Talk to me about EV's

[catsinthewelder]

moto_0127 by Catsinthewelder, on Flickr

 

My work hack HiJet pickup has OMG HGF, it's had it for ages but my boss and the local garage have been fobbing me off for months muttering about airlocks. They now believe me after it disapeared in a cloud of steam last week and I dragged the mechanic out to fetch it from the side of the A49. I was hoping that they were going to sort it out but now theres talk of a new one being required as it's too old (02) and much hand wringing about the cost and trying to find one.

 

Now I'm a big soppy hippy and would quite like to convert it to an electric vehicle as it mostly lives in town and has an average journey length of about 1/4 mile. I've found a company that converts them and offers kits for an eye watering £4750 http://www.everything-ev.com/index.php? ... cts_id=432, now work are skint so is there a cheaper/ easier way or am I going to have to hitch a trailer to the ride on mower

 

edit, just spotted this on the bay http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/PIAGGIO-PORTE ... 460c521a4e

[Craig the Princess]

I'm sure this site (http://forkenswift.com/) has been on here a million times before but basically take an electric forklift, cross it with a Suzuki Swift and you have this.

[Des]

I've pondered about similar in the past, on noticing how appalingly hybrids tend to be driven it occured that there could be an affordable source of lithium batteries to cut out from the things once they've been concertinaed, my brothers a design engineer specialising in motor speed control, the right control and lithiums would make electrimification quite viable, but then realised there'd be no demister for the windscreen so I thought fuck it.

[AeroNautiCal]

White Zombie (the electric Datsun) really took off when they stuck a Lithium Ion power pack in it!

[Wilko220]

Win* Autoshite and convert an old milk float instead...

[jonny69]

Probably no need to go to lithium batteries if you're not planning to try and do mega-mileage or get super performance. If you're realistically going to have a vehicle that rarely goes over 50mph or only does about 30-40 miles a day then stick with deep-draw lead acid, which is still plenty viable. You can also stick with DC - some systems switch to AC when cruising because it's more efficient but the installation cost is more.

 

So the stats are basically (off the top of my head and a few quick calculations):

 

-You need about 12-14kwh of deep-draw lead acid batteries to do about 30-40 miles, which will set you back about £1000. They can be charged about 300-500 times so let's say they have to be replaced once a year if you completely emptied them. This strings into about 250-300kg of batteries, so pickups and vans are ideal for conversions.

 

-On conventional electricity rates a charge is going to cost about £2, or about 45p on Economy 7. So if you go the Eco 7 route then your yearly charging cost is £165 if you do it for 365 days. 365 days at 30 miles is about 10,000 miles. Let's say the petrol car does 35mpg on average, that's £1700 in petrol at £1.30/l (or £1400 in diesel for 45mpg and £1.40/l).

 

Road tax aside, the yearly consumables cost for the electric vehicle are cheaper than the petrol or diesel whichever way you look at it. Installation costs vary but there are kits and guides out there. Like I said - keep it simple and it stays cheap. As soon as you add technology you also add cost and it gets expensive quite quickly. I haven't factored this in, but you can also get quite a lot back for your old lead acid batteries when you take them in for recycling because scrap lead has good rates.

[RedSparrow]

Interesting site, I'd like to know how these are selling for £70k:

 

 

Looks like a Soviet prototype from the 1970s.

[jonny69]

Also, motorwise, 40kW equates to just over 50hp, 30kW equates to just under 40hp. Both will be fine to do 50mph with acceptable acceleration in my opinion.