Ratty2Austin Posted April 3, 2005 Share Posted April 3, 2005 I have been considering making an electric vehicle for a few years now, and didnt really consider it seriously untill now.. with fuel prices going the way they are.. and the price and availability of EA engine parts, the reliability and such.. it just makes more sense to have an electric powered car.. not to mention, electronics is what I would rather work with than a gas engine... no oil, no coolant no gas! only ohms law and math! (well, and a lot of Li-Ion/NiMH or Lead Acid batteries some high voltage controllers, and a wall plug!) I have been looking at the current available kits for EV conversions, some companys make generic kits for particular vehicle weights and power requirements. there is also DC or AC kits, regenerative braking (like compression braking, but it recharges the batteries when you slow down) there are also kits available for particular cars- like VW rabbits, or porche 914s... the AC kits are more expensive but are more efficient.. the DC kits are more affordable but less efficient. but still waaaayyyy more efficicent than gas engines... I have a few links for parts needed for the conversions, like electric motors and batteries.. and speed controls and chargers.... I am aiming for a 120V DC regenerative system, which will probably cost around 6 or 7 thousand for the parts needed... the good things once complete, the usability- approxametly 100 miles per charge range.. around 80 mph top speed! (thats faster than the EA81!!) no oil changes (except gear oil every 15k or 30k) no fuel! (unless I build a range extending trailer) no need to tune carbs/ clean parts! NO emissions testing ever!!! (zero emissions!!) i think there is some sort of tax break or legal benifit to use and EV? higher acceleration and top speed than an EA81 but... its expensive, and I will need to have an adaptor plate made to fit the tranny.. and a flywheel adaptor for the electric motor to accept the ea81 flywheel. how does this sound? would anyone else want to have an electric car made? (converted) i would like to do this, but funding is in short supply, but I think with enough people chipping in, if some people have the money but not the know-how, or..? (i could sell the brat all restored with the EA81 and use that money to buy a deceased ea82 with a nice body and make it electric!) I hope this is making sense, cause I feel like I am just rambling on and on! links to *some* (not many!) of the EV sites I have found this first one has a lot of parts to do the conversion- http://www.kta-ev.com/catalog/index.html http://www.electroauto.com/ http://www.ev-america.com/ http://www.uqm.com/ http://jerryrig.com/convert/step6.html this one is cool.. the fast stuff! http://www.acpropulsion.com/tzero_pages/tzero_home.htm here is the AC drive system... http://www.acpropulsion.com/Products/AC_150.htm (somewhere on this page, it states that the efficiency of a good running gas car is about 20% eff. where, the AC driven EV would run at about 86% eff. under load, and 91% peak eff.!!!) I have also considered doing this as collage material, but I dont know how it applys, or where to go to put this to good use..? any more ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WoodsWagon Posted April 3, 2005 Share Posted April 3, 2005 I read a book by a guy who converted an EA82 wagon into electric. He had solar panels on the roof of the car and on his barn to help with the charging. Said it worked well, but it got killed by being run off the road into a telephone pole. I forget the name of the book, sorry. But there is a book out there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carfreak85 Posted April 3, 2005 Share Posted April 3, 2005 We've done a bunch of work on hybrid cars at Western and the good batterys (The ones out of the Prius) are very, VERY expensive! I say go for it. Just remember that you will drain the batteries a lot faster if you offroad with the car. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ratty2Austin Posted April 3, 2005 Author Share Posted April 3, 2005 We've done a bunch of work on hybrid cars at Western and the good batterys (The ones out of the Prius) are very, VERY expensive! I say go for it. Just remember that you will drain the batteries a lot faster if you offroad with the car. well, the idea of my brat is not to offroad it, especially with 1000+lbs of batteries onboard... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ross Posted April 3, 2005 Share Posted April 3, 2005 Sounds like a good plan to me. If i had the cash, i would be doing it too. I heard that some people are saying that crude could reach US$100 a barrel in the next year!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
