Thursday, October 11, 2007

It has Started!


This project has officially started since I now have the car! I will be posting my progress, but mostly for the next few months it will be posts of research on parts and batteries.

Let's get to it then. This project is converting a 1996 Honda Civic LX to an electric vehicle. My goal right now is a range of 50 miles at 45 MPH and keeping to a very low budget, so I will be making as many parts myself as possible.

This is my part selection as as today-
D and D ES-15A 12 HP Cont. 40 HP Peak motor running at 72 Volts
Alltrax AXE7245 Controller
PB-5 Throttle Control

Trojan T1275 150 Ah 12 Volt deep cycle batteries

I am going to keep the Power Steering, Power Breaks and Air Conditioning and I hope use the existing pumps and rig up a motor to all three of them.

As for heat, I had this brilliant idea. Since I am keeping the Automatic transmission, I was thinking of have the transmission fluid flow through the exisiting heater core, and use a small electric defroster for the windshield. New England winters are pretty darn cold, so I hope that will be enough.

I am open to any suggestions, and donations too!!! Parts are always helpful!

2 comments:

jtm said...

Good Luck! I am extremely curious to see how your idea about running transmission fluid through theheater core works- very clever btw. Good Luck with the project, and keep us posted! JTM

blackdogfx said...

Its bad idea to keep the auto trans
it will rob 10%-20% pack power,
run a manual trans
also the heater savings will not help the bottom line, range!!
they have manual trans at the junk yard for the car you have. for few dollars it can be yours
im also building a EV honda and a VW bug, (new) cars
Beny