hi everyone ive done alot of looking around here, but have been noticeing that alot of people have spent or are spending horrendious amounts of money on their conversions.
my father and i are wanting to do a simple basic conversion just to get things worked out on it using most likely used parts to begin with and new deepcycle marine batteries, or possibly normal car batteries if they can be used.oh and does the 96 volts mean that i will need just 8 12 volt batteries?
new here is my biggest and most important question.can it be done for $2000us or under? if so does anybody have any good links for where i can get the stff decently cheap, im noticeing the controller and the motor are going to be the biggest price hurdle to begin with.
ok im figureing on at least a 96vdc setup but would that give me decent powerful acceleration and a top speed of around 70mph or more with a 5 speed tranny? or is there more powerful options that i would still be able to get in my target price range or at most $1000 more?
im hopeing it is possible and people know of some places i can get the stuff needed at for a cheaper price
heres a pic of the car i wanting to convert, it still runs decent but the motor and auto tranny currently in it are getting old and tired i ws originally working on building it into a show car but since decided not to.
well for some reason the pic doesnt want to post, the car is a 97 plymouth breeze with a full modified drift body kit and a lousy red primer paint job
Hopefully one of the gurus will chime in here. If you haven’t done so already, you should check out www.evalbum.com and take a look at some of the project cars and the stats. Most cars list the estimated cost. Although, I think some of the estimated costs are exaggerated both high and low.
the horific cost is basicly paying for “fuel” before you use it. after about 1 year of using an EV it pays its self off. check out all the estimated fuel costs over one year for a car, and it shouldend up taking care of its self.
I hate to be the tree hugger here but I seem to care less about how long it takes to pay itself off and more about the impact on the environment it can make in that same amount of time. 
good luck on staying under 2k!
Controller for something in the 96V range with AT LEAST 300A continuous/600Max is no less than $1000 even if its a kelly controller, motor adds another 1000-1500. Then add a $200 contactor (required), a couple $50 gauges for Current and Voltage (required), and another $400-600 on a charger (required)… thats $2700 before you even get batteries. That doesn’t include a DC-DC converter to run your lights and accessories, but you could run that off an AUX battery, so its not required. and even at $75 a pop wallmart special batteries, you’re going to spend another $600 on cheap batteries you might have to replace in a year. 96V isn’t going to get you that far, or that fast.
Not to rain on the parade, but its not cheap, but it pays for itself in a couple years because of no gas.
So far I’ve spent about 700 on my motorcycle and I just need to put it together. Free batteries, free controller, $20 DC-DC, free contactor, $270 charger, $230 motor, cable, terminals and such were another hundred or so. It can be done, but you’ve got to sacrifice quality sometimes, as well as design some of the stuff yourself.
Go to youtube and search forkenswift. Beer budget EV licenced and driving the roads. You’ll see some videos and you can link to the forkenswift web page and blog.