50 Frequently Asked Questions
50 Frequently Asked Questions
Questions About
Electric Vehicles
by Gavin Shoebridge
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Table Of Contents
#1) Are electric vehicles reliable?.................................................................... p.5
#11) What happens if I run out of electricity in the middle of nowhere?......... p.8
#21) What if I get in too deep and can't finish converting it?.......................... p.13
#23) Why aren't there more electric cars on the road?.................................... p.14
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#26) How do I make my RPM gauge work on an electric motor?..................... p.16
#28) Why aren't there many businesses that convert and sell EVs?................ p.17
#29) How long does it take to fully charge a plug-in hybrid or electric car?.... p.17
#42) Where do all the parts in an electric car come from?............................... p.22
#43) Don't electric cars cause damage by sending their batteries to landfill?. p.22
#46) Will an electric car run my high powered car sound system?.................. p.23
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#1) Are electric vehicles reliable?
Yes, because they are simple. Electric motors have only one moving part, as
opposed to an internal combustion engine which has over a hundred moving
parts. There's also no exhaust system, no radiator and cooling system, no belts,
pulleys or spark plugs and no oil changes.
Yes in most cases. This is due to the high efficiency of electric motors compared
to gasoline or diesel engines. This means a dollar of electricity will move you
further than a dollar of gasoline - of course there are always exceptions to
this rule. There are also lower maintenance costs with an electric car as there's
no engine, oil, coolant or filters, nor an exhaust system to repair. Not only that
but the more expensive crude oil becomes, the cheaper an EV becomes in
comparison.
As fast as you like. The current land speed record for an electric car is 271 mph
(436 km/h). Your top speed is limited by your car's voltage, your available power
from your batteries - and most importantly - your budget.
Yes, even when running off a coal-fired power station. There have been numerous
reports and studies done on this exact subject with electric vehicle results ranging
from 5% cleaner than a gasoline car, right up to 100% cleaner than gasoline car.
It all depends on the source of the electricity - and the source of the report! Many
power companies also offer carbon-neutral electricity at a slightly higher price –
check with your supplier.
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#5) Can I buy a factory made EV today?
Yes – but the choices are either limited, very expensive, just plain weird, or all of
the above!
Mitsubishi have their new MiEV now selling (Japan & UK only) at $48,000
USD
Zap have their quirky three wheeled Xebra for sale at $11,700 USD
G-Wiz (made & sold as the Reva in India) offer their tiny EV (UK only) for
$14,000 USD
There are and have always been a lot of electric cars “just around the corner”
according to press releases, but for those of us who grow wary of press releases
and delays – home conversions are the cheaper, faster way to become
oil-free in your daily driving.
Yes, cold weather will affect lead acid batteries. Warm batteries perform much
better than cold batteries delivering more amps and offering more capacity. In
fact you could lose up to 30% of your pack's total capacity in extreme winter
conditions.
Fear not however! There are ways to get around this problem. While the obvious
solution is to keep your car in a warm garage for many of us it's simply not an
option in which case you should look at insulating your batteries.
You could put all the batteries into a box of some sort or wrap each battery with a
foil-backed foam lining, being careful not to short battery terminals with the foil
backing.
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Your batteries will naturally warm up when charging & while driving but in
between you could look at heating them remotely with heating pads from a
waterbed, or elements from an underfloor heating system installed underneath
your batteries.
Because your batteries warm up while charging, you could have your charger set
up on a timer so that it would finish charging just a few minutes before you're
scheduled to leave for work etc. This way you'd be jumping into a car with warm
batteries for your journey with more amps available and more capacity.
With good insulation your batteries will stay warm until your next journey.
Yes, absolutely! I like to think that my first conversion experience proved that
anyone with no specific mechanical skills can convert a car to electricity.
Because the electric car is so basic with so few parts, all you need is a basic set of
tools and some creativity!
