Would You Prefer An Uncleaner Beamer?

BMW have been quoted as saying they don’t think electric vehicles are right for most people. Despite developing the ActiveE coupe and i3 electric vehicles for production later this year, they still believe battery technology and resistance from drivers of large vehicles will keep most people away from owning a fully-electric vehicle.

Clean diesel and hybrids are too tempting to let go in great volumes hence the careful side-stepping of nouns and premises so they don’t shoot themselves in their clay feet. And for that reason, we see yet again another wonderful EV development being relegated to the leasing arena. When will they learn?

BMW ActiveE AC electric motor 125 kW

Electric Limo Superbus Arrives in Dubai

Great for social occasions. Imagine being picked up in one of these to be taken to the latest ‘we made a lot of money in oil this month’ party. Of course the best way to experience the performance of this vehicle would be on a trip from Dubai to Abu Dhabi in under 30 minutes, and they say that will happen in May.

Sheikh a leg and climb aboard the Magic EV Bus. If the ride is expensive, the conductor will leave you feeling flat.

Powered by lithium polymers (the light-weight higher peak power-rated lithiums), this vehicle has a top speed of 155mph (250km) while carrying 23 movers and sheikhers. 300kw motors are used (I could not find out how many -let’s imagine one driving each wheel; wow, that’s heavy). With a turning circle of some 11 yards or so (10m), doing donuts in the desert in this thing would be one heck of a ride, however more realistically, a dedicated lane will be set up for this vehicle. Dutch funded, there is so much space in this bus I could squeeze my dutch jugs in there and there’d still be plenty of room.

Resembling a stretched bat mobile, no doubt Batman could fit his aged corpulence in there too and fit Robin as well, somewhere. Squelch.

Click for more details.

Electric Vehicle Conversion Update – Just Some Photos

I’ve been a bit slack in adding new photos of my electric vehicle. I know I’ve meant to do a gallery of stuff from start of conversion to finish but there’s always been something else to take priority, including tending to my poor sick kitty, so sorry about this, and after all, I’ve been driving this car around the place for over a year now -and yes, the Thundersky batteries are behaving well (although I’ve had some reset issues with the Atmel chips in my BMS, though not a big deal). After being harassed by someone for some more recent photos, herewith a few. Some of the photos may have had too much HDR work, so if the nice red duco looks a little on the mincing pink side, please calibrate your monitor 🙂

Electric Conversion Made Easy

Google Induction Into The EV World

Literally…

It’s wireless charging at its best. Simply park your car and watch it charge, fast (with the new batteries soon on the horizon). The Google inductive charging station designed by Evatran will have far reaching consequences.

Move over Better Place!

Click here for more information.

More like a tomb stone, and probably arriving in Tomb Stone one day (if the ghost of Schieffelin has his way).

Meanwhile, HaloIPT, a New Zealand startup, is traveling down the road where vehicles literally get charged, while traveling down the road.

BMW i3 Megacity Electric Vehicle Testing

Recently captured, the i3 electric vehicle will be released some time in 2013. Given the testing conditions, it would be interesting to see how the batteries perform in cold climates. Watch here…

I agree with the comments; butt-ugly car – maybe the aesthetic imagination will be interwoven with the final result for a more-appealing vehicle when the time comes for launching.

Meanwhile, some parts for the new Nissan Leaf will be manufactured in Australia. I can only guess that this will be more of the case in the future, for various reasons I am sure you are aware of. At least 600 of them left Japan for the US market prior to the earthquake.

<< Convert Your Car To Electric the Easy Way >>

Electric Vehicle Conversion Guides – Which One Do You Choose?

More and more people are asking me how to convert their car to electric, as I have done. While I do the speaker circuit on conversion, I never got around to finishing my ‘Convert Your Gas Guzzler’ manual; you see, time was not on my side, even though I have the knowledge to do an even better car now (but I’m always busy writing someone else’s e-book for them!).

It seems everywhere I look these days there is some cowboy or little devil promising some fool-proof way to convert your car from gas to electric. I’ve reviewed a few e-books and some of these are truly atrocious; providing scant information at best, relying on old technology and omitting essential safety hazard and compliance information.

