Electric vehicles-Conversions

[MikeT]

Roughly where the top end of the engine and radiators would be, Jim, sitting above the motor, under the seat and faux tank.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Wind the clock back just a little, and its fairly obvious where the batteries were on this electric bike...

Two up with Dacier and Jalabert on board....

edit....doesnt seem to like the link....at the mo! edit 2...does now....

http://www.flickriver.com/photos/letter ... 806/#large

I'll pop something in the PE Library for the curious about the early days!

Regards Neil

[CitroJim]

Roughly where the top end of the engine and radiators would be, Jim, sitting above the motor, under the seat and faux tank.

Thanks Mike, that makes sense

[MikeT]

Roughly where the top end of the engine and radiators would be, Jim, sitting above the motor, under the seat and faux tank.

Thanks Mike, that makes sense

If you imagine a frame without it's power plant, stick an electric motor where the gearbox sits, the rest is empty space for batteries and controllers.

Guy Martin describes riding a TT Zero bike as like a 250 with a glass throttle and that they have great corner speed. which seems counter-intuitive as they're a fair bit heavier than the ICE bikes

Here's an on-board video of John McGuinness in 2014

[Mandrake]

Interesting research on the trends of EV design:

https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/aut ... cle-design

[white exec]

Simon, that Mckinsey report makes some sobering reading, and will run some panic through ICE manufacturer boardrooms. No wonder they're fighting to put off the inevitable. A dinosaur moment. Plenty of large industrial concerns have failed to innovate and adapt, notably American ones . . . GM and Kodak, for example.

[Mandrake]

Simon, that Mckinsey report makes some sobering reading, and will run some panic through ICE manufacturer boardrooms. No wonder they're fighting to put off the inevitable. A dinosaur moment. Plenty of large industrial concerns have failed to innovate and adapt, notably American ones . . . GM and Kodak, for example.

What I found surprising is just how much variance there is in how many of the core components are outsourced from one EV to another.

We all know that Tesla outsource the actual cell production to Panasonic (although they make them on site in the Gigafactory) but I wasn't aware they also outsourced the "gearbox" to a company now owned by Borg-Warner. Gearbox here meaning the 9:1 step down gear and differential attached to the motor. This is surprising because most of the early drive unit "failures" Tesla had, if you can call a whining noise but the car still drives perfectly a failure, were due to weaknesses in the design and manufacture of the gearbox, including the consistency of grease application, and also a problem of induced AC current in the actual gearbox itself causing erosion and pitting of the bearings.

But they do assemble the actual battery pack themselves, design and make the battery management systems, cooling systems, the motor itself etc, so everything is in house except cell manufacture and the gearbox/diff.

If you look at the Leaf the only part of the EV drive train Nissan directly make is the motor, everything else is outsourced to various OEM's like AESC, Denso etc...

The worst from a point of outsourcing is the Chevy Bolt where every single component of the drive train, battery and related electronics is outsourced to LG. So they just designed and assembled together 3rd party pieces ??

Compare that to BYD (China) where everything including cells is built in house...

[white exec]

BYD are, I think, a company to watch. They are the outfit that are shipping double-decker buses to Transport for London, and also producing a range of large and small trucks and utility vehicles. The kit, apparently, is high quality.

The Chinese have a huge imperative on EVs, where HMG seems to think "Britain leads the world", but in fact barely recognises the problem when it comes to meaningful action on urban air quality.

[xsaras4ever]

Hello to all.

We have a sister living in New-Zealand.

They "buy" miles in advance there. So you buy 3000miles , get a ticket and away you go.

Of course, this would only work in a country where the police have the power to pop up a roadblock and check cars.

We are in France , no road tax atall.

The Gendarme can be anywhere. Drive through a small village on Sunday, around the next bend and find 2 Gendarme motorcycles and they are stopping cars to check insurance and Controle Technique (MoT).

Produce your paperwork, they check it , they have a quick look at the general state of your vehicle and you are on your way.

The first time it happenned to us we were a bit shaky, but its nothing to be concerned about if everything is in order.

It seems that the whole polluting issue and electric vehicles situation will have to be legislated for very thouroughly from the beginning to get it right. There is no shame is looking at what works in other countries rather than trying to re-invent the wheel

[Mandrake]

They also announced the 2nd generation Tesla Roadster:

* 620 miles of range on a single charge at "highway" speed.
* 200kWh battery pack.
* 0-100mph in 4.2 seconds. Yes zero to 100mph not 0-60. 0-60mph in 1.9 seconds. Fastest (acceleration) production car ever they're saying.
* Four wheel drive with one motor at the front (with a diff) and two at the rear allowing for controlled torque steering. (Similar to the Rimac concept one)
* 10,000 Nm of torque.
* Available in 2020. (So lets say 2021...)

Just to straighten the record a bit - the ludicrously high torque figure of 10,000 Nm turns out to actually be combined wheel torque not motor torque.

It does actually say so in the presentation but I missed that, and cars don't usually quote torque at the wheel!

They don't say what the step down ratio is from motor to wheels but people in the know say based on the Model S the ratio will probably be about 9:1, in which case that means the combined torque of all the motors at the motors is about 1111 Nm. Still extremely impressive, but not ridiculously so as the Model S P100D already does 980Nm combined motor torque before the step down gear...

[CitroJim]

0-100 in 4.2 seconds is a bit quick... Must be on a par with an F1 car I'd think...

Surely this level of acceleration and speed is incredibly dangerous in the hands of an ordinary driver on a public road... It strikes me as irresponsible of the maker to offer such performance on a road car...

[myglaren]

This may have been posted here previously but highlights Jim's concerns.

[Mandrake]

0-100 in 4.2 seconds is a bit quick... Must be on a par with an F1 car I'd think...

It's quicker than any production road car currently available.

Surely this level of acceleration and speed is incredibly dangerous in the hands of an ordinary driver on a public road... It strikes me as irresponsible of the maker to offer such performance on a road car...

I fully agree Jim - there are plenty of people with the money to buy a $200,000 sports car but without the sense or driving skill to drive it safely!

[Gibbo2286]

0-100 in 4.2 seconds My only question about that would be WHY

[Hell Razor5543]

I want to know what the 100 - 0 time is. One thing that Jeremy Clarkson said should be in the vehicle data figures is that, as (in his opinion) it is far more important to know how quickly a vehicle can stop as opposed to how quickly it can go.