Not in most cases, though an engine hoist or some sort would be convenient
during the engine-out, motor-in stages. If you're planning on doing absolutely
everything yourself it's a different story: you could make use of a lathe for your
gearbox adapter and a welder for your battery mounts. I've found that anyone
with a basic set of tools can convert a car to electricity.
Yes, it's possible. Components such as the motor, controller, charger and batteries
should be kept dry so you may be at the mercy of the elements at times. To help
get around this problem, try using a neighbors or a friend's garage for installing
the essentials. You could suggest paying a goodwill allowance in cash - or beer!
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Alternatively, you may be able to rent a garage or temporary storage shed for the
duration of the conversion.
You could also consider using a portable garage available from camping shops, or
setting up a temporary canvas or plastic shelter above the car for those moments
when everything is in pieces and the rain clouds appear. With a bit of creativity
you'll find anything's possible so don't let it stop you!
Anything from 5 days to 5 months - depending on your budget, skills, time and
money. If you have all your electric conversion parts purchased already, then you
can expect to be driving on pure electrons in just a matter of weeks with steady
work on occasional weeknights and weekends. The longest part of any conversion
is usually waiting for parts to arrive.
What happens if you run out of gas in the middle of nowhere? The answer is the
same for both scenarios – you have to find some! More realistically, you
wouldn't go for a long drive without enough gas in your tank, just as you wouldn't
do the same in an EV without enough electricity stored.
If it does happen to you however, power outlets are more commonplace than gas
stations and most people wouldn't mind you using a dollar's worth of their power
if you paid for it. Some EV drivers keep an extension cord in their trunks just in
case, though most never use them.
Cost. A typical DC conversion might cost you around $6,000 USD, whereas the
same conversion with AC components might cost $14,000 USD. While AC
systems have benefits such as higher efficiency, regenerative braking as standard
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with more configuration possibilities, the extra cost must be weighed up against
the benefits. One popular AC component supplier is http://www.metricmind.com
Consider contacting them if you're interested in getting a quote on parts for your
conversion with AC components.
That depends on the cost of your conversion and the amount you would have paid
for fuel & maintenance each year, which is different for every country.
It's not hard to estimate the payback time if your EV is up & running: First of all
work out the yearly running cost for your EV including electricity, distilled water,
registration, tires and a replacement battery pack every three years (divide the
battery purchase price into thirds and add the price into your yearly EV
expenses).
Next, calculate what your yearly fuel expenses would be on your gas car including
everything such as registration, tires, servicing, repairs, fuel & oil. The winner is
the one with the lowest price.
The difference is the savings leftover, which you can subtract yearly from the
total conversion cost to give you a payback-time estimate. In some cases where
fuel is cheap, the payback period may be long (several years) but in places where
gas (petrol) never goes below $4 US per gallon, it wouldn't take very long to
pay itself off.
Remember: the cheaper the conversion and the more expensive the gas,
the faster your electric car will pay its way.
Be very wary of such claims. While it's been proven possible to convert a car to
electric for under $1000 US using forklift parts and recycled batteries, your
performance is typically relative to your conversion price.
From my experience any electric car built for next to nothing will be of low quality
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& reliability and have the finished performance of a ride-on lawnmower.
This ebook offers a lot of insider information and cost-cutting techniques - but be
wary of people promising a $200 high performing electric super-car!
That depends on the battery quality and how the batteries are treated, including
what level the batteries are discharged to.
The average battery lifespan of common batteries if used in EV
applications is:
That depends on how much you want to spend. Starting with the basics, a low
voltage, home converted car running on flooded lead acid batteries could have an
average, useful range of perhaps 20 miles - but that is just a starting point.
By increasing your voltage, battery capacity, and vehicle design you could have
your car reaching 60 miles per charge on simple lead acid batteries.
If that's not enough consider changing your battery technology to Lithium Iron
Phosphate. With the right battery pack and vehicle design you could see yourself
easily reaching 100+ miles per charge. As with anything in life, the more you
want, the more you pay.
