Hey guys i’m new here but I am very interested in starting an EV project. I have a 1989 mercury tracer
manual transmission
good body condition
weights about 2300 lbs with engine and others, not counting drivers weight
only want two front seats, the entire back can be used for batteries
I would like a range of about 50 to 60 miles. my average speed on my daily commute is 50-55 mph. I am not worried about acceleration as long as it keeps up with traffic well.
Does this sound reasonable or not?
how do you go about figuring out what type of motor, number of batteries and type of controller. I have messed with the EV calculator but am not sure what to input.
I live near Cincinnati, Ohio (summers can get into the high 90’s and winters get into the singles digits).
Any help is very appreciated,
-Ben Ryan
Hi Ben, The cold can be a real problem with lead acid batteries, you will have to keep them a little warm in the winter, for reasonable range, but it sounds like you have a good candidate for conversion there.
You will probably want a minimum of 120volts for decent acceleration, and speed, but for your commute, your only problem will be having enough battery capasity. 50-60 miles without a charge is asking alot, not impossible by any means, but you will have to do some planning to have this kind of range, plus about 20 more for emergency “get home” power.
I am assuming that lithium is out of the price range? You can easily get 100mi range out of a reasonably light/aerodynamic car, but it will cost you $15-20,000 for batteries. This cost does get more reasonable, when you consider that the lithium batteries last 5 or more times longer than lead acid.
I have never had much success with trying to make estimates using the EV calc. It just does not seem to match the milage of the real cars I put in there.
If like most people you use lead acid batteries, you will probably be using a DC motor (8 or 9in.), and something like a Curtis, os Zilla 1k controller. I would think you will be nooding at least 150AH from your batteries, and probably more, unless you have a half way charge at work.
I would highly recommend checking out Austin Ev, if you have not yet. There are hundreds of cars to steal ideas from there. Good luck, Eric http://evalbum.austinev.org/type