I am just at the "thinking about it" stage for an EV at this point.
While I know that it is much easier and cheaper just to convert an existing vehicle, I want to think about building it from scratch anyway. I know, I know, but thinking about it doesn't hurt anyone.
What I'm thinking about...
A small truck that can go freeway speeds over expected grades. It doesn't really need to top out much more than that. I am thinking about an underslung chassis on big tires to keep the COG low and still have a decent ride height. I'm hoping to find a large aluminum box already made for industry that would serve as the place to put the batteries and a majority of the meat of the chassis. The inside of the box would be divided into 3 or 4 chambers and only one of those chambers would be filled with initially with enough batteries for a commuter vehicle (60-80 mile range) and more batteries added to the other chambers later to extend range.
Also I am wondering if I can make 4 smaller motors work. This would allow me AWD and to go with split axles and do some interesting things with the suspension and also let me reduce the un-sprung weight by moving the brakes to close to the motors. The two monkey wrenches that I see here are that I don't know if there is a controller that can run multiple motors and I would think that 4 controllers would get pretty expensive and also even if there is a capable controller to run all 4, it would also need some kind of dynamic control of the motors or I would need a separate controller to dynamically control the motors just to stay on the road.
If anyone sees holes in the logic above, please tell me what I am missing. The controller issue is probably the biggest one right now. Until I figure out the feasibility of controlling all four motors in a way that keeps me on the road, I really can't think about design any farther than this point. Hopefully someone has some exposure to someone that has done this before. I would doubt that 5 different controllers would be feasible. A really cool thing if I can figure this out though, is that I could turn the wheels on one side in the opposite direction of the others and literally spin a 360 in place.
Also if what I mentioned above brings up an idea that I haven't mentioned, please feel free to suggest that as well.
Thanks to everyone ahead of time.
While I know that it is much easier and cheaper just to convert an existing vehicle, I want to think about building it from scratch anyway. I know, I know, but thinking about it doesn't hurt anyone.
What I'm thinking about...
A small truck that can go freeway speeds over expected grades. It doesn't really need to top out much more than that. I am thinking about an underslung chassis on big tires to keep the COG low and still have a decent ride height. I'm hoping to find a large aluminum box already made for industry that would serve as the place to put the batteries and a majority of the meat of the chassis. The inside of the box would be divided into 3 or 4 chambers and only one of those chambers would be filled with initially with enough batteries for a commuter vehicle (60-80 mile range) and more batteries added to the other chambers later to extend range.
Also I am wondering if I can make 4 smaller motors work. This would allow me AWD and to go with split axles and do some interesting things with the suspension and also let me reduce the un-sprung weight by moving the brakes to close to the motors. The two monkey wrenches that I see here are that I don't know if there is a controller that can run multiple motors and I would think that 4 controllers would get pretty expensive and also even if there is a capable controller to run all 4, it would also need some kind of dynamic control of the motors or I would need a separate controller to dynamically control the motors just to stay on the road.
If anyone sees holes in the logic above, please tell me what I am missing. The controller issue is probably the biggest one right now. Until I figure out the feasibility of controlling all four motors in a way that keeps me on the road, I really can't think about design any farther than this point. Hopefully someone has some exposure to someone that has done this before. I would doubt that 5 different controllers would be feasible. A really cool thing if I can figure this out though, is that I could turn the wheels on one side in the opposite direction of the others and literally spin a 360 in place.
Also if what I mentioned above brings up an idea that I haven't mentioned, please feel free to suggest that as well.
Thanks to everyone ahead of time.