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EV conversion for a taxi fleet of cars

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bldc car taxi
3K views 11 replies 5 participants last post by  Yabert 
#1 ·
Hello,

i am considering starting an EV conversion project for the taxi vehicles in my city and would like to know if this is at all doable.
The proposed donor cars weigh from 1000 kg to 1500 kg (without passengers).
The cars in question are WV Passat, WV Golf 3 and 4, Reno Megane, Opel Astra, etc.
I was wondering if a conversion is possible for these types of cars to carry passengers with a range of at least 100km and with a top speed of 80-100km/h ?
Also what would be the price for a conversion like that ?
Does it make sense to do it with a BLDC like the one from Golden Motor
https://www.goldenmotor.com/frame-bldcmotor.htm
?
Any advice is welcomed :)
 
#6 · (Edited)
So this brings the total price to around 8500 euros. But i am not sure if there are some hidden costs to this price, i will need your help here.
How much are you paying for labour to convert these cars?

as i understood, it would cost around 14 000 to buy a 6-8 years old leafs
If you're buying a few you can easily get good 2014 Leafs for 5000 Euros (a lot less if you're prepared to repair damaged cars).

Here, for example, is a 2012 Leaf with 35343 miles, "normal wear" (minor damage), at auction for 2400 GBP (~2700 Euros);

https://www.copart.co.uk/lot/22479088
 

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#7 ·
How much are you paying for labour to convert these cars?
Currently it should cost me about 500euros to do a conversion with a mechanic.

If you're buying a few you can easily get good 2014 Leafs for 5000 Euros (a lot less if you're prepared to repair damaged cars).

Here, for example, is a 2012 Leaf with 35343 miles, "normal wear" (minor damage), at auction for 2400 GBP (~2700 Euros);

https://www.copart.co.uk/lot/22479088
There are a couple of issues here:
1. It costs a lot of money to import a car to Macedonia, i.e. around 3-4000 euros.
2. I would have no idea if the car that i am importing is actually worth the price (no guarantee).
3. Importing from the UK is no good since the steering wheel is on the right side of the car and in Macedonia the steering wheels should be on the left side.

So basically i am left with a conversion at the moment.
 
#8 ·
What gearbox and gear ratio would you use between the motor and the drive axles?

What size tires/wheels are on these taxis?

What would be the fully loaded weight that you would want to transport, and what is the nominal and top speed needed with this weight, and what is your acceleration requirement--e.g. how quickly would be acceptable to go from a stop to 60 kmh while fully loaded?

You will also need an on-board DC-DC converter to run auxillary functions such as lights from the 12V aux/starter battery and keep it charged.

Also some sort of junction box with high voltage contactors and fuses.

What will you use to provide heating in the winter, diesel heater or electric?
 
#11 ·
What gearbox and gear ratio would you use between the motor and the drive axles?
I plan on using the manual transmission of the cars.

What size tires/wheels are on these taxis?
- Average would be 195/65/15

What would be the fully loaded weight that you would want to transport, and what is the nominal and top speed needed with this weight, and what is your acceleration requirement--e.g. how quickly would be acceptable to go from a stop to 60 kmh while fully loaded?
- I would say that +400kg when the car is fully loaded.
- Top speed can be 100km/h and nominal would be 60 km/h.
- The acceleration from 0 - 60km/h would be about 10 seconds.

You will also need an on-board DC-DC converter to run auxillary functions such as lights from the 12V aux/starter battery and keep it charged.
- Yup i overlooked this one, tnx.

Also some sort of junction box with high voltage contactors and fuses.
- I will get the contactors and fuses, but are there some out-of-the-shelf boxes made for this or will i have to build one ?

What will you use to provide heating in the winter, diesel heater or electric?
- I was originally thinking about using an electric 1kw heater, but then i found out a unit called webasto which runs on gas, so i was thinking on getting one of those.

My biggest concern was the motor and controller, if the DC BLDC Golden Motor 20kw was a good choice for a taxi car of 1300 kg, this weight is without passengers/load, so add to that weight another 400kg.

I did try out a conversion of Chevrolet Matiz (small car), which had the 10kw golden motor BLDC and was going up-hills great with a manual transmission.

But i have no experience with conversions and have only read about then, so i am totally new, but thought that this idea i had could be possible :)
I was also thinking of battery swaps but i think that is also not a good idea :)
 
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