Shifting is pretty pointless in an EV. If the motor can deliver all the torque from zero RPM, and stilll adequate torque at high RPM - you've no need to shift while driving at all. Might be advantageous to put it in second instead of third if you're doing an off-the-line drag race, but "fixed" reductions can work just fine with most EVs. My project is going to be left in third gear almost all the time when it's built (I'm doing motor reverse too, so I won't even need to shift when it reverses...)
As for gearbox wear - if 99% of the time you'd have shifted with an ICE, you don't during normal driving - I'd have thought that wear (including clutch wear) would happen slower overall, despite higher instantaneous loads. Avoid over-engineering things if possible, as a conversion is going to be a pretty large project anyway!
Clutch vs clutchless argument seems a little silly to me really - the weight savings of ditching the clutch are going to affect range minimally, and having a mechanical disconnect seems like a good idea for safety from my perspective. Also, if you mount the motor directly in place of the engine, you will be able to skip the re-engineering a shaft that bypasses the clutch. If you've not a well equipped machine shop, this could add a fair deal of cost.
I'm definitely going to follow your project though, and wish you all the best! We're converting similarly laid out cars (mid-engine 2 seaters) after all
As for gearbox wear - if 99% of the time you'd have shifted with an ICE, you don't during normal driving - I'd have thought that wear (including clutch wear) would happen slower overall, despite higher instantaneous loads. Avoid over-engineering things if possible, as a conversion is going to be a pretty large project anyway!
Clutch vs clutchless argument seems a little silly to me really - the weight savings of ditching the clutch are going to affect range minimally, and having a mechanical disconnect seems like a good idea for safety from my perspective. Also, if you mount the motor directly in place of the engine, you will be able to skip the re-engineering a shaft that bypasses the clutch. If you've not a well equipped machine shop, this could add a fair deal of cost.
I'm definitely going to follow your project though, and wish you all the best! We're converting similarly laid out cars (mid-engine 2 seaters) after all
