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4 minute(s) of a 19 minute read
2-25-2009
The exterior will be as original as I can make it. Obviously if I extend the front end then it'll look a little funny and probably a little more aerodynamic than the classic boxy look.
I'm going to put the interior all back the way it came, but without all the wires and stuff. I'll have to redo the gauge cluster, since all the gauges were broken when I got the car. I'll probably put in an electronic readout of sorts, but we'll see. The heater controls will also be different, but I plan on keeping the stock radio and all the trim.
No motor pics yet. It's disassembled right now so I can lighten it up and figure out just how I'm going to cool it. I'll get some soon. Our work camera that I've been using just crapped out, so I've got to remember to bring my GFs down with me, or find a cord so I can charge my flash battery.
The battery situation is difficult for me. If I was going low-voltage it would be easy. I'd just use golf cart batteries. Unfortunately, low-voltage high-power motors are harder to come by, so I went "high"-voltage. It's a 240V 3-phase induction motor, so I'm going to need a 340V battery pack. I can't afford lithium, so that's out. That is, unless someone knows where I can get $16,000 that I don't need to pay back.
So, I'm stuck with lead acid, which normally would be easy. Golf cart batteries are cheap, easy to find, and they take lots of abuse. Unfortunately, I would need 56 batteries to get the voltage I need, and at 50lbs each that's too much weight. So, I'm now forced to go with 12V batteries, which are generally more expensive for the same capacity in Wh.
My current quest is to find a pack of 28 12V lead acid batteries that give me about 40 Ah each at my discharge rate, which I figure will be around 40A. Of course, I won't know my real current draw until I get some motor tests done, so this is all estimated.
I'm going to try and get a battery company to sponsor me for some free advertising. If I'm lucky someone will give me a sweet discount in exchange for putting their logo on my car and website and all that so they can get some good press. If not, I figure I'll spend between $1500 and $2500 for the pack, which will last about a year if I'm lucky. At $2/gallon that's about a wash for me in my Aveo, when I figure in the cost of electricity to charge the car.
2-26-2009
I thought about the Prius batteries, because there are enough of them out there now that I could assemble a pack to get me to work. Unfortunately, the Prius batteries are 275V (a little too low) and are only 6.5Ah. That ends up being 1788 Wh, or just under 6.5MJ. I would need at least 7 of those packs to get me to work, so that figures $3000 for a pack of used and unknown batteries.
If I could be sure they would last me a year, and also that they were still good for at least 80% of their capacity, then I'd jump on it. Unfortunately, that's a lot of risk. Those batteries don't do well if they've been sitting in a junkyard for a month, and to make things worse I'd have to go through the time and $$$ to put together a proper charging system.
It's still tempting, because the pack would only weigh 300lbs and wouldn't take up much space, but for $4000 I can get a new NiMH pack that would do the same thing and weigh 500lbs. Money is the main thing here. In a couple years I'll probably convert to something other than lead-acid, when I'm rich and lithium is cheaper. Until then, I've got some welding to do. 1200lbs worth of welding.