operose Posted April 3, 2005 Share Posted April 3, 2005 biodiesel/waste vegetable oil baby! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hooziewhatsit Posted April 3, 2005 Share Posted April 3, 2005 <semi hijack> Has anyone besides me thought about putting a small two stroke diesel generator in to run the electric motor? I've heard/read that diesels can be tuned to a certain RPM to be very effecient. then, run it on biodiesel and charge the batteries/run the motor. </semi hijack> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ratty2Austin Posted April 3, 2005 Author Share Posted April 3, 2005 <semi hijack> Has anyone besides me thought about putting a small two stroke diesel generator in to run the electric motor? I've heard/read that diesels can be tuned to a certain RPM to be very effecient. then, run it on biodiesel and charge the batteries/run the motor. </semi hijack> well, as an addition to the EV conversion, one popular thing is to tow a trailer behind (or use the bed of the brat!) and have a small generator "range extender" trailer... a small desiel/gas generator that keeps it chargin' while you drive! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flowmastered87GL Posted April 3, 2005 Share Posted April 3, 2005 Funny, I was thinking of an EV brat too... I dont have the $$ either though. I deliver pizza though and that would be GREAT! Hell I could even charge it at work for free Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lukas Posted April 3, 2005 Share Posted April 3, 2005 First I thought its an april joke! You not gonna have the "Subi-Sound" anymore:-\! The batteries are very heavy, you have to charge it very often and its not a "real" Subaru anymore. My 2 cents. Lukas Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ratty2Austin Posted April 3, 2005 Author Share Posted April 3, 2005 First I thought its an april joke! You not gonna have the "Subi-Sound" anymore:-\! The batteries are very heavy, you have to charge it very often and its not a "real" Subaru anymore. My 2 cents. Lukas ahh, but you see, the cost of kWhr for 240vac is cheaper than gas of any kind... not to mention, per 100ish miles that i dont even drive in a day except on longer trips, I have to recharge myself anyways! (sleeping) which means that if I use it as I intend it, (work commuter, grocery getter, etc) i will only have to charge it when I sleep or park it.. which is a lot of the time. so the charging part is not a big deal! not to mention the idea of dragging a small biodeisel generator with me might be a good idea too.. this company makes generators for this purpose! http://www.fisherelectric.com/f_electric_vehicle_tech.htm I also found some sweet fast-EV stuff here!! like an 12 second 1/4 mi RX7 using pure electric drive! http://www.suckamps.com/ more WA located EV parts!! with an online store! http://www.evparts.com/firstpage.php and no, this is NOT april fools.. I really am considering this.. in fact, if I can figure out the $$ issue, the gas engine would already be pulled out of the brat and it would be stripped for battery and wiring prep! and.. if I want the subaru sound, I could record my favorite subarus, and play them back on the stereo! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
subie94 Posted April 3, 2005 Share Posted April 3, 2005 if you can get it done,more power to yah. just remember ....you can do anything in a subaru Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snowman Posted April 4, 2005 Share Posted April 4, 2005 I think that's a great idea. If you can afford the $$$, I say go for it. Another possibility would be to make it a sort of hybrid, kinda like diesel-electric trains. If you got an appropriately-sized diesel generator, you could probably cut the battery bank size way down. If it was engineered correctly, you could run around town (maybe have a 20-30 mile range?) on just the batteries, then fire up the genset for longer drives if it was sized so that it could propel the car and slowly charge the batteries while cruising at 55. You could also make a custom bed cover that had solar panels in it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoahDL88 Posted April 4, 2005 Share Posted April 4, 2005 I was thinking about the same thing with a justy or XT, i'm gonna see what matthew lesko can do about getting me a government grant Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
X35 Performance Posted April 4, 2005 Share Posted April 4, 2005 Seems like the BRAT is the perfect vehicle for the EV conversion... How about leaving the engine in the front, and rigging up the EV stuff in the back and hook it to the rear diff? Then you could use the EV stuff for quick trips around town, and keep the gas burner for big trips or recharging, etc.. Then you'd have a very hybrid Subaru.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
s'ko Posted April 4, 2005 Share Posted April 4, 2005 Austin check out this website http://www.rqriley.com/doran.html The Doran is a kit car that uses an EA front end. There is a way of making a EV Doran. Not sure if the price of the plans is worth the info, but it may increase your pool of info. Good luck on the project. BTW Please list your sources for parts. BW Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike W Posted April 4, 2005 Share Posted April 4, 2005 Some years back I was researching the EV stuff and came accross some dude on Whidbey Island that built a ghetto hybrid Brat. FWD EA81 and batteries in the bed powering some kind of electric drive to the rear end. That's all I Know but it sounded like it worked and used stuff he found for dirt cheap. Lately I've been thinking about doing something like a FWD Justy and adding some cheap golf cart batteries powering a motor to one rear wheel with parts canibabilized from a golf cart. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
X35 Performance Posted April 5, 2005 Share Posted April 5, 2005 Here is one for an Impreza..they use it to race autocross and such. Pretty cool. http://www.proev.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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