Electric vehicles-Conversions

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Re: Electric vehicles-Conversions

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Re: Electric vehicles-Conversions

Post by harryp »

How interesting. Thats been very well thought out; most impressed. Cheers Neil.
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Re: Electric vehicles-Conversions

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Quite a number getting involved in classic car conversions. Plenty on this outfit from Wales, TV series too as reported on this thread here

viewtopic.php?p=678798#p678798

Mostly high end conversions for the well heeled, and this is probably no exception from Electrogenic, a firm based in Oxfordshire. Who knows they may even do nosey parker look rounds for the curious. :?:

The Works
Unit 12,
Station Field Industrial Estate,
Kidlington
OX5 1JD

Call: 01865 604343
https://www.electrogenic.co.uk/


So the car on POTD is A 1957 Morgan 4/4



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Re: Electric vehicles-Conversions

Post by bobins »

Edd china has recently started making some Youtube videos again. Part of the content will feature his conversion of a 'conventional' Mercedes ice cream van into an all electric van. The conversion appeals to me as it mates an electric motor onto the standard Merc gearbox.

His videos are around 30 minutes long and feature other car repair elements, so the video below should start at the ice cream van part. There will be a lot more more videos in the series.

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Re: Electric vehicles-Conversions

Post by NewcastleFalcon »

Every so often a new one of these pops up in the "Electric News"

This outfit are based here
Unit E6
Newark Rd S
Glenrothes
KY7 4NS

and have appeared in one of the go-to websites with a world-wide audience Cleantechnica based in the USA
Not as effective as a post on this thread on the FCF though :-D

Wayne’s Electron Garage Is Converting Classic Cars To EVs In Scotland


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Re: Electric vehicles-Conversions

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Never come across this approach to conversion before. This firm in Germany have patented it.
The idea
Our idea was and is to develop a cost-effective electric drive for the so-called second car, which completes its services in the daily short-haul range. So the drive to work or shopping etc. There are over 20 million registered small and medium-sized cars in Germany. We think that with the elantry system in this sector we are in good hands to achieve our goals here.

The affordable idea also plays a role here, that with a manageable investment for a constantly reusable elantrie drive (the drive is offered in a wide variety of car model series)
temp2.png
translated from German
The site is in German and the idea seems bonkers, but they have done it to a few cars including a Lada Niva :-D
temp3.png
2,800 euros, not sure if it includes the The LiFePO4 batteries used in the Elantrie system.

LiFePO4 is having a bit of a revival being safe and reliable if not as energy dense as some other chemistries.

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Re: Electric vehicles-Conversions

Post by mickthemaverick »

My mate and I came up with a very similar idea 2 years ago. The only difference was that we were going to dump the crankshaft and replace it with a straight shaft going through the motor and out to the transmission. We thought driving the existing crankshaft wirh a chain was simply asking the motor to turn over more metal mass than is necessary, so we intended to remove the head, block and contents and insert the motor in the crankcase with direct shaft to the transmission, manual or auto. I have sketches of our plan somewhere but not sure where!! :)
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Re: Electric vehicles-Conversions

Post by Dormouse »

So the plan was to use the bare crankcase as the mounting frame for the electric motor, yes?
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Re: Electric vehicles-Conversions

Post by mickthemaverick »

Yes, basically to replace the engine's innards with a single straight through shaft with commutator and armatures attached and then fix the magnets around it inside the crankcase! We have never progressed it beyond the sketch stage due to various domestic distractions! :)
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Re: Electric vehicles-Conversions

Post by Dormouse »

So the main bearings are the shaft supports and the armatures fit in the crank throws. Neat solution and not as daft as it sounds. The overall concept is sound to my thinking. Would you have retained the clutch?
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Re: Electric vehicles-Conversions

Post by mickthemaverick »

Yes in the case of a manual. My thinking was to keep all the transmission as it was in whatever vehicle was converted. Simply change the method of rotating the crankshaft by using the crank spaces as you say. With the main bearings supporting the new straight motor spindle. I got the idea from looking at the induction retardation systems fitted to coaches back in the day! It just seemed to me that the whole process could be made to fit in most inline ice cars and fit batteries where the fuel tank had been and wherever else was available in the car. Main cost would be having the shaft machined and building the armatures etc. We may get round to pursuing it further one day!! :)
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Re: Electric vehicles-Conversions

Post by Gibbo2286 »

I can't understand the thinking, surely you chuck the engine out altogether and mount the electric motor direct to the bell housing. :?
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Re: Electric vehicles-Conversions

Post by Dormouse »

I see how the retarder would have spiked your thoughts. A shaft replacement in a huge heatsink with the potential for liquid cooling - how much would that cost to re-engineer. Even the bores are useful conduits for wiring and cooling.
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Re: Electric vehicles-Conversions

Post by mickthemaverick »

Gibbo2286 wrote: 20 Aug 2021, 09:31 I can't understand the thinking, surely you chuck the engine out altogether and mount the electric motor direct to the bell housing. :?
Far too easy Gibbo :-D Part of the idea was to engineer our own motor but the thinking didn't really go much further than I have already said. We were contemplating an open frame motor layout scaled up from the early motors used in model railway locos and early scalextric cars, with the crankcase forming the frame and the existing bearing arrangement providing the structure. Bear in mind that our target vehicles were to be 50's to 80's classics with simple systems starting with my Mazda 323F which has since been replaced with my MX3. Integration into a more modern ECU equipped car was never part of our plan. At the time we had my 323F and his Series II Landy to play with and a possible Moggy from his sister!! :)
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Re: Electric vehicles-Conversions

Post by mickthemaverick »

Dormouse wrote: 20 Aug 2021, 09:51 I see how the retarder would have spiked your thoughts. A shaft replacement in a huge heatsink with the potential for liquid cooling - how much would that cost to re-engineer. Even the bores are useful conduits for wiring and cooling.
At the time we hadn't got round to thinking about cooling so nothing to add there. As for the wiring our ideas were along the lines of pvc conduit feeds for the motor and the controls but we didn't get as far as planning it. Fundamentally our main issue that we couldn't resolve was the cost of batteries and that put the whole project onto the back burner, or maybe even into the freezer!! :-D
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