. Lead-acid would do for the cheap package, but NiMH would be better, and LiIon would be best.
3. Electronics. Those go from simple for a single, straight DC motor, through reasonably complex for a single AC motor, to quite complex for 4 brushless motors in the wheels.
4. Mechanical adjustments. From battery clamps, through installing the motor, to ripping out the complete drive train and fitting hub motor wheels.
5. Controls. Fit sensors and rewire the paddles and other controls.
6. Instructions. How do you install all that?
So, does anyone knows where we can get the parts, and has a good idea of how we could fit it all?