[Rai Ka]

Rick,

You sound like someone who knows something about EV stuff... I've got lots of questions, and I'm sure much I will be asking would have been talked about... but it's hard to jump into the pool but not understanding much of the basics...

Why would one choose Li-Ion over NiMH, like our Insight? Since the introduction of the Insight, the price for NiMH batteries have plummet. I could see that EV manufacturing costs go down if folks use more NiMH packs instead. My wife and I are interested in possibly owning an EV, and her favorite was the Sparrow.

An EV conversion of the MINI sounds cool, but I wonder how much are we talking about here? 4-digits, 5-digits? The MINI actually isn't that low to the ground (if not higher than the Insight), and I think there is plenty space in the boot and/or the spare tire compartment... Heck, I never have more than two persons in my MINI anyways. If someone offers a snap on backseat/boot conversion, I'd probably take out the backseats and save 75 lbs off the weight of the car...

Charles

 

[Rick]

Well first browse through Ac Propulsions web site if you haven't. There's some cool stuff there. The selection of lithium ion would be simply for maximum range. The Nickel Metal Hydrive equiped EV1's range was about 140 miles with their ultra efficient drive train. The Tzero can go about 300 with it's lithium ion pack. If you didn't need extreme range nickel metal hydrides would probably make a lot more sense as far as cost, and they don't have the issues of lithium.

Another promising solution is nickel zinc, which would give you about a 100 mile range and not cost an arm and a leg.

If you just wanted a get around town fun little mini conversion though you could do it with some Hawker batteries probably fairly well. As far as price, well... the EV components for a good conversion would run probably about $10,000 (I know eww), but that would buy you some pretty good stuff. Check http://www.evparts.com Wilde EVolutions has all the goodies. If you had some extra money sitting around and found say a mini with a blown engine it'd be cool.

My EV background came from my High School's now penniless and defunct electric vehicle racing team. We had a Plymouth Laser made in to a full race car and a Fiero that was street legal. Now they were limited for saftey purposes, but it got me in to the preformance EV stuff. Just to throw out a little snippit to impress you here in the Phoenix area lives the current 1/4 mile electric record holder. His dragster has ran an 8.801 at ummm, really fast, I'm not exactly sure, but he had to tone it down at one point so he didn't have to pull his chute (I think he's crossed the finish line at 149mph, they want a chute at 150 if I recall correctly).

But yeah, I'd have probably never known about the Insight if it wern't for the club at school. But at heart I'm an EV guy, certain things prevent me from driving full EV right now, but I'm possibly working on it. My dream car, GM EV1, no doubt in my mind. Too bad they are all going away. Here it is, I'm saying it, if somehow someone had an EV1 (with a title) and came up to me and asked if I wanted to trade I couldn't get rid of the Insight quick enough. I'd say here's my keys, whats the activation code? And drive off with it without a second thought about it.

All well, I at least have my GEM car for my short distance neighborhood commutes. I've had it for about two months and have put over 150 miles on it so far.

 

[b1shmu63]

Rick: Wouldn’t a full electric Einsight (E=RI squared ) with NiMH technology be superior to an EV1 with respect to weight, handling, range, longevity, and comfort? I am sure that if GM designed the EV1 today it would be more like the Hi-wire.

 

[Rick]

Well, maybe, but probably not by a whole lot. It could in fact be the opposite actually. I have seen an EV1 parked next to an Insight at a car show here locally. The EV1 is actually quite a bit longer and wider, but you have to consider it was built from the ground up to be an EV. Really they share a lot of design similarities. The EV1 has a CD of .19! Which is slick compared to even the Insight at .25. I've never driven an EV1, but from what I hear they drive like they are on rails. I think they would handle equally if the EV1 couldn't outhandle Insight. The batteries are set up in a T shape. The Laser we had at school had the same design and with the pack sitting as low as it did the center of gravity was way low and it was hard to throw the back of the car around because of the traction due to the weight.

You have to consider the EV1 was made to hold the battery weight. It is also made out of alluminum like the Insight and uses LRR tires, though the Michelin Proxima's they used are a much less harsh tire, ride is better.

For an Insight EV conversion you remove the magic box as well as the spare tire and give up the storage well and you've got a lot of room in the rear of the car. The one that was done did just that and filled it with lithium ion batteries. This weight in the rear sunk is pretty badly, I think he ended up having some custom springs made to handle the extra weight. With all that weight kinda high in the back of the car I'm not too sure what it would do for handling, but I don't think it would be that great. Of course you could probably put some more up front and balance it out some as well.

Thats the problem with a conversion, you put batteries wherever you can fit them. Some cars just tend to be better for doing this than anything else. Fiero's are common conversions.

http://www.austinev.org/evalbum/461.html
Here's the Insight EV if anyones interested in seeing it. The pictures show the Hawkers in the car and the Lithiums sitting on the floor waiting to go in the car. Ohh, and it should have a 120 mph or so cruising speed in 3rd gear.