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A very popular range-estimating web page for electric cars is this one:
http://www.evconvert.com/tools/evcalc/
It's been proven time & time again to be one of the best range calculators on the
Internet. Of course every car is different and your results will vary depending on
driving style and aerodynamic modifications.
Yes it's possible but not a case of going to the mall and simply buying a portable
generator. You need to decide how much power (how many amps at what
voltage) you'll need to assist your car while driving and find a generator suitable
for this purpose.
To keep your batteries topped up with average driving you may need a generator
output of perhaps 20 kW – this depends on your driving style and terrain of
course. For this sort of power output an engine from a small car and a large
generator would be suitable.
Depending on your creativity and skills you could manage a towable trailer with a
generator for around $3000 US. The ideal backup generator for your car is
entirely dependent on your car's configuration. A trailer would be the ideal
method for a backup generator because you'd only need it occasionally.
You wouldn't want a generator to be permanently mounted inside the car if you're
not using it as you'll lose a lot of range simply through hauling dead weight
around with you.
You might find it's cheaper in the long term to using a different longer-range
battery chemistry instead, such as Lithium Iron Phosphate than to run a noisy
gasoline generator.
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#18) What about the legalities of converting a car?
Every country or state is different so before you start your conversion, contact
your local DMV or Ministry of Transport and ask for the rules on converting an
electric car, as well as any extra road taxes you may be liable to pay, or even
taxes you may be able to claim!
To give you an idea what the rulebooks look like I recommend using the New
Zealand rules available in 3 parts here:
http://www.evsecrets.com/doc/nz_ev_requirements_1.pdf
http://www.evsecrets.com/doc/nz_ev_requirements_2.pdf
http://www.evsecrets.com/doc/nz_ev_requirements_3.pdf
Even if you're not in New Zealand, the rules are detailed, comprehensive and
quite strict, covering everything from power steering to timed battery venting.
If you follow these strict rules to the letter you'll generally fly through any
inspection (as I found), though check with your transport agency first. In the
unusual instance that your country or state has no specific rules on conversions,
the New Zealand rules are a very safe guide.
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#19) Is an electric vehicle safe?
Yes, though taking precautions when working on the high voltage circuit is
important, such as:
If safeguards are in place such as circuit breakers, fuses, and strong battery
supports, electric cars are just as safe as gasoline powered cars when involved in
crashes with the risk of fire or battery explosion very low.
If an electric car flips onto its roof with flooded lead acid batteries, battery acid
will be released which is a good reason to keep batteries out of the passenger
compartment. Battery acid is easily neutralized with baking soda and can
then be washed away with water.
No. Unlike computers and cellphones, the main parts in electric cars haven't
changed for over a hundred years, and even the most advanced electric sports
car uses the same basic layout that your car will use. Because of the reliability of
electric vehicles, your motor, controller and main components (excluding the
batteries) can often outlast the body of any car you put them into. This means
you can move them into another car when you're bored with your current donor
car.
#21) What if I get in too deep and can't finish converting it?
Don't worry, your fear is shared by every converter at some point during their
conversion. To prepare yourself for a conversion I recommend reading through
this ebook in its entirety, then watching someone's conversion videos. This will
help to give you a good understanding of all the work involved. When you finally
get to the point where the conversion seems overwhelming - and we've all been
there - the best piece of advice I can offer is to stop what you're doing and write
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a list of all the tasks yet to be done on the car; everything from connecting
the batteries to installing the vacuum pump cut-off switch.
Don't worry if your to-do list turns out to be 2 pages long - just set yourself a
goal to get through at least one item each day. This simple idea of writing a big
list stopped me from being overwhelmed and giving up on my conversion half
way through it. Before I knew it I was down to my final five things-to-do and
doing my first test drive up the street!
