Seeing as how I don't live in NY, NJ, or CA and can't lease one of the new Mini-Es. We decided to throw one together with a 2003 cooper S chassis. Already bought one of the 200volt packs, and it seems to be in great condition. I have a few questions about the wiring and the electronic control/monitor module. If anyone knows a good place to find the schematics or pin out for that it would me much appreciated. Already purchased the other main components(Motor and Controller) Controller is an industrial sensorless vector control rated at 100Hp. Motor is a Siemens inverter grade motor originally used in a Ford electric truck. Given the high voltage of the controller (460AC or 542 DC after conditioning) and motor (300v), probably use three packs, maybe two depending on how easy it will be to modify the controller's programming. Then purchase more later to extend range.
Welcome to PC, EVcar! Somewhere I read that the Prius battery pack only holds 1.3 kWh. That seems awfully low for the weight. My electric Porsche, which I imagine probably weighs about the same as the Prius (?) gets around 350 wh/mi at best. At that rate, three Prius packs would only have a range of about 11 miles. Unless that 1.3 kWh is what the Prius uses of its pack, in which case three of them used to empty would get you 22 miles. If you don't get a satisfactory answer to your question here, you might post in the Technical Discussion forum. We have a lot of extremely knowledgeable folks here on PriusChat, but it's possible that few of them post in the EV forum.
Yes, this is going to be a short range vehicle. Average commute is less then 5 miles a day. All other battery options are either roughly the same cost per watt/hour, weigh more, or are too expensive at the moment. The ease of availability of the prius batteries make sense until the price of lithium packs go down.
If you don't need to go over 35 mph, you might want to consider a Xebra. The Xebra SD is a 4-passenger, 4-door sedan, with a range of about 20 miles and a top speed of about 35 mph on level ground. Not much power, but a nice little car. I believe they currently sell for something like $11,500. Depending on what your conversion is going to cost you, this might be a good alternative.
The chassis, motor, controller, and a lot of prep work have already been purchased/started for this project. It is not a matter of purchasing a running EV. It is the fun and challenge of putting it together and having a working laboratory for future projects. As to price, leaving out labor, well under 10,000 so far. Over time we will be changing out the battery pack to lithium. Trying to run our Siemens motor with the Prius controller, might be stealing the regen circuitry out of it. For winter, a solar powered heater to keep the batteries in the proper temperature range. Maybe doing a full canbus data system and an lcd screen with power usage feedback.
Sounds like quite a project. Good luck with it. I'm afraid I can't actually answer any questions, since I don't know anything about this stuff. My Xebra is a production car, and my Porsche was converted by someone else. If you have not already done so, however, I'd encourage you to post over in the Technical forum, because there's people there that really do know the inner workings of the Prius.
Thanks for the responses, I did post in the technical forums and got an answer that did help somewhat.
Be careful. One of our real PHEV inspirations just had a big set back: http://priuschat.com/forums/gen-ii-...e-mod-under-way-bristol-uk-32.html#post885615 or see her web site: Journal - Aminorjourney Keep us posted. .
what kind of battery is in that porsche? lead acid? or lition? lead acid gets less wh per wieght.. and lition more but not that more?
