Full Electric Insight

[Dgate]

Can anyone provide the link or info on the electric conversion made to the Insight by a gentleman located in the U.S and featured possibly in the forum previously.
I seem to have lost this contact and would like to catch up on the latest progress after the installation of lithium ion batteries.
I believe I originally saw this story on the Insight central web site

Dgate

http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/461.html

[Resist]

Just a note. I was able to get my 2001 CVT Insight to go in full electric mode once. I ran out of gas at an up hill stop. It turned over and tried to start, enough so that the electrical system stayed engaged so I could drive in electric only mode off the street. I wouldn't suggest doing it but it was good to know I could get the car off the street and out of harms way if I ever ran out of gas again. It went through electricity pretty fast doing this but I didn't drain them, which was good. The worst part was people seeing me fill my gas saving car up from a gas can.

[ext1jdh]

Yeah, but you had gone 700 miles when you had to emergency fill

And its nice to have that little extra just in case. Imagine if you were in the middle lane of the highway when it happened. That extra juice could get you to the emergency lane with absolutely no gas.

[Rick]

Dont' hold me to this, but I heard it through the grape vine that the Lithium pack has been in the car for some time now. Range is approximately 300 miles on a charge!

[clett]

Lithium-ion is cool, but lithium sulphur rocks! That in an Insight would give an EV range of up to 1,000 miles!

[Dgate]

Thanks El_Vacho,
This is the link I previously used.

Dgate

[Foxpaw]

Originally Posted by clett

Lithium-ion is cool, but lithium sulphur rocks! That in an Insight would give an EV range of up to 1,000 miles!

Hrmmm. That takes explosive battery packs to the next level. ;P

Seriously though, the cost to replace the pack is (far) more than you would spend on gas in the same time period, and of course generating electricity causes it's own pollution problems.

[clett]

Originally Posted by Foxpaw

Seriously though, the cost to replace the pack is (far) more than you would spend on gas in the same time period, and of course generating electricity causes it's own pollution problems.

You're right, the pack in the vehicle I described would be way too expensive to be practical! Having said that though, a battery life of 1,000 cycles times 1,000 miles range would mean it wouldn't have to be replaced too often!

Thinking more practically, however, imagine Honda had to redesign the (say) 2007 Insight to include a plug-in hybrid option in the range. They aim for a 100 mile EV only range with the ICE only kicking in for longer trips. They install an efficient (say 7 miles per kWhr) EV drivetrain, here's how the sums then work out....

For 100 miles at 7miles per kWhr you'd need a 14.3 kWhr battery - but to prevent complete discharges and improve lifespan, call it 17 kWhr.

Here's how much extra mass the battery would add to the car if it was:

1) Lead acid - 30 Wh/kg = 570 kg (Probably why nobody's done this yet!)

2) NiMH - 65 Wh/kg = 260 kg (What's used in the 100 mile range RAV4 EV)

3) Thundersky LiIon - 140 Wh/kg = 121 kg (Now we're getting into realistic territory, and the Thunderskys are both easily available today and relatively cheap!)

4) Lithium Sulphur = 420 Wh/kg - 40kg. (Not that much bigger or heavier than the battery already in the Insight!)

As for costs, however, 17kWh of Thundersky would add $3,400 to the cost of the car and if the LiS cost the same to build per cell then you're looking at a premium of $1,100 for the battery.