DIY Electric Car Forums > EV Conversions and Builds > All EV Conversions and Builds

ZenDaddy · #11 11-14-2008, 01:25 PM

Gav, just curious

Your wife has a lovely accent. Where is she from?

(don't worry mate, I'm thousands of miles away!)

ZD

KiwiEV · #12 11-14-2008, 06:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ZenDaddy

Gav, just curious

Your wife has a lovely accent. Where is she from?

(don't worry mate, I'm thousands of miles away!)

ZD

Her name's Veronika and she's from Slovakia, up there next to Austria. Nice place, the food and wine is fantastic!

LeTank · #13 11-16-2008, 02:31 AM

Gav is becoming famous on youtube.

KiwiEV is mentioned in this video on his heater idea.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTuzq...eature=related

Is this mate in the video a member of this forum now?
Let us send him an invite if he isn't.

Gav, I like at the end of the Bonus video there are a lot of burn out marks on the road.
Oh yeah...EV Power!
=)

GuiH · #14 05-22-2009, 10:03 PM

Gav, u make it awesome!!
Really, nice work
Good luck

rillip3 · #15 06-22-2009, 03:29 AM

Every body keep your eyes peeled, Gav's off for two weeks of being lazy, near as I can tell, but when he gets back, something mysterious and exciting is supposed to happen... I'm betting it's at least a hint of a start on KiwiEV2!

... And if it's not, we know where to find you, and what you look like Gav!

Quote:

We're having a little break at the moment. I'll be back in a fortnight and then I'll have quite a treat for you all.
Stay tuned.

i8bozo · #16 06-24-2009, 06:35 AM

if gav would like to begin on EV2, he is more than welcome to lend a hand on mine. i'm just about to begin the process. the timing would be perfect.

heya gav, i'm down in wellington bro. we should catch up at some stage. i just purchased a donor car, joined this forum and i blame you and your kiwiEV site.

DJGietzen · #17 09-30-2009, 03:05 PM

Here's hoping the next build starts before years end. Here in Detroit the weather is starting to turn cold. Its about 50 degrees out and I need to find my jacket! But since Gav is on the wrong end of the world I'm guessing the weather is starting to warm up?

I've enjoyed all of Gav's videos. My 1st purchase in the EV project is going to be a donor car, but the second is going to be his e-book

What exactly killed kiwiev 1? Was it the rust?

KiwiEV · #18 01-31-2010, 06:13 PM

Oh man I've been slack! My sincere apologies.

Actually two things killed KiwiEV. Rust was a serious factor, but also the batteries were sub standard. They were officially deep cycle, but only on paper.
In reality, those Hella Endurant batteries were not built tough enough to handle real world EV use. Even with the handful of times I went below 50% DOD (depth of discharge) it shouldn't have ended it's life so soon.

It's a lesson I've learnt for next time and one that I harp on about frequently in my ebook: If you're going to cut costs, make sure it's not with your batteries.

KiwiEV2? Recently I've started doing things I'm ashamed to admit... I think about my next EV a lot. In fact I've actually had the occasional dream about it.
KiwiEV2 may only exist in my mind at present but I can tell you this: It will be lithium powered - and it will be cheap.
KiwiEV 1 proved it could be done. KiwiEV 2 will prove it can be done with LiFePO4 (lithium) batteries, and yet done cheaply!

I'm going to need around $9,000 NZ ($6330 USD). It's a lot of money, yet for a useful, decent-performing lithium conversion that's pretty unheard of.

So far I have just $12 NZ saved ($8.44 US) and I might still need that for coffee.

I quit my job at Nazicom, uh, I mean Telecom just to make things more interesting financially too. Hehe. This means I'm now unemplo- uh, I mean "Freelance".

If my ebook/video tutorial packages sell well, and that people book our tours this year then prepare for a seriously interesting conversion this year.

I've already mentally picked a donor car due to it's weight/aerodynamics/affordability/EV1-ish looks:

Stay tuned!