Checklist

When looking for an electric vehicle ‘how to’ e-book or manual, ensure it provides:

• advice on the type of vehicle that can be converted,
• advice and information provided on the various components available (chargers, battery management, bus-bars, motor controllers etc),
• advice on the types of electric motors available and which sizes are suitable for different car types/weights,
• advice on battery technology, types of batteries to use and relevant cost (you don’t have to use expensive lithiums!),
• advice on how to set up the 12-14 volt side, advice on other energy-saving methods such as re-gen, power steer shut-off etc,
• advice on budgeting; how much for a 96v, 120v or 144v system, and
• advice on regulations, engineering compliance and where to get help (forums etc)

I’ve talked about all this stuff and more in my blog, but rather than sifting through a blog, an e-book is a more compact and accessible way to get the information you want -even more so if you have a device reader, such as an iPad.

I recently came across the ‘Electric Conversion Made Easy‘ manual and I have to say it’s quite detailed, covering electric car conversion from start to finish. Like me, this guy has been on television too. His name is Gavin Shoebridge and you can download his e-book from here. I don’t normally do the sales pitch but if you look beyond the colorful advertising hype, there’s a pretty good book available there for you to start building your own electric vehicle right now.

Speaking of cowboys and aliens, ahem, devils…

A little anecdote for you; my dear departed husband once joked about ‘Lucas Prince of Darkness’ because of their dodgy auto electrical products. Back then in my naivety I thought it was just his observation about Lucas. Not really; here’s some funny stuff about Lucas Prince of Darkness.

Enjoy!

Thank You, Better Place

It’s nice to know Better Place (BP) are reading posts from other electric car builders; it shows that they are actively aware of what’s happening around them. Following my recent post about their parked domain, it seems that some url forwarding has now been done for http://www.betterplace.com.au.

Good stuff. Now about that electric GM Commodore conversion you guys wanted us to build for you (after the launch of your show here), after you saw our setup and then took off without so much as a ‘thank you’. Hmmm…

And yes, a heavy car like a GM Commodore can travel up to 400km on a single charge with the right batteries, such as Li polymers (which are available for EVs).

I would like to think we are all aiming for a better place but with so many cowboys on the scene, noble aspirations can be somewhat muddied by blatant short term hype and opportunism, in which the end future result could be quite ugly…

Logan5 Solar Car MKII

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Electric Car Conversions Made Easy!

True Believers Still Trying For The Better Combustion Engine

I recently ran into veteran racing driver, Basil van Rooyen, who has an interesting proposal to perpetuate internal combustion dominance – at least for another twenty years or so. His premise is that electric vehicles still have multiple issues to contend with, along with the obvious expense. Given that internal combustion engines will be around for a while anyway (as simply huge masses of populations will take time to get on the ev wagon for numerous reasons), Basil’s engine design proposes a major departure from four-stroke to two-stroke high efficient motors.

Have a look at http://citsengine.webs.com and let me know what you think, and download the .pdf too (link below).

While I don’t agree with everything he says about the current state of electric vehicle technology, some valid points were raised over his proposal to streamline the future of gas-powered technology and make the design more efficient. The design seems elegant in some regards, yet over-complicated in the combustion chamber areas; I would imagine that machining/refinement could be a difficult task. The addition of the throttle bypass valve will save on down-throttle fuel consumption due to otherwise partial vacuum.

The main point here is that if such a design were to be taken up by the major manufacturers en masse, would it actually set back the evolving pure EV market? A consequence could be that future hybrids are more refined but as I have said in the past, over-complicated cars can be a pain when it comes to servicing. There is a move for EV batteries to be more efficiently re-cycled, along with fast-charging and more lightweight lithiums looming on the horizon. Composite fibers tailored for lightweight yet uni-directionally bonding for strength where it matters also helps to support a robust future in EV motoring and may serve an efficient gas engine too, provided the weight comes down on the engine as well.

If there is a place for yet another internal combustion engine, then it must not be to the detriment of EV delivery. People have been waiting many many years for decent plug-in all electric vehicles and the dawn has already arrived. To sully it with yet another internal combustion engine may be a waste of time, yet there will always be a requirement for some type of internal combustion engine where electric may fail, for example, in heavy vehicles and remote areas.

