[sifawangiaEV]

Hey DIY Community!

I just purchased the donor vehicle for my conversion: a 2006 MINI Cooper S. I've started taking out the engine and plan to finish that by the end of this week. I'm completely new to the automotive and electrical field but I'm completely willing to learn and grow. My budget for this build is $5000 but I'm realizing that I might end up spending $7000 for everything.

This conversion will be using a Netgain Warp9 DC motor, a Zilla 2K controller, and 4 Tesla battery modules wired in series stuffed in the trunk, if I can get my hands on some. My system voltage will be about 96V and will have 250 amp hours. I want to get at least 60 miles of range and be able to safely cruise on the highway, so a top speed of about 75 mph. I'm hoping to get the Tesla batteries either off eBay or from a Copart auction near me. I'm hoping that Copart is reliable enough because I've come across some pretty sweet deals on there.

I'll continue to give updates on this thread but I'm also going to be creating a blog, so I'll post updates here for that as well.

 

[NewbieEV]

Hey DIY Community!

I just purchased the donor vehicle for my conversion: a 2006 MINI Cooper S. I've started taking out the engine and plan to finish that by the end of this week. I'm completely new to the automotive and electrical field but I'm completely willing to learn and grow. My budget for this build is $5000 but I'm realizing that I might end up spending $7000 for everything.
View attachment 122818
This conversion will be using a Netgain Warp9 DC motor, a Zilla 2K controller, and 4 Tesla battery modules wired in series stuffed in the trunk, if I can get my hands on some. My system voltage will be about 96V and will have 250 amp hours. I want to get at least 60 miles of range and be able to safely cruise on the highway, so a top speed of about 75 mph. I'm hoping to get the Tesla batteries either off eBay or from a Copart auction near me. I'm hoping that Copart is reliable enough because I've come across some pretty sweet deals on there.

I'll continue to give updates on this thread but I'm also going to be creating a blog, so I'll post updates here for that as well.

Nice looking car for EV!!!!. By the way, may I ask?
How did you choose the motor and the battery in cluding the controller to satify your performance need?
I am in the planning stage of doing the conversion to meet quite similar performance

 

[sifawangiaEV]

How did you choose the motor and the battery in cluding the controller to satify your performance need?

First, I looked for a motor that had a good horsepower rating, good rpm, had a large enough diameter, and weighed roughly 150 lbs. This motor has a hp rating of 32, a max rpm of 5000, a 9 inch diamter, and weighs 165 lbs. The rpm ensures that the car can reach a good top speed and the hp rating, diameter, and weight ensures that the motor can actually move the car, so the larger these three factors are, the larger the car the motor is able to handle.

After deciding the motor, I had to find a controller that can handle the voltage and amp ratings of this motor, which, for this motor, is 72 - 156 V and 400 amps, respectively. The Zilla controller I picked can handle this perfectly; its max amp rating is 2000A and voltage capacity is 72 - 300 V. This controller can also HAS to be able to handle the type of motor you choose, so for me, it needs to be a DC controller because my motor is a DC motor.

Hope that helps : )

 

[DansEVhobby]

sounds awesome!
why did you decide on the 2k amp controller? I'm just starting to learn about this stuff, but it seemed to me like the 1k controller had plenty of capacity for your battery/motor setup.

 

[sifawangiaEV]

why did you decide on the 2k amp controller? I'm just starting to learn about this stuff, but it seemed to me like the 1k controller had plenty of capacity for your battery/motor setup.

Yes so a 1k amp controller would be plenty enough but I came across a good deal for the 2k and I couldn't pass it up. The 2k controller would also give me room to grow and upgrade to better higher amp/voltage parts in the future.