[Umar.njr11]

Hello everyone, my first query here. Hope to get maximum response. I am designing a shuttle bus intended to carry 13 passengers, the load calculations come up to be 3000kg. I am planning to take every part from junk and design+manufacture the whole vehicle. Initially, I am getting a Nissan Note's motor for a cheap deal. It is 80kw (110hp) max power. According to my calculation, The power is more than enough. Shall I use the same inverter of Nissan note with it?

 

[MattsAwesomeStuff]

Pakistan certainly has a scrapper's culture.

How many kilometers are you expecting to drive in a day, how far per trip, and how mountainous is your area?

 

[Umar.njr11]

Pakistan certainly has a scrapper's culture.

How many kilometers are you expecting to drive in a day, how far per trip, and how mountainous is your area?

Thank you

I intend to do 60km a day, per trip at max can be of 15km. The terrain is plain so no mountanious region

 

[MattsAwesomeStuff]

I intend to do 60km a day, per trip at max can be of 15km. The terrain is plain so no mountanious region

Well that's a small range requirement, I think you could do this cheaply.

Initially, I am getting a Nissan Note's motor for a cheap deal. It is 80kw (110hp) max power. According to my calculation, The power is more than enough. Shall I use the same inverter of Nissan note with it?

You can use the same inverter yes, the trick is to get it to work properly. You have to trick the whole computer system into thinking the Nissan Note is still a car, with all of its sensors. I have not heard of anyone doing that, so it will be a lot of experimenting and engineering for you. But it's possible.

Alternatively, a motor is just a motor. You could salvage any controller to power it. I have not heard of any Nissan Note inverter projects, but there are Nissan Leaf projects, and many Toyota Prius projects. You would have to purchase a replacement control board, and follow a "tuning" procedure to tune the software to operate the Note motor correctly, but there are tutorials for this and it is relatively straightforward.

You could get one of these from OpenInverter.org or EVBMW.com , both websites have slightly different products available, for reasonable price.

If you want to do it 100% from garbage, you have to learn how to make the Note inverter think it's still inside the Note, driving the Note.

 

[Umar.njr11]

Well that's a small range requirement, I think you could do this cheaply.



You can use the same inverter yes, the trick is to get it to work properly. You have to trick the whole computer system into thinking the Nissan Note is still a car, with all of its sensors. I have not heard of anyone doing that, so it will be a lot of experimenting and engineering for you. But it's possible.

Alternatively, a motor is just a motor. You could salvage any controller to power it. I have not heard of any Nissan Note inverter projects, but there are Nissan Leaf projects, and many Toyota Prius projects. You would have to purchase a replacement control board, and follow a "tuning" procedure to tune the software to operate the Note motor correctly, but there are tutorials for this and it is relatively straightforward.

You could get one of these from OpenInverter.org or EVBMW.com , both websites have slightly different products available, for reasonable price.

If you want to do it 100% from garbage, you have to learn how to make the Note inverter think it's still inside the Note, driving the Note.

Thank you very much, this seems really helpful. I'll follow it

 

[Umar.njr11]

@MattsAwesomeStuff can you guide me about the batteries? I intend to use 2 modules of tesla making total energy density to be 10.4 kwh. The problem is about the voltage, can I tweak the cells to change Series combinations to make nominal voltage needed for motor?

 

[MattsAwesomeStuff]

can I tweak the cells to change Series combinations to make nominal voltage needed for motor?

With unlimited time? Yes.

Easily? No.

I don't know if I've seen anyone do it and some very skilled and motivated people have tried. The cells have 3 layers of mechanical protection around them, some of which is glued down and nearly impossible to remove.

About the best you can do is cut the connections in one place to double the voltage of each pack (with have the capacity each).

 

[brian_]

Initially, I am getting a Nissan Note's motor for a cheap deal. It is 80kw (110hp) max power. According to my calculation, The power is more than enough.

I intend to use 2 modules of tesla making total energy density to be 10.4 kwh. The problem is about the voltage, can I tweak the cells to change Series combinations to make nominal voltage needed for motor?

Even if you could modify these modules, to deliver 80 kW you would be getting 40 kW from each module, and that's way too much. Even at half of the motor's 80 kW rating, each module would be putting out about 20 kW, which it can only handle for a few seconds. That's really not much battery for such a heavy vehicle.

 

[Umar.njr11]

Even if you could modify these modules, to deliver 80 kW you would be getting 40 kW from each module, and that's way too much. Even at half of the motor's 80 kW rating, each module would be putting out about 20 kW, which it can only handle for a few seconds. That's really not much battery for such a heavy vehicle.

Thanks but as per my calculation, in a worst-case scenario as in fully-loaded vehicle at a speed of 60kmph the max power I need on plain terrain is 31KW

 

[Umar.njr11]

With unlimited time? Yes.

Easily? No.

I don't know if I've seen anyone do it and some very skilled and motivated people have tried. The cells have 3 layers of mechanical protection around them, some of which is glued down and nearly impossible to remove.

About the best you can do is cut the connections in one place to double the voltage of each pack (with have the capacity each).

Yes I understand, cutting connections seems a more feasible solution here

 

[Umar.njr11]

Even if you could modify these modules, to deliver 80 kW you would be getting 40 kW from each module, and that's way too much. Even at half of the motor's 80 kW rating, each module would be putting out about 20 kW, which it can only handle for a few seconds. That's really not much battery for such a heavy vehicle.

The Nissan Leaf using the same motor is itself 1950kg kerb weight. It is designed to go as fast as 89mph and its wh/km is about 150. So shouldn't at even worse cases it could be 300wh/km for me. Which can give me a range of almost 35km that is enough for me.

 

[MattsAwesomeStuff]

So shouldn't at even worse cases it could be 300wh/km for me.

Years ago someone converted a Chevy Astro Minivan. It used 1,000wh/km.