Electric engine replacement?

Question

i have a 1995 Chevy blazer that sucks gas like no tomorrow.. and i was thinking of converting it from a gas engine to a electric engine.."electricity from wall or somewhere else to be stored in a battery bank and sent to motor when needed and car moves kinda thing." is there any information on how to do this yourself? and how much would it run me all together... its a project my father gave me before i can officially have the car..

Answer 1

Wolf has the right approach. Besides electric vehicles are an old idea, been commercial for a very long time. Go to any wharehouse and you will see all sorts of electric forklifts at work. Wrecked ones are a good source of motors and battery packs, controllers etc, if all you are after is a conversion that appeases your father.

Several Chinese sites sell small low speed electric cars and bikes, limited range , battery life and nothing over 35km/hr, but cheap, again possible sources of parts and ideas.

The mains is by far the cheapest and most practical source of energy for recharging. Take a long extension cord with you so you can plug in easily.

If you want a high performance electric car, be prepared to start from scratch, build light and have a good financial backer.

Answer 2

Good luck.  By the time you're done, you'll have spent enough money to buy several new trucks, and enough time to have gone through college.  The reason you haven't seen any electric cars or trucks is that they're not even remotely practical as yet, and it'll be a long time until they are.  

If you need transportation, I'd suggest that you save up some money and buy yourself an elderly compact car (just about anything with four cylinders--a Chevy Cavalier would do it) and let your father figure out what to do with his Blazer.  

If he insists that you proceed with the project in any case, go to the library and start learning about electric motors, rechargeable batteries, and electric vehicles in general--real ones, not the vaporware constantly discussed here and elsewhere on the Internet.  Find an engineering library and see if they stock journals of the Society of Automotive Engineers.  You'll learn a great deal, and it might be quite valuable.

Answer 3

Figure on $1500 - $3000 conversion costs. Just the motor will run you over $1000. Then you have to choose battery type and controllers, etc.

If you have the resources, you might look into the EV Gray motor, built back in the 1980's, that suffered a lot of drama because it achieved over unity perrformance. Seems it taps into the zero point, so batteries become a minor consideration. But it's largely untested, so research it first so you actually understand HOW it works before building a full sized version.

Answer 4

Shame on you 2n2222 for the scare tactics. Often, an electric conversion makes a lot of sense.

Generally, the more power, speed and range you want, the more it will cost.   If all you need is 35mph and typically driving it 5-10 miles top, then you can convert it for a few thousand dollars, a lot less if you're willing to scrounge parts.  A simple 6" or 7" motor, Curtis controller, and a 72V pack should do nicely.

However if you want 100 miles everyday drive at 70 mph, then performance is *everything* and you'd have to pay through the nose for tip-top AC motor controllers, high voltage lithium-ion battery packs etc.  2n2222 would be correct at that point - not worth doing.  What's more, you wouldn't do such an expensive conversion on a Blazer - you'd buy a vehicle that is ideal for such a conversion.

Anyway, how to do it?  Here are a few books on the topic

http://www.amazon.com/gp/search?ie=UTF8&...

And you can join the EV list, a mailing list/forum of people who actually build electric cars.

http://www.madkatz.com/ev/evlist.html

Sure you could make electricity with wind generators but they're not cheap.  Could you power the car with wind generators on the car that harness the wind the car makes going down the road?   No, that would be a "perpetual motion machine" and here's why that doesn't work. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over_unity

What could you do?  You could have a foldup windmill in the trunk, and whenever you are parked, unfold it and put it up.  But don't get your hopes up on that giving you a lot of energy.  Ditto solar panels on the roof - they can help a little, but you'll still have to plug it in unless your range is really short.  A guy named Noel Perrin wrote a book about buying an electric car with solar panels on the roof.  The solar panels only provided enough to go a couple of miles a day though.

Answer 5

sell the car