EV conversion for the future

This could be the way to go in the near future. If you’re van is a long time keeper it’s doable. These guys seem to be getting into conversions and also talk about a diy kit. I am a bit sceptical about that however, HV is dangerous in inexperienced hands

 

Very interested in this, thanks for posting.
I think he says 6 battery packs each side, 8 in the centre and 6 in the rear.
I just googled the weight of a Tesla battery pack and it looks like it’s 26Kg. That’s 676Kg of batteries.
It would be very interesting to know what the total additional weight will be over engine, gearbox and full fuel tank.

 

Be interesting to see the total weight as the vehicle has its own maximum , could be so heavy it won’t take a passenger, but costs are still astronomical, conversions need to drop to a sensible price and have greater range, let’s say you ran out of juice half way up a mountain, can’t just pop up with a gallon can of electricity

 

Plus where is the aircon unit for making the batteries work on cold days, and keeping them alive when it is hot. They might as well be Nissan Leaf batteries as a result.

 

Thanks for posting, i looked at the ev west diy kit but ruled it out on price plus the range isn't great and you lose luggage capacity. These guys are going to put batteries under the floor which seems a good idea (retains the cabin/ storage space) same approach as youtuber jehu garcia on his split bus. Ev west however say they don't put the batteries under the floor on their conversions as they are too exposed under there.. jehu's bus lives in southern california so i think he likely has less issues vs. a uk bus in terms of road grime, mud, rain etc

this conversion sounds like it'll have the same number of packs as a model s - great for range, but expensive and heavy. i've subscribed - will be interesting to see how this pans out.

 

It makes me laugh when I see people wetting the bed about Scooby conversions, they'll be throwing themselves off Blackpool Tower when they see this

 

A public service film on this subject will now follow:




@Barry Haynes already has the light up jockstrap should anyone want the wiring diagram.

 

Here’s one I made earlier

 

Most Hybrid vehicles I work on have the batteries underneath. I don’t see an issue, however a cover to prevent road grime/salt would be advisable. I wouldn’t be talking our van out on winter gritted roads though.
Here’s the guys DIY kit, seems pretty comprehensive with cooler for the BCM & PTC heater. However I wouldn’t feel comfortable doing it myself even though i am a time served auto electrician with HV training.

 

Its just the reality that batteries are already at a point of diminishing returns.

The only way EVs get sensible ranges is by having a lighter vehicle with a massive well maintained battery pack. And you still have to put up with long charging stops . A 100kWH battery still takes 10 minutes to charge with 600kW going in. And at the moment doing that too often will damage the battery.
No way that happens at home. That needs more than just three phase mains.

Fitting an inherently heavy vehicle with batteries is always going to produce a variation on an old Nissan Leaf. Not a lot of range, the ability to go scary fast for a few minutes then limp back on the remaining battery charge, or with the fans blasting away and the inverters in safe mode if you over cook it.

If you put more energetic chemicals in the packaging, you can get more energy out, but the effect on you of some of those chemicals could be quite horrific.
At least with petrol if you keep the air away it doesnt burn. Batteries contain all they need to make energy by themselves in a vacuum.

 

be interesting to know about multi vehicles in high speed accidents and the dangers of smashed casings, touching metals and injured people sat in the car waiting to be pulled out by the fire service

 

Its interesting too, I found a NASA paper on using lithium batteries in power tools on space.

Their estimate was that a single 18650 cell can produce a maximum about 3kW of heat when it fails. Multiply that up by hundreds and you get a lot of heat.

The NASA power tool battery ended up massive full of metal plates and spaces so one cell couldnt set off the rest and the housing could take the heat.

Car lithium batteries are the opposite. Generally quite safe but they might have to bulldoze away the burning car to protect others in a multi car pile up.

The spike in the middle of the steering wheel is quite far down but it has come back.

 

I don't see electric as viable for classics, yet. Lithium technology is decades old, there are further cell capacity optimizations to be had, but I fear they are marginal compared to the increase in energy density required to fit cells into the same space as a classics engine bay and fuel tank. As Mike said, the modern EV gets away with it by taking a completely fresh approach to where the fuel is located.

 

It would be interesting in the weight of these conversions against the max laden weight limits of the vehicle I suspect most will be over

 

Then most converters will use low profile cool looking tyres, now generally speaking, skinny tyres have lower load ratings, double whammy.

 

The guy in the next unit to me,reckons that the battery situation has been gone about all wrong!
His idea is a quickly interchangeable pack , a bit like a suitcase.
When it's nearly flat call in to a service station and change for a fully charged one.
On initial contract sort out expected vehicle usage and if needed add multiple packs.
Would save loitering around motorway services.

 

in order to do that you'd have to have every electric vehicle with exactly the same pack. I just don't think that is feasible to get every manufacturer to agree on and design their cars around a single unit. Requirements for luxury saloon and city car are completely different, plus the weight of the batteries means it's never going to be as simple as a "suitcase" that can be lifted easily.

We've owned an electric car for over a year now, 100% of charging is done at home. If we did ever need to re-charge on a long journey, then tbh after 180ish miles i'm due for a comfort break anyway so i really don't see the issue in having to stop for 40 minutes or whatever. Charging tech is improving so the re-charge time is only going to reduce.

 

Likewise, I think it would need staff and lifting gear to exchange batteries.

I've also had an electric car now for three years. It's a BMW I3 but at best I can only get about 130 miles out of it, so haven't tried to go very far and have only rarely charged away from home. If I was working full time this wouldn't be satisfactory, and if my camper was electric and had such a short range it wouldn't be much good either.

I expect though that battery technology will improve vastly quite soon. Either that or we'll be running hydrogen powered fuel cells. Graphene seems to be the future in both cases.

 

Ditto i3 here also, its a relatively recent one with 120Ah battery, so range somewhere like 180ish miles. With covid, the diesel honda and the vw have only had a handful of trips out in the last 9 months, everything else we've needed to do has been done in the electric car.