[ausev] Questions

[Mark Farver]

Jim Watson wrote:
>
> Also, how reliable are your converts? How much maintenance is required 
> to keep them running?? ($$ batteries, fuses, controller, wiring) What 
> part or parts of the electric car do you find that you have to keep 
> modifying??

Reliability is sort of a coin toss.  I tell people that electric vehicle 
technology is itself very reliable.  Cars built by guys like me in our 
garages, somewhat less so.  (Anything that is one-off custom is subject 
to errors and bugs)

The components themselves tend to be fairly reliable, few people have 
had a motor or controller failure.  Battery failures are a little more 
common, but easy to fix.  Most of my failures have been in work I did 
myself, bad electrical connections, poor welds, mechanical design or 
whatnot.  Usually these are bugs that get worked out shortly after the 
build is complete, and after that the car will probably be quite 
reliable (unless you like to tinker.)  On the plus side troubleshooting 
is usually very easy, and it only takes a few minutes to figure what 
component is at fault.

Mark