Idris a 1994 VW T4 Campervan EV (research phase)

MichaelGomes said:

Hi Guys,

I've been lurking for a bit now. I started out looking at this project just to see if the technology capable of shifting my van was even developed yet, suffice it to say that I am pleasantly surprised .

So the nitty gritty:

Your skill level with auto mechanics and fabrication
Next to nothing, I