I am playing with the idea to make an EV project of my own and have the following things in mind for the moment:
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I would like to use a crash-safe and modern, yet very light car with at least 4 seats. Currently my ideas are to use a high mileage or defect engine year 2000-something small car such as a Audi a2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audi_A2 as a donor car. (Or perhaps a small French or Japanese…)
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I would love to have an engine set up that enable me to have maximum brake regeneration capability:
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Preferably a Non-gear system where I use a wheel hub engine system (like http://usa.vdo.com/press/releases/chassis-and-carbody/2006/SV_20061016_i.htm -if they will sell to me or http://shiwei.en.alibaba.com/offerdetail/201238460/Sell_Electric_Car_Hub_Motor.html )
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or a “typical” gear system but with the possibility to get some brake regeneration.
- A battery system that either consists of:
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Preferably Lithium Iron Phosphate (a123) or Thunder-Sky or the battery packs from http://www.lionev.com/ and that enables me to capture the regeneration electricity created when braking.
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Super capacitors for the high C capability + cheaper lead batteries
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Water cooling of battery, engine and controller.
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Focus on long range rather then high speed performance/acceleration.
I know that what I have in mind is a bit “cutting edge” and I am by no mean experienced in this area. But I would like to better understand if I you think that what I am about to do is feasible and more specifically what your comments are on the following questions:
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Is the small size of the donor car potentially an issue in terms of space for the electrical engine/batteries and so on, or would you recommend me to go for a more traditional approach and use a RAV4 for ex?
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What are your thoughts around a good brake regeneration concept that is either a non-gear system or a gear system. Is it worth it?
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Is AC or DC best motor ?
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Can I use the engine for the brake regeneration or do I need a generator to do this and what are the challenges around this? Do you know of anyone who has successfully done this?
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What are your thoughts around the a123 and the lionev.com’s or Thunder-sky (http://www.thunder-sky.com/order_en.asp ) battery-packs?
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Do you think it would make sense to try to build a rudementary water cooling framework in which you put the battery cells?
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Does it matter if I have a powerful v.s. a smaller motor in terms of power consumption (under the assumption that acceleration and top speed is kept the same)?
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Are you aware of a “great” conversion kit that you can recommend, that might make my life easier? I have seen many on the net but it is difficult to know which one is really good.
Cost is obviously an issue I need to keep in mind and I would like to try to keep them as low as possible.
I am sorry to bombard you with all these questions…
But I would be very interested to learn what people in this forum has to say about this!
Thank you in advance!
Daniel Giertz