Lead acid batteries are fully charged when their voltage reads between 12.6 and
13.8 volts and completely “empty” or discharged when reading 10.5 volts.
Remember: never take lead acid batteries below 50% Depth of Discharge or your
battery life will be shortened dramatically. A half-full lead acid battery should read
12.0 volts each. Don't let your batteries go below this voltage to maximize their
usable lives.
There are many reasons I've heard. Some are obvious and some are purely
conspiratorial but I'm not much of a conspiracy theorist so some of the more
realistic answers are:
Electric cars have a perceived lack of usable range (aka “Range Anxiety”)
Electric cars are seen as toys and an unknown commodity which puts
people off
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#24) What sized battery pack should I get?
This is a complicated question with a complicated answer so I'll try and simplify it
using averages.
Let's say the average home converted EV uses 0.3 kW/h (kilowatts per hour) of
electricity per mile at 35 miles per hour. This means to drive 50 miles at the same
speed, you'll need approximately 15 kW/h of battery capacity available.
Remember that you should never take lead acid batteries past half-full which
means you'll need a battery pack that is actually twice what you need (30 kW/h).
With lead acid batteries a 30 kW/h pack is enormous!
For example if your car is running a 96 volt pack you can work out the battery
amp hour requirements with the watts÷volts=amps formula:
30,000 W/h (30 kW/h) divided by 96 volts equals 312.5 A/h (amp hours)
This means a 96 volt car would need to use ten, 12 Volt, 312.5 A/h batteries
(10x12v=96v), which (if they existed) might weigh around 176 lbs (80 kg)
each. That's 1760 lbs (800 kg) which would exceed the limits of most cars except
for some small trucks!
Remember that this entire calculation is purely an example which will change
depending on your car's weight (including batteries), aerodynamic properties,
driving style, and system voltage (the higher the system voltage the less hard the
system has to work).
Partly because it's quite a new battery technology with a higher manufacturing
cost than lead acid batteries but also because it has a limited number of suppliers
and a limited number of buyers at the moment.
This is slowly changing however; every year lithium compound batteries fall in
price. For example Lithium Iron Phosphate (LiFePO4) batteries are now about
the same price as lead acid in a dollar-per-kilometer comparison when
considering a LiFePO4 battery pack can be drained further and weighs much less
than it's lead acid counterparts.
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One media source claims that 1 kW/h with a LiFePO4 pack is worth 3 kW/h in a
lead acid pack. I would suggest it's closer to a more conservative 2 kW/h in a
lead acid pack as it's better to be safe than sorry if you are looking at LiFePO4
batteries.
There are two ways to do this, one delivering an accurate response, the other
simply looking pretty as it moves in time with the motor (more or less).
a) The accurate method involves finding a light sensor or magnet sensor and
attaching it next to the tail shaft on your motor with an opposing reflective strip
or magnet on the actual tail shaft. When the sensor spins past the light sensor or
magnet, a pulse will shoot back to the circuit on your RPM gauge. You can buy
RPM kits for your car from some EV parts suppliers.
For example: http://www.evsource.com/tls_speedsensor.php
b) The easier and cheaper (but less accurate) method that I invented involves
finding a simple 3V DC motor from a hobby electrical store and wiring it up to the
RPM gauge's “motor” that turns the actual needle, and bypassing the tachometer
circuit completely. While not perfectly accurate you could tweak the reading by
running it through a potentiometer so that it's accurate at one important point –
your maximum RPM! You can see it moving in some of my videos at
www.Kiwiev.com
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#28) Why aren't there many businesses
that convert and sell EVs?
There are some, but the labor time involved in converting a car often pushes the
price up over $10,000 USD what it's actually worth. If you're looking at
converting cars for a business you will need to efficiently convert at least one car
per month (or faster) to keep the labor costs down.
It depends on the voltage and amperage rating of your charging system. From an
ordinary 120V socket, you would need overnight to charge a battery EV fully.
