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

[VA61DETT]

-Smokey228

The plan is to keep battery minimum charge over 20% for normal running.
I do 500k+ / week for work. Given that, it 'should' pay for itself in 8 years

Proof will be in the eating....

-Hiro
Yep family holiday in a green house?!?, near enough...
I bought the car in Melbourne and drove it back to Perth on permits ;p

-A

[Hiro]

-Hiro
Yep family holiday in a green house?!?, near enough...
I bought the car in Melbourne and drove it back to Perth on permits ;p

I was more referring to the miracle of fitting a family + luggage for a decent holiday in the thing, plus what would probably equal a 30-40% increase in mass....

[oldcorollas]

inneresting point...how much do batteries and motor weigh, compared to the 100+kg of motor it had in there?

edit: leccy motor shipping weight is 59kg!! so motor itself is 50-55?
https://www.zeva.com.au/trading_post.php?id=34

batteries = 5.6kg each!! x 45 = 250kg....
http://www.thunder-sky.com/pdf/200871782241.pdf

so maybe plus 200kg minus exhaust (20-30kg?), minus full fuel tank (50-60kg) minus whatever else?

be interesting to see final weight

edit: do you keep standard battery? or can that be ditched too? thats a few kg there... plus all the engine wiring and piping and emissions crap etc..

[RA23]

For anyone who wants to get rid of their gearbox, diff, driveshafts as well, here is a link to a company called PML who has developed a range of wheel motors:
http://www.pmlflightlink.com/motors/wheelmotors.html

This is one of the cars that uses them:
http://www.lightningcarcompany.com/

[greywolf]

Family holiday in a Sera? That's good for a laugh, even without an electric motor....

When I was just a baby, we did a family holiday in Dad's TA23, that was me, my mother, father, and two family friends (adults), and the dog.

[Hack]

One of these looks like it would fit perfectly under the bonnet of an early RWD Corolla...

I wonder if anyone makes a stand alone torque converter type thing to reduce the shockload on the gearbox?

Hack

[VA61DETT]

-Hack

The speed controller had an adjustable ramp rate, so you don't break things when ya floor it

-A

[Hack]

Ah, cool.

Once you get it going, for the next stage, you could always put a small gas turbine driving 3 generators charging some massive capacitors in the boot

Hack

[VA61DETT]

09-04-2008
Small update

Extracted the crank end the other day,


Will be sending this off to be bored out & keyed to suite the Impulse9.
Any one know a good machine shop in Perth?

-A

[VA61DETT]

Small update,

Got new Xtreame heavy duty blah blah blah.. Clutch kit
Crank end is off down the fitters for keyway cutting.
Have ripped out rear seats / interior bits. now plenty of room for battries

Should be install the motor & G/B this weekend if all goes well.

-A

[TERRA Operative]

Sweet. Don't skimp on pictures!

[Dust]

http://endless-sphere.com/forums/index.php

Very smart people on this forum in regards to electric vehicles.

no matter what this costs you, it will definately be satisfying driving around and seeing petrol prices going up.

[VA61DETT]

Sunday, 26 April 2009

Been a very productive weekend

Picked up newly bored & keyed crank end from the machine shop on Friday arvo.
Had to do a little cleanup as there was a 5 thou variance from one end to the other :/

Keyed, tapped & ready to go…


That aside it now fits like a charm..


Next up, flywheel goes on a crash diet.

Before:

After:



Would have been nice to get before & after weights… oh well.

Bolted everything up this evening.
Looking good:


Alignment is spot on!
No trouble what-so-ever getting the gearbox / clutch lined up & was able to turn it without binding

Planning to test fit everything tomorrow morning & work out how to go about brackets for the air con pump etc…
Need to get some new engine mounts as some of the original ones are starting to crack up.
Have also started work on the battery box, planning to ditch the back seats & fit in 3 rows of cells in a tapered shape to suite the chassis contours.
The box will be made out of 3mm steel sheet & incorporate 2 large fans to pull air from top the through the battery bank & out the bottom where the passenger seat wells are (pending removal).
I am planning to monitor the average temperature of the cells in several locations to determine fan speed & provide a visual indication / warning on the dash.

Busy busy phew!
Ok bring on the F1 already….

-A

[RA35GT]

WOW. damn kewl mate!

[wagonist]

Engine mounts: make them solid, it's not like you've got to worry about the vibrations of a recipricating motor any more. And I dare say the intantaneous torque of the electric motor would cause them problem anyway.

As for the A/C, what have the 2 Prius models used? You may be able to get something 2nd hand off the first model JDM Prius. They've started being brung in as grey imports now.