For the full story with pictures see www.evalbum.com/2468

And a bit of Q and A

Why? We needed a new car. Nothing we could buy had better fuel economy than the car we had over 20 years ago but an electric car could be run entirely on renewable energy via ‘GreenPower’.

Cost to convert? about $20,000; ~$10K for the battery, ~$5K motor and controller, ~$5K bits and pieces.

Cost to run? ~250Wh/km measured at the mains. At ~20c/KWh for GreenPower that’s ~$5/100km (cheaper than any petrol car and renewable). Also, lower maintenance costs: no engine oil, oil filter, tune ups, cam belt, coolant fluid, spark plugs, muffler etc. New motor brushes every 100,000km.

Range? about 70km, enough for most driving around town.

What if you want to drive to the coast/Sydney? We take our other car which runs on petrol. Eventually I think families will have two cars, a smaller battery car as the first choice for around town and a larger plug-in hybrid for out-of-town trips.

Performance? Much the same as when it had a petrol motor. Not a racing car but entirely adequate to keep pace with the traffic.
Does it do regenerative braking? No, but its not as big a deal as you might think. It would improve efficiency by ~10% or so. It is most useful in stop-start traffic. It is hard to do with a DC motor but simple to do with an AC motor. I used DC because the motor and controller are cheaper and simpler. Commercial electric cars and more expensive DIY conversions use AC and then regeneration is barely any extra effort to include.

What sort of battery? Forty-five Lithium Iron Phosphate 90 amp-hour cells in series, 144V, taking half the luggage space behind the back seat. These are lighter, smaller and longer lasting than traditional lead-acid. They are more expensive but should be better value in the long run.

How much does it weigh? 940kg, up from about 800kg when it had a petrol motor. It is a bit heavier than original at the rear and a bit lighter at the front, but the weight distribution is now 50:50 front to back and I don’t notice anything unusual about handling. It has new, heavy-duty, standard length springs in the rear. The car is sitting slightly higher at the front on its original springs so I will get lower ones when these need replacing.

How do you charge it? In an ordinary 10 amp mains socket whenever I am home so I nearly always have a full charge when I go out. However, I can charge from any ordinary power point. I have a timer on the power point so I can avoid charging at times of peak demand on the grid. I pay about 35cents/day extra to run on renewable ‘GreenPower’ rather than standard power.
What if you run out of charge? What if you run out of petrol? A petrol car stops abruptly; an electric car running out will still let you drive slowly to a power point or at least get off the road.

What is it like to drive? Like a smooth automatic. Most of the time I leave it in 3rd gear all day. The motor is happy from zero revs to a 5500rpm which occurs at 100kph. Torque at zero revs is enough to pull off adequately in 3rd gear but occasionally I use 2nd for a brisker take off up a hill or a busy intersection.

What is that intermittent whine? The common, popular motor controller I used makes an annoying whine at low power; other electric cars don’t do that!

What about mod cons? It has the original air conditioning reinstated and running off a pulley on the electric motor. This works very well now that its heat exchanger is not sandwiched against a hot radiator! The previous owner put in keyless locking. I added a power window kit. It has an electric heater where the old heat exchanger was under the dashboard so heater controls work the same as they did originally.

What about putting a solar panel on it? I do like the idea but it would add weight, complexity, and drag. It would be cheaper to put more panels on my roof at home and buy more battery storage for the car. Our PV panels at home make power sold into the grid; the car charges from ‘GreenPower’ bought from the grid.