[ausev] Fwd: EV

[Gil Dawson]

Below is a message from my partner's brother who lives in Austin with 
a challenge for us EV enthusiasts.  He has a Porche been sitting in 
his parents' garage for years, and apparently he's done some 
homework.  Before I write him back, I thought I'd ask you guys for 
some suggestions.   Any comments will be appreciated.

--Gil


At 2:45 P -0500 6/14/07, Beau Eccles wrote:

Okay, it's time for me to admit that I've spent an inordinate amount of
time lately thinking about EV conversion of an ICE vehicle.  At first
blush the conversion of the Porsche 914 seemed like a great way to go,
but then the unfortunate aspects of the donor vehicle push me away.
Sure, the mid engine design of the car makes room in the front and back
of the car for putting in batteries, but the car is unibody steel and is
so much heavier than any other two seat vehicle that has been on the
market in decades that an insane amount of energy is bled into pushing
it around.  Furthermore, the conversion kit for the 914 is through a
company that is reported to be taking two years to deliver its orders.

The ever-shifting battery landscape and dearth of dedicated EV engines
is also disturbing.  Conversion blogs show aggravated converters going
from lead acid to NiMH to LiH, and still not being happy with the
results.  There also appears to be no standard for what type of motor is
the best in power usage/torque/and low to high-end performance mix - nor
any centralized place that describes the landscape of available motors.
One guy will use the motor for landing gear extension on a jumbo jet to
convert a VW Jetta, the next a cooling fan for an 18 wheeler.

As for the weight/drag properties of the donor vehicle, if you actually
want the thing to see highway speeds then the conventional car design
doesn't appear to be the way to go.  There was a very cool
motorcycle-based, tandem seated  "autocycle" built for a few years in
the late 80s that had a 900 pound weight that might be a good candidate
for EV conversion, but I don't understand why there doesn't appear to be
any standardized EV powerplant (W batteries + X converter + Y controller
+ z motor = 50hp) - just a few hundred folks tinkering with batteries
and ill-suited motors.  I'm disturbed by the persistence of NEVs being
the only EVs available and I don't want a golf cart.

What gives?