With a 240 volt power supply you could cut this down to 6 hours or less for a
complete charge from “empty” to “full”.
Quality lead acid batteries that are well looked after should last between 3 to 4
years in a typical conversion. It all depends on the quality of the batteries and the
level they are discharged to.
The easier your batteries life is, the longer it'll be! If that worries you, just put
$10 a week into an envelope or separate account and you'll have enough for a
new pack when your batteries start losing their capacity.
While I advocate cutting costs in all areas of EV conversions, the batteries are
one area to invest wisely if possible. I recommend using brand name batteries
that are designed for heavy, deep cycling such as Trojan "deep cycle" or
"golf cart" batteries.
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#31) What about the environmental
damage of changing batteries?
Recycle them! The great thing about lead acid batteries is that lead is the most
recycled non-precious metal in the world! There's no reason why your batteries
should end up in a landfill. In fact, scrap-metal dealers will actually pay you
for dead batteries! This is even more the case with Nickel based or Lithium
based batteries.
Not in our lifetimes. Hydrogen fuel cell cars are four times less efficient than
battery powered electric vehicles if the hydrogen is extracted from water. This is
due to the incredible amount of electricity required to separate hydrogen from
water by electrolysis. The current popular method is to extract hydrogen by
refining oil - which is great for oil companies but still 1.4 times less efficient than
a battery electric car, plus the refining process releases masses of co2 into the
atmosphere. This means the idea that hydrogen fuel cells being clean &
green is just a myth.
The cost of the average fuel cell vehicle is also restrictive: expect to pay between
$700,000 US and $1m per car. Then there's the cost of the hydrogen itself. It's
currently sold at twice the price per unit (gallon equivalent) of gasoline.
Finally, there's the "15 years away" claim we've heard since the 1970's.
Affordable, mass-produced hydrogen cars have always been 15 years away, so
just imagine what level battery technology will have advanced to in another 15
years!
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#33) What about putting solar panels on car?
It's not really worth it to be honest. This is because solar panels have a low
output for their size, so installing panels on every upward-facing area on your car
would return minimal gain. A full day in the sun wouldn't get you more than a
mile of typical driving and the cost of solar panels is restrictive. You'd be better
off putting solar panels on the roof of your house where there's more space
available. To reduce costs you could even consider making your own solar panels.
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#34) Aren't electric vehicles dangerously quiet?
No, modern gasoline cars are just as quiet in car parks. I'm sure we've all walked
in front of them by mistake. Electric vehicles are most certainly not silent either.
At low speeds make noise from controller "whine", gearbox cogs moving and
most noticeably tire noise. At high speeds the wind and tire noise is the same as
in any other car. If you're still concerned, you could install an optional buzzer or
beeper in the engine compartment, though it's not typically necessary and
frowned upon by the EV community!
A well built electric car is perfectly safe to drive in the rain. Installing a simple
splash-guard under and around the sides of the electric motor will stop any rain
from entering it. The other components are ideally mounted at the back of the
engine compartment, although this isn't an issue as many controllers are
completely sealed units (such as the Curtis brand).
Not at all. Recharging has become part of daily life with things such as cellphones
to laptops. In fact most electric car owners feel a sense of satisfaction when
plugging their cars in as they feel like they're “beating” the oil companies each
time. Gone are the long queues at a petrol stations and the waiting to get to a
pump and gone is the small fortune it costs to refill your tank each week. I'm
very confident you'll actually enjoy plugging in your car when you get home –
I certainly did!
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#37) What about servicing an electric car?
Thankfully there's not much to service with an electric car other than topping up
the water in your batteries every two or three months which is a simple and
cheap task. The only oil you'll ever have to change will be your gearbox oil, and
most people just simply forget about it!
Yes. The best cars are the lightest, strongest and most aerodynamic ones that
can handle the heavy weight of lead batteries. But if you want to convert an old
heavy classic then go for it! Some of the most impressive conversions are those
done with classic cars.
