[lin2far]

Hello, i kinda fell into the whole EV conversion rabbit hole because i got my driver license now and am looking for a car.
With the rising gas prices in my country, the road taxes on diesel/ gas & car weight. I got kinda interested in cost reduction.
going electric would mean no gas, no roadtaxation on top of my alreadying having a 75% insurence discount from 8y of driving motorcycle.

But to be honest, i'm a construction engineer, not a mechanical engineer, so i'm unfamiliar with torque/horsepower stuff but do know a bit about kwh/kw/volts/amps/ simple electrical stuff.
I'll probably have to dive into some more theory to understand what i'm doing. But was wondering something.

I'm kinda biased towards toyota cars and personally i just really like the old toyota generation 2 cars:
be it the 3-door variant or 5 door variant .

I understand enough physics to know aerodynamic design matters, same as weight for how much energy you need to get a car driving and maintaining that speed.
but i'm not sure what's considered high or low or acceptable for all this.
so based on a curb weight of 1100-1300kg (2425,085-2866.009lbs) of the rav4 cars.
and knowing i'd probably wanna have enough range to drive 250-300km (155,34-186,41 miles)
I think in most cases i'd drive under 100km a day (63 miles) but would like the extra buffer for trips.

1. What should i be looking at?
2. Are these old toyota rav4 models suitable for ev conversion?
3. How much weight do you lose from taking out the tank, engine parts on average?
4. Would I be close if i thought i needed 42kwh in tesla batteries? (8modules?)
5. with 8 modules you'd gain 200kg + an engine can weigh 75kg, would the car become lighter or heavier (if taking out the old parts)?
6. how easy/hard is it to fit 8 modules in the car?
7. does reducing wheel weight matter? what about wheel diameter?
8. If i drive the car once or twice a week, is it worth attaching a solar panel on top? (i heard it's not worth it for daily commute as it only charges 3kwh on a good day? but if the car charges for 3 to 7 days in between wouldn't it start to matter more? the car will be parked outside 24/7. and does it matter for passive systems like car security/alarm systems/radio/ac?
9. is it easy to upgrade battery capacity in the future if id wanna increase the car's range?
   
   Any insights are welcome, as while i might not immediately commit to EV conversion, its good to know if you atleast have a car that has the capacity/capabilities to do it.
   

 

[lin2far]

There was a RAV4 EV in 2012...

Oh, i heard of that one yeh, but there are almost none available in my country and been eyeing places for the last 4/6 months now.
the one i did see costed 22k+ euro

While an old rav4 from 2001/2003 would be around 3-5k by itself. and could be the cheaper alternative.

 

[lin2far]

It will cost you as much to convert one...

Difference is, i can buy that older rav now and convert later when it suits me, while if i bought the other, id have to drop that sum immediately to get it.

 

[lin2far]

You just kicked the can down the road...the conversion has been done by the factory. You have an electric the day you buy it.

So you allegedly now have a cashflow issue. Buy your ICE RAV4, then sell it and buy a RAV4 EV. If you don't, you will spend the same money and not have a car for two years to drive. If ever...

You'll need to buy a second car while doing the conversion and pay for the conversion parts. Cashflow insanity.

You can't argue your way out of buying a car that's already available as a factory EV unless you have some issues to address that the factory EV doesn't have. Even then, you need to afford to buy three cars vs one Rav4 EV.

Do wonder some things on that 2012 EV model:

1. Would the batteries be as good? how much would they degrade if they are from 2012?
2. how about the weight to capacity ratio of the batteries?
3. how was the electric motor technology back in 2012? did the efficiency stay the same to modern third party electric engines?
4. the car seems a lot heavier too at 1829kg, while only having 166km range. this sounds like a problem.
5. It looks like it only has a slow charger port, and saw it described as needing more than 24h to fully recharge.

if interested in the 3 door version, it was discontinued after 2005 or so, so there doesn't exist a modern variant, nor an electric version.
Wouldnt a DIY approuch save weight, while improving range, efficiency & recharge rate compared to that 2012 ev model? or would that be too optimistic? i'd love to hear your analysis.

offnote: seems that standard ev model rav4 also has around 42kWh battery capacity, but the range is 166km instead and has 25hp more compared to standard older models needing 115kW instead of 92kW. (i guess that has to do with the higher weight)