Making a electric car what would be the troubles while making one?

Question

like i have a tube chassis with no engine was going to be a project so i was wanting to stick a electric motor on it and i know how to make it in the most part but like keeping a altinator on it will that keep the batteries charged while driving and stoping? and what kind of transmission would you use with a electric motor ?

Answer 1

The trade journals that I receive sometimes have blurbs about electric cars. They tend to have direct drive on each wheel. This eliminates the drive train and transmission.

The biggest problem with electric cars is the quality of the batteries.

Answer 2

Most actually use a single motor, direct-drive. Any DC motor will have speed control using a variable voltage control, as with a model train. The solar cell idea is nice but would require blinding research marathons.

As for the alternators, cars like the Prius and PEV's (Plug-In Electric Vehicles) ALL have regenerative braking. That means that when you apply the brake, the drive motor reverses polarity and becomes a DC generator instead of a motor. That's SOOO important if you consider how wasteful our cars are to burn up brake-pads in an effort ONLY to discard hard-won gains in momentum.

The world's best and brightest are on this thing day and night. Seems the biggest hurdles, as yet, are battery technology, range vs power, charging cycles before the battery refuses to charge, etc.

It's coming around, though. I like what's been happening with Zinc-Air since the late nineties. There's a technology called "SBE - Spouted Bed Electrode" power-storage. Check it out.

Hope that helps.

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Answer 3

try & find a local group to talk ideas through with, and join together for bulk battery orders.

in the UK http://batteryvehiclesociety.org.uk/word...

there is also a yahoo group, diy_ev

AC propultion may sell a motor/controler similar to the Tesla, but at a price. http://www.acpropulsion.com/

Transmission for an electric motor can be very simple. even buillt into the wheels for direct drive.

the most common (that I did) was connect the electric motor onto an existing gearbox - ie remove engine, clutch etc.

electric vehicles are much simpler than infernal combustion, if you can source the parts. GM didn't even sell their EV1s off for breaking, but crushed them all :(

http://www.whokilletheelectriccar.com