In 2008 I bought a 2003 Porsche 911 Carrera and contracted with a conversion shop in West Palm Beach, FL to convert it to electric. The whole thing was a disaster.
I introduced myself in THIS thread.
I talked about the car in THIS LONG thread, begun when I thought all I needed was a better controller.
I asked for and got battery advice in THIS OTHER thread.
Briefly, the conversion was botched so thoroughly that the car, though drivable, was a death trap, and had hardly any power. I found a local shop willing to take on repairs, and they completely disassembled the car, totally re-designed the arrangement, and re-assembled it, including a water-cooled 1,000-amp controller, replacing the 500-amp controller that the original shop used in place of the contracted 1,000-amp controller. But it turns out that, in addition to the botched assembly, the original conversion included a severely damaged battery pack. I heard rumors about an "incident" on the bench at the original shop, but have no actual knowledge of what happened.
Now it turns out that the pack is in even worse shape than we had previously thought, and apparently failing fast.
One option would be to install a new lithium pack at around $12,000 to $15,000. One of the people who's been working on the car insists that with a new pack it would beat the Tesla Roadster that I bought almost a year ago, after giving up on any hopes that the Porsche would ever actually be finished. I don't believe that.
Four years ago, when this project was begun, with an estimated completion time of 4 to 5 months, I was supposed to have had a car with half the range, half the acceleration, considerably more seating comfort, and twice the interior space as a Tesla Roadster, and I was supposed to have it a year or more before I'd have been able to get a Tesla.
Which brings me to the point and subject of this post:
The Porsche has a completely shot battery pack, and is not worth more than about 1/5 of what I've put into it. I don't want to spend another $15,000 putting a new lithium pack into it. But OTOH, I no longer need the 125-mile range I wanted when I embarked on the project. The Roadster is and will remain my daily driver and my main car. But if I could get the Porsche back on the road, with top-notch performance, even with only 30 or 40 miles of range (for 15 to 20 miles range to 50% DoD) I could drive it to the store and back, and for occasional short errands.
So I'm contemplating putting lead-acid batteries in it. Lower cost and simpler battery management might make it worth my while, and I'd get some use and enjoyment out of the car (it is a beautiful car!) At least it would be on the road and not rusting away in the corner of a shop somewhere. The lower impedance of lead should allow high power, at the cost of greatly reduced range, now that range is no longer important to me.
I'm posting this partly to update anybody who was following the saga and is interested, and partly to see what you folks think of the idea of downgrading the car from lithium to lead. (My first choice would be to sell it, but I don't think I'm willing to part with it for what anybody would offer me for it.)
I introduced myself in THIS thread.
I talked about the car in THIS LONG thread, begun when I thought all I needed was a better controller.
I asked for and got battery advice in THIS OTHER thread.
Briefly, the conversion was botched so thoroughly that the car, though drivable, was a death trap, and had hardly any power. I found a local shop willing to take on repairs, and they completely disassembled the car, totally re-designed the arrangement, and re-assembled it, including a water-cooled 1,000-amp controller, replacing the 500-amp controller that the original shop used in place of the contracted 1,000-amp controller. But it turns out that, in addition to the botched assembly, the original conversion included a severely damaged battery pack. I heard rumors about an "incident" on the bench at the original shop, but have no actual knowledge of what happened.
Now it turns out that the pack is in even worse shape than we had previously thought, and apparently failing fast.
One option would be to install a new lithium pack at around $12,000 to $15,000. One of the people who's been working on the car insists that with a new pack it would beat the Tesla Roadster that I bought almost a year ago, after giving up on any hopes that the Porsche would ever actually be finished. I don't believe that.
Four years ago, when this project was begun, with an estimated completion time of 4 to 5 months, I was supposed to have had a car with half the range, half the acceleration, considerably more seating comfort, and twice the interior space as a Tesla Roadster, and I was supposed to have it a year or more before I'd have been able to get a Tesla.
Which brings me to the point and subject of this post:
The Porsche has a completely shot battery pack, and is not worth more than about 1/5 of what I've put into it. I don't want to spend another $15,000 putting a new lithium pack into it. But OTOH, I no longer need the 125-mile range I wanted when I embarked on the project. The Roadster is and will remain my daily driver and my main car. But if I could get the Porsche back on the road, with top-notch performance, even with only 30 or 40 miles of range (for 15 to 20 miles range to 50% DoD) I could drive it to the store and back, and for occasional short errands.
So I'm contemplating putting lead-acid batteries in it. Lower cost and simpler battery management might make it worth my while, and I'd get some use and enjoyment out of the car (it is a beautiful car!) At least it would be on the road and not rusting away in the corner of a shop somewhere. The lower impedance of lead should allow high power, at the cost of greatly reduced range, now that range is no longer important to me.
I'm posting this partly to update anybody who was following the saga and is interested, and partly to see what you folks think of the idea of downgrading the car from lithium to lead. (My first choice would be to sell it, but I don't think I'm willing to part with it for what anybody would offer me for it.)