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EV conversion

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Anyone has any thought on how good Pontiac Sunfire is for EV conversion?
It has a curb weight at about 1200kg (2600lbs). I think 4 door is better. Seems like there are enough of them around in Ontario Canada with blow engine/ head gasket. I would prefer a lighter car and a four door.
Has anyone done a Sunfire conversion? :confused:
 

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1997-2001 Pontiac Sunfire curb weight is between 1181-1318kg (2600-2900lbs) 4door/2door/convertible. Surprised that a convertible is heavier than standard.
 
Don't know yet, I found kellycontroller to be more reasonable, but I didn't see a motor big enough for 110km/hr and 60km range. I think I have to go to 120VDC.

Have you blueroomelectronics or anybody used the earth4energy books claiming free batteries and motor and $200 for home energy - it seems phoney to me. I saw one post about solar panels where they got nothing out of eart4energy books
 
Finding a battery power source for your car will probably drive you crazy. You need a massive amount of batteries and the weight will reduce any sort of economy.
Save your money and buy a proper hybrid, they'll be cheaper soon.

Yep, those types of books aren't worth the paper they're written on.
 
Then they're not worth the electrons. I've read a few and they're all amateur night copy and paste from either datasheets or web sites. Nothing they'll tell you would be no different from the results of a good google search.
The book reviews are all shills, can you really trust snake oil salesmen?

As for your EV car you'll probably find almost no one has done a rust bucket conversion. Using a boatload of car batteries that might catch fire and cost a fortune to charge up.
 
I don't know how well an EV would work around here in winter months. Have not heard of any from around here.

I would like to do one and maybe do conversions for as part of business? Converting these cars for people as they get sick of gas and pollution prices.
 
I drove a Prius from 2001-2004, then I was hoping for a North American hybrid - are you kidding; I was derided and discouraged by dealers from trying to buy a hybrid - trying to sell me a bigger car or CUV; now they're hurting, they thought who wants economical cars. Then I got a Focus, because they still were not ready; now I have Cobalt, because they still don't have one! And I will not buy one anymore from them until they have a plug-in hybrid! (when I'm working again) I loved the Prius.
I've read bunch of books like 'The Electric Dreams', 'The Car That Could' and many more car history and conversion books. I am mad at the oilies, the big 3, and government policies; rather politics or money greediness versus planet health.
I feel guilty running these short trips around town polluting with a cold engine mostly because they're short trips. A Cobalt is too heavy and uneconomical - so are others, never getting the rated fuel economy in city or on highway. When you try hard by accelerating slower and driving speed limits, even in town, I hate it when you are constantly being tailgated by angry impatient SUV and large pickup drivers. It doesn't make sense to buy a recent car, paying for all the ICE and everything else that goes with it and then (throw) it out. I'm trying to find a recent upto ~10 year old small light car (upto 1200kg curbweight) with good body, chassis, suspension manual transmission, bad or blown engine or expensive ICE (internal combustion engine) repair so that I'm not paying for what I don't need as much as possible.
I know it is a big project, and I may pretty much 'trade' in a 2006 Torrent or 2007 Cobalt to get EV done.
Electronis, electrical controls is what I know and I have time now to do it. I hate to know that US and Canada have the worst fuel economy in the world and 200 million CO2 spewing boxes running around aimlessly and increasing. Thank God it finally slowed down.
An Inconvenient Truth is that we are recking the planet for our kids and grandkids as if we didn't care!
So why buy another foreign car when there are so many domestic cars sitting around, not being repaired or E-tested because its to expensive to do so. There are just too many parts prone to brake in ICE car, too much maintenance, too much pollution. I'm going to take one of those and stop it. It will help but not be enough to curb the wasting of earth, but together we can make a difference.
 
I've never done any conversions but i've seen some good documented ones on instructables. Heres one **broken link removed** It might help you get some ideas for your sunfire.
 
Neither were his predecessors 'green' or environment friendly - growing tobacco. Shame on him if he is not doing all he can to reduce his energy use while receiving a Nobel prize, but I have to do what I can to reduce my energy use and encourage others by example. I am not doing all I can, since I don't live in an energy self-sufficient home, using renewable energy for home and car, but I am heading that way as economies allow.
Gotta check the furnace filter and clean it, later.
 
I ve been reading a bunch of different threads on this site and thought I could put a thought in someones head relating to a EV conversion.
I had a EV for about ten years. I sold it to my mom last year, she loves it by the way! I got a good hands on look at how it worked and found that it was almost identical to the electric drive system in a comercial electric fork lift.
Same size and style of motors in some ef's as in that car I had. The forklift I saw that had the same drive motor in was 48 volt, my car was 96 volt. The forklift was rated at 2 hour duty cycle the car was rated at 30 minute duty cycle. Hmm.. see a corilation twice the volts twice the amps 1/4 the run time. but 4x the forklifts 10 hp rating!
The forklift probibly wheighed 5 tons with the battery! The car with its 16 6 volt 220 ah golf cart batteries was around 2 tons. It was based on a ford escort hatchback by the way. Early 80's jet industries conversion sytem. The car could do 75 MPH on the level so it was no slug either!
I have also worked on a few forklift pwm control boxes. If your good with electronics you could easily rework one of the older more basic units to run much higher volts and amps. Dont know much about the newer style yet.
Around here there are industrial auctions every summer and there is always a ratty old ef there. tipicaly goes for near scrap price too!
Sure there would be some cutting and hacking but if your got the parts cheap enough. consider a pickup for a first time EV conversion. Lots of battery room underneath!
Plus an actual frame to weld to and put brackets on. I would recomend a manual transmission also. You just need an adapter plate to hold the motor up and a shaft coupler to connect where the clutch used to be. An EV with a manual does not need a clutch or flywheel! That wheight savings equals one battery give or take alsd.

If you did go that route consider changing out the rear end for the highest gear ratio that you can get or finding a FWD with a low range transfer case. Electric motors Love high speed far more than lugging! Thats opposite of what a gas engine likes for efficiency.
SO think albout it, an old EF has all the controls and stuff plus some other goodies you can sell or go nuts with and its heavy. The scrap man pays good $ for heavy iron.
And like always, burning up a cheep dumpster dived forklift motor does not feel near as bad as smoking a new $2000 one!
Just a thought. Some day I will make a electric puckup and I do plan to go used EF for my parts.
 
I know you can get the whole EF for $500, it comes with upto 4 DC motors and they are easy to rebuild - take it apart clean it, paint it, maybe replace bearings, replace brushes.

Look for youtube videos like fork n swift.
 
Last one I payed any attention to went in that $750 range a few years ago.
The controller for the drive motor was bad. I know because I checked it out for the guy a few weeks before he sent it to the auction. I told him the controller was bad and would be around $800 to rebuild. He said he would rather get rid of it instead of fix it.
I offered him a $1000. He said he paid double that for it and would still get at least $3000 plus at auction.

I may have went to public school but I am pretty sure 750 is less than 1000 and both of them are way less than 3000. But I am not a finacial business man so can't totaly be sure!

That was not the first time or last time I saw someone pay to much for something and try to pawn it off on another sucker to make a profit but then ended up taking it in the rear!
 
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