Hello everyone! I am a Senior Electrical Engineer in college and I am interested in using a Prius to make a complete EV. The story is that I know a guy in a junk shop that has a smashed nhw11 Prius. The electric motor in the Prius is intact and so is everything else, except the frame. I also know a guy who has a Suzuki Samurai with a busted motor, but everything else works fine! So to keep it simple I want to make a transplant of the electric motor Prius to the Samurai. Why the Samurai? Because it is a box and has lots of room to work, and has battery space! My first project car was going to be a 1960 Jeep but it ended up having too much rust on it. I have two other mechanical engineers working with me for all the interconnects, but I need help on what I need to buy from the junk yard. Can I just buy the motor? Should I get the motor and controller? Any help would be greatly appreciated. My other option would be to buy a dedicated DC motor from a company for the project, but the Prius motor only cost $500 so this is huge savings compared to a $2000 motor needed for the job.
There'll be others that can better and more specifically address the technical issues, but I don't think the motor in the Prius is going to meet the needs you're interested in unless you want just a low speed vehicle...further the controller issue could get pretty tricky. p.s. Moving this to the technical forum.
Take a look here to see whats involved in removing the electric motors from a Prius.. It's integrated into the petrol engine.. not an easy task at all... Toyota Prius Hybrid Car Technical Information
I had thought about trying this too a while back. I think there are two main challenges. First, the electric motor is integrated into the transaxle unit which also serves to bathe the motor in oil to keep it cool. Separating it will be really tricky. Second the controller is going to be undersized for full EV operation, and no one knows how to directly interface to it. You could potentially use it as a cheap source of power drivers and build a new PWM control section, but then it would still probably be under powered. The smaller motor in the older gen prius is probably also going to be underpowered for the vehicle. IMHO if you want to build a competent highway capable EV for a reasonable price, you are best looking at a DC motor from ADC or NetGain and a Zilla Controller from Cafe Electric. My secret plan is to someday have the time money to take a 5SP Honda Insight and convert it using an AC motor and controller (something like the siemens units) with a Li-ion pack to keep the weight reasonable. IMHO thats a car just begging to be converted, but weight will be a challenge. Rob
BTW, if you haven't already you should join the EVDL mailing list: The Electric Vehicle Discussion List rob
