No pistons, no fuel, no worries! Toyota Sera EV Conversion begins…

[Scuzzy]

Solar gain is pretty nutty in a Sera, getting it tinted will aid the air con system too

[mtbez]

great to see something different done "outside the square".

[thechuckster]

Suggestion? mount (flexible) solar panels to roof/hatch so car charges itself while parked at work?

[beerhead]

Only drama is the amount of power to charge the system. My solar setup is 1.5KW and takes up 5m x 1.5m of roof space, and at 12 hours of sunlight a day you get 8-12kw/hrs. So to get 200km of run time it'll take a week to charge! I bet I could walk that far in a week

[thechuckster]

true - but those 6-7hrs of trickle charge at work will help a bit - and if you went on holiday, a week out in the sun would be helpful.

Even if you only use the sunlight to do stuff like ventilate the car when parked, every bit of non-carbon-fuelled energy helps (a tiny, teeny bit).

[VA61DETT]

Bring me some 98% efficient flexible roll-on solar cells.
Then we can talk

Though the ventilation idea is not half bad, since the thing is such a glasshouse!

-A

[LUXPWR]

Awesome build mate, congradulations! Sorry if you have mentioned it previously, but what type of LiOn batteries are they? Do you know what material is inside, ie Li-Polymer, FePO4 etc???

[VA61DETT]

-LUXPWR

Lithium Iron phosphate, Thundersky 160Ah units

-A

[LUXPWR]

Ahhh LiFePO4! Good stuff! I did a bit of battery research a couple of years ago for my honours thesis. I remember reading a lot about this material, I believe they had just managed to get the storage capacity up to an acceptable level back then. All the best with it!

[Shakotan_Aaron]

just went back 12months in this thread to find the youtube vids. wow, it looks like this is a semi viable option. what would be even better would be having a renewable recharging station at home (solar, water turbine etc or what ever).

not only would you be not using fuel, but you would be screwing the government out of all the tax they get from petrol!! so double win there.

[VA61DETT]

-ae71

Cheers

Yer a nice big solar array would be awesome....
Would need about a 3kw system, still a tad pricey for the moment.

-A

[Shakotan_Aaron]

have you checked if there are any government rebate for solar panels? i know they have had them for solar hot water systems for a while.

[TERRA Operative]

now stick it on a dyno to see how efficient your drivetrain is and how flat your torque curve is.

[VA61DETT]

Heh,

-TERRA
Totally need to get it on the Dyno!
Would be really interesting to measure the drive-line loss & see how the numbers stack up.
Must keep an eye out for a local club dyno day.

-ae71
Yer I believe there are still some government rebates on the installation of ~2kw systems for those grid connect units.
My Fokes have a 1.8kw system & can get a good price when charging off peak (we have a little timer installed so it automatically starts charging during off peak).

[brett_celicacoupe]

awesome job mate.

the dollar is looking more favorable to purchase the parts for a conversion like this. i wonder if the aus retailers are reflecting prices from the strong dollar