Download PDF (courtesy of Basil van Rooyen)

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Electric Car Conversions Made Easy!

Acceleron – Advancing Electric Drive Systems

Next generation electric car manufacturing is about to happen. When these guys visited us a year or so ago from Singapore, we were dubious about their promise to fund large scale EV production, let alone take on some of our IP ideas, given the number of promises we’ve had from others that went nowhere. Times have indeed changed and things are on the up. Check out the website… http://acceleroneds.com/

And with new batteries fast approaching that can handle a 50C charge – things are finally starting to come together in the EV world. If degradation at high C issues are resolved, then battery pack swap-over technology as I have stated in the past may become a thing of the… ahem, future past.

Pilot production of new vehicles will begin this year. Nathan’s got stuff on drive systems and power, I have stuff on control and energy-saving and JD has stuff for logic. At this stage it’s early days; but who knows where it will lead. If it goes no where, then it’s been a fun ride regardless.

Acceleron's big plans, but this time with the backing that's needed for a true world EV release.

And, in true British style reminiscent of The Mouse on the Moon developed in Britain astronaut wristwatch reference, Acceleron can also thank me for their name, logo and domain, solely designed and researched in this country with the most fastidious attention to detail and design by our team of expert engineering QC personnel and design critics, artisans and nancies. :).

As my life seems to get busier and busier developing (real) new stuff, I may be a bit lax in popping the occasional post to this site. Since my electric Starion is happy on the road and other things are happening now, there is probably less to go on about that you can’t find on another news site. If something curious does comes up, like a Better Place, ahem, Batter Plaice promise to lube your driveshaft with elapid oil, I’ll let you know.

Happy EV’ing

Carmel
VK2CAR

Better Place Myth Buster

Ever since our friends at Batter Plaice (BP) hit the country like an exploding sun, offering a fantastic bright new network of battery swapover stations for our impending influx of electric vehicles, the critics have abounded, some perhaps justified, but BP is working hard to ensure credibility to the last milliwatt.

Now BP have talked up the myth busting theme in trying to explain that their battery swap-over is not confined to one type of battery arrangement from one manufacturer that drops from the draws of the vehicle. To quote, “Better Place does not require one single standardized battery type. In fact, the only element that requires standardization is that the battery be removed from under the vehicle.”

This is great, although I wonder if all this R&D is secondary to the ever-approaching ability to super fast-charge a battery pack without Li degredation in the time it takes to fill up with gas. Time will tell. For us homebuilders (who place batteries in areas where no underside damage is possible), we will be relegated to home charging, or ChargePoint’s 16A and 32A stations – and that is fine by me.

More details here.

Good to see Better Place have truly gone global… http://betterplace.com.au/ (oops).

Batter Plaice Australia going nowhere.

Oh, and speaking of exploding suns.

Soliton1 Motor Controller Mounting Tray

Recently, someone contacted me about a Soliton1 motor controller he purchased for his liftback. Space being the issue, he wanted the controller mounted in the same location as mine. Despite being a different vehicle, under some brevity I supplied him with my mounting tray diagrams. The intent was to have something that could be mounted with under-support brackets, side mounting holes and slide rails for some flexibility.

So, in the rare event someone else on this planet or the land of Quirm is converting a Mitsubishi Starion, Cordia or whatever that may be similar, here are the diagrams. I would have thought a one-off custom be pretty useless. How wrong I was.

That guy contacted me about the diagrams after making up the tray with some minor changes. “Eureka‘ was the reply 🙂

Tray layout.

Tray mounting supports.

Tray floor, sides and perspective.

Oh, and completely off-subject here (only because I was just called a dumb bunny by the guy sitting near me (thank you Mister Smith of Manchester)), these usb batteries actually have lasted longer than 500 cycles.

Our Host is Squirming

Our host decided to do some new year server cleanout and erroneously removed some of my dusty old posts (and some new ones too – plus a change of dns). Will restore when I can; will keep you… posted.

In the meantime, check out what they’re doing at the Chevy Volt site, http://www.chevroletvoltage.com