Rear wheel half electric Insight?

[dfiore]

Has anyone toyed with the idea of making the rear electric and making it possible to drive that way and then switch to normal Insight technology once the batteries are dead? Or maybe even to connect the charging system to that AND the front wheels?

[IamIan]

short answer ...yes... it has come up many times... details available in the depths of the forum.

In a Nut Shell:

The Companies that make In wheel electric motors have models that would do the job ... and could be easily installed ... but are very very expensive...

Mike D did a 5th wheel to achieve this concept.

Another option is to redo the rear end of the car to have some type of axle or drive shaft that can be driven by an electric motor.

Another option is to build a electric trailer pusher that can attach to a self installed trailer hitch on the back of the Insight.

If it is just electricity to offset / reduce your gasoline usage ... you do not need the complicated rear electric drive system ... instead a PHEV Insight will do it... if also MIMA equipped it will be able to do it even more so.

[dfiore]

I know all about MIMA and Mike's genious invention. KUDOS Mike! I have not heard of PHEV. What is that?

[uhtrinity]

PHEV - Plugin Hybrid Electric Vehicle

Basically just the addition of a charger, and possibly more battery capacity. Plugin with one extra battery pack allows me to do 85 - 135 mpg up to the first 12 miles in town. Driving skills can make that number go up or down.

[IamIan]

Originally Posted by dfiore

I know all about MIMA and Mike's genious invention. KUDOS Mike! I have not heard of PHEV. What is that?

P.H.E.V. stand for Plug-In Hybrid Electric Vehicle.... doing a web search will result in many finds... mostly Prius related.... Other Popular PHEVs include the Chevy Volt... and the Aptera.

The basic idea is that additional electricity is used as a energy source to reduce the amount of gasoline needed to move the vehicle.

A PHEV combines the ease of use of a gasoline car as it can be used as a normal HEV.

It also gets some additional benefits of EVs as Electricity even from the U.S. Grid is cheaper and cleaner per mile to move a vehicle than gasoline is.

Ideally you can get the PHEV's electricity from a much greener source than the U.S. Grid such as solar or wind power... this makes the vehicle even greener than a grid charged PHEV.

Many PHEV's that have a pure EV ( Electric Vehicle ) mode of operation have short distances such as ~30 miles or so that they can run as just a EV.. then for longer trips or when you don't want to spend the 4+ hours to charge the batteries you drive it like a normal HEV ( Hybrid Electric Vehicle ).

A Basic PHEV Insight conversion does not give a very good EV mode , but still allows the Insight even as gas light and sipping as it is to sip even lighter and offset some of the gasoline it would have used with stored electrical power instead.

Mike D's V-Boost for his Insight is an example of a PHEV Insight conversion... during the time his batteries provide boosting charge he has often reported easily being able to get 100+ MPG where he would have gotten ~60MPG without it.... Mike also uses his solar panels to charge his Insight PHEV batteries so he gets even more green vehicle points.

Other Insight Central Forum Members have also been adding various variations of PHEV modifications to their Insights... some just by grid charging the 4Ah in the stock battery... others have added used Civic HEV Battery packs to bring their on vehicle energy up to 10Ah ...

[Dgate]

dfiore check out this link which was discussed some time back....

http://www.poulsenhybrid.com/

DGate

[lesdit]

I've seen a website ( did not bookmark it ) somewhere that had a guy modifying the rear swing arm with a front spindle piece to allow a propeller shaft to be fitted.
It looks fairly complex, in my opinion.
I do like the idea of a completely separate battery and motor system to augment the Insight.
No funky error codes from the computers, and optional full slow speed EV mode.

Maybe a tack on toothed belt to the inside of the rim would work, putting the motor either inside the hatch or somewhere under the car. Spring loaded belt tensioner. I have a brushless Etek just perfect for the task
I have CNC access to make the custom toothed large diameter sprocket. Maybe bolting it to the inside of the rim with a bunch of small screws, tapped holes in the rim ?

[Dgate]

If you mount the motor inside the wheel it becomes a lot more difficult than on the Poulsen design with a complicated drive system,ratio and geometry problems,space requirements etc. Short of using the original IMA and disengaging the ICE the Poulsen system or an adaption of it is the easy out.

DGate

[Mike Dabrowski 2000]

The polson system has a few problems, unsprung weight on the wheels, and the need for the torque arm to change length at different positions of the suspension travel.The torque arm is easy, the unsprung weight with the high tire pressures we like to use is asking for a blowout on any potholes.

I made a call to the to the company inquiring about availability two months ago and have not received a reply, are they selling them?

A timing belt sprocket tacked to the inside of the wheel, and the motor mounted near the rear suspension pivot is how I would do it.

I have two IMA motors that I will mount some bearings to that could do the job since they are so thin.
Maybe make a cavity for the motor right behind the passenger door, under the side sheet metal, with the motor output shaft right at the pivot so a belt tensioner would not be required. The motor could do regen even in neutral during FAS.

A big three pole double throw contactor on the three phase cables and a small relay for the hall effect sensors, and one could in theory switch from the IMA motor on the engine to the EV one in the rear, and use the same electronics.
Too many projects not enough time

[Dgate]

Just to add to this thread I have run across a company that sells wheel motors in various size's.
A small light wt one would probably be enough to power the easy rolling Insight and would mount on the rear trailing arm spindle and accept the standard wheel.
Mount a seperate pack and controller to create a PHEV seperate from the normal hybrid system of the car.
For any doubters the increase in weight would be no more and probably less than a normal passenger so travel alone and reap the benefits.

http://www.pmlflightlink.com/motors/wheelmotors.html

DGate