Wayland Converts his Insight to EV

[2Slow4u]

Originally Posted by retepsnikrep

My charger will be a home brew device using stacked 500-1000w 48V psu's ~$750

Take a look into ElCons chargers, they probably have a 2.5-3kw charger for your pack that will save you some money.

I hope everyone here is now realizing how expensive these large battery packs are in EVs, and what an incredible value the nissan leaf, wheego whip, and chevy volt are.

As Plasma Boy is showing, its not difficult to make a car with a 300 mile range (Tesla) it just costs a lot of money. Now for everyone else, there are the above listed vehicles...

[interestedguy]

Disapointing to see those prices, that conversion project has no application at all. Think about it, when you can buy a nissian leaf for one third the price it is time to throw in the towel, the whole point of homebrew is to be *cheaper* than off the shelf. I mean I could kind of see this project before you could buy an EV because regardless of the cost it was the only way to go but now with professionally sorted alternatives it just doesn't look the same.

[Eli]

Originally Posted by interestedguy

Disapointing to see those prices, that conversion project has no application at all. Think about it, when you can buy a nissian leaf for one third the price it is time to throw in the towel, the whole point of homebrew is to be *cheaper* than off the shelf. I mean I could kind of see this project before you could buy an EV because regardless of the cost it was the only way to go but now with professionally sorted alternatives it just doesn't look the same.

I think you're kinda missing the point.

This car is going to have a 300+ mile range. The Leaf has less than a 100 mile range. Apples to oranges.

By and large, the cost is in the battery pack. Unless you can manufacture your own lithium ion batteries, they HAVE to come from off the shelf. The other folks looking into converting the Insight to EV are looking at tens of thousands of dollars in battery/charger/BMS costs.

Though I agree with the overall sentiment, it must be nice to be sponsored..... But these projects aren't cheap by any stretch of the imagination.

[Hugh-Falls]

[QUOTE=interestedguy;205715]............... the whole point of homebrew is to be *cheaper* than off the shelf..............QUOTE]

Not necessarily so, this is the INSIGHT Central forum. Not the Nissan Leaf forum. Here, maybe you could have suggested salvaging a wrecked Leaf and using the parts to come up with a FrankINSIGHT EV conversion much like Wayland's which uses parts salvaged from commercially available EVs.

You may find much to your surprise that folks on the IC forum are interested in INSIGHT EV conversions.

[interestedguy]

I know this is an Insight forum, I brought up the Leaf only to discuss the merits of a 100K dollar EV Insight.

I thought the whole point of the Insight and the hybrid/EV movement in general was to help reduce green house gases. When I view all modifications in that light they fall into two viable/value added categories. Proof of concept and mass market.

For a proof of concept the sky is the limit budget wise, just look at the costs of the fuel cell vehicles, but that is ok because they are breaking new ground. That isn't the case with shoving a bunch of batteries in a car, it has been proven already . That is why I brought up the Leaf, that concept is so proven that you can go to the store and just buy one, for less money, that will likely be more reliable. Yes, I know the ranges is different but for the vast majority of trips 100 miles is fine and if you are driving cross country 300 still isn't enough either.

The other application is mass market, hybrid battery repair's better battery would fall under this. It has more capacity at a price that is far less than buying a new car. Mike's grid charger is another example. Mass market modifications are the bread and butter of this forum, with everyone's help I have taken two insights from in the 40 MPG range to in the 60 MPG range. Mass market modifications are things that people can apply to their own vehicles, get good results for a reasonable amount of money. How many gallons of gas have been saved by telling new owners to air up their tires? There is no part of the this Insight EV project that can realistically be applied by most insight owners.

So if a EV Insight isn't path finding and it isn't something most people could do because of the cost, what is it? A waste of resources. Which is a shame given what I thought this whole movement was about.

I am going to stop talking about this now, I just think its a shame, I thought it was a pretty cool idea too up until I read the price.

[vegajf51]

Originally Posted by interestedguy

I know this is an Insight forum, I brought up the Leaf only to discuss the merits of a 100K dollar EV Insight.

I thought the whole point of the Insight and the hybrid/EV movement in general was to help reduce green house gases. When I view all modifications in that light they fall into two viable/value added categories. Proof of concept and mass market.

For a proof of concept the sky is the limit budget wise, just look at the costs of the fuel cell vehicles, but that is ok because they are breaking new ground. That isn't the case with shoving a bunch of batteries in a car, it has been proven already . That is why I brought up the Leaf, that concept is so proven that you can go to the store and just buy one, for less money, that will likely be more reliable. Yes, I know the ranges is different but for the vast majority of trips 100 miles is fine and if you are driving cross country 300 still isn't enough either.

The other application is mass market, hybrid battery repair's better battery would fall under this. It has more capacity at a price that is far less than buying a new car. Mike's grid charger is another example. Mass market modifications are the bread and butter of this forum, with everyone's help I have taken two insights from in the 40 MPG range to in the 60 MPG range. Mass market modifications are things that people can apply to their own vehicles, get good results for a reasonable amount of money. How many gallons of gas have been saved by telling new owners to air up their tires? There is no part of the this Insight EV project that can realistically be applied by most insight owners.

So if a EV Insight isn't path finding and it isn't something most people could do because of the cost, what is it? A waste of resources. Which is a shame given what I thought this whole movement was about.

I am going to stop talking about this now, I just think its a shame, I thought it was a pretty cool idea too up until I read the price.

I see the point you are trying to make and it's a very good one. If you think about it this point comes up all the time in performance forums.

For example a guy purchases a 2011 base chevy camero with a V6 and then turns around and spends 15 grand giving it more power. It's a nice project but it is still slower than the camero SS with the V8, and after spend the money you could have purchased the SS in the beginning and had a much more reliable ride with a warranty and modded it with much better results.

I believe this is the basic point you are trying to raise. For the amount of money spent on this insight, the same amount would be more wisely spent on a Leaf plus mods which would probably net better results overall.


Sent from my Autoguide iPhone app

[Hugh-Falls]

Originally Posted by vegajf51

..................... For the amount of money spent on this insight, the same amount would be more wisely spent on a Leaf plus mods which would probably net better results overall.........

Maybe so but the **WISE** Leaf will never be an Insight.