It's possible. While there's often enough spare power in an electric car to do this
the problem lies with turning your car's DC voltage into an AC voltage at 120 or
240 volts.
Devices that increase these sorts of voltages and convert them to AC aren't
readily available and you may need to contact an electrical technician to have one
created. Your next best option would be running appliances through the car's
cigarette lighter socket through an inverter however with this method you're
limited the small amount of current allowable through the cigarette lighter socket.
Like any appliance an electric car also has an electromagnetic field, though
studies have not proven any link between EMF and the ailments associated with
it. Home-converted electric cars should put out no more EMF than the computers
and high voltage sparking system in a typical gas powered car.
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#41) What happens if one battery dies while driving?
If this happens and you're not far from your house or destination and you can't
be towed easily, you may be able to simply use a jumper cable to bypass the
faulty battery. This means you'll be running on 12 volts below your designated
voltage however, and the lower your car's designated voltage, the more you'll
notice the performance reduction. This emergency method will put extra strain on
your other batteries and most jumper cables aren't designed for constant high
amperage loads so it's only recommended as a last resort.
The more popular electric car parts available such as the controller, motor & fuses
are typically American made, though there are also Chinese and Russian motors
available, as well as Chinese and German controllers to choose from. Batteries
can be made almost anywhere, so if you're curious check with your supplier.
Why on earth would you send your dead batteries to a landfill when there are
thousands of scrap metal dealers who'll pay you to take them off your hands! This
is the same story for more expensive batteries such as Lithium Iron Phosphate,
Lithium Ion, and Nickel Metal Hydride & Nickel Cadmium. The metals inside those
batteries are desirable and re-usable long after they've lost their usefulness as
batteries.
Firstly, it's just not possible as there aren't enough electric cars on the planet to
attempt this. Secondly, even if it were somehow possible to create a hundred
million electric cars in the blink of an eye most countries would not experience
any dramatic problems. One report I read claimed New Zealand (with over 2
million vehicles) would only experience a 40% increase in consumption if every
vehicle suddenly became battery-electric powered.
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#45) Won't we need to build more power plants?
Not for a long time, and not due to electric cars alone. Not only are electric cars
very efficient but they can charge during off-peak times by simply plugging them
through a timer. Power stations can't simply be wound up or down according to
demand so during the night they're still operating at full power with no one using
the electricity. As well as that, home power generation is an option that bypasses
the issue altogether.
Absolutely. It all depends on how much current the DC to DC converter can take.
As mentioned in the ebook, a DC to DC converter changes the high voltage DC
circuit to a normal 12 volt DC output (for your indicators and headlights to work).
If your DC to DC converter can handle it then there's nothing stopping you from
running thousands of watts of amplifiers, speakers, TV displays and Play Stations!
It's not cheap for home converters to build electric cars for long distance driving
so you could either keep your gas car as a second car for occasional long drives,
take a train, plane or bus or even hire a car with the money you've saving by not
buying gas each week.
Yes, absolutely. The conversion process may seem complicated but it isn't when
broken down throughout this ebook. Once you've converted your first car you'll
know first hand just how simple it can be, and it will open the door to converting
cars for profit.
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#49) Will my girlfriend/wife love it?
Believe it or not this was one of the many questions asked when researching this
ebook. Sadly I can't answer that accurately. From my personal experience your
partner will inevitably begin hating your electric car when you get about halfway
through the conversion as that's when all the money seems to vanish to electric
car suppliers, and when he or she only sees you as you get home then go straight
into the garage for the rest of the night. Once you're driving past the gas
stations however it's a completely different story. My wife ended up driving
the EV more than me and loved it!
There's no need to panic! If you come across something that's not answered in
the ebook then you can contact me by opening a support ticket.
It's easy:
1: Simply click here: http://www.evsecrets.com/support/
2: Create a support ticket at that page.
3: Then relax - I'll get back to you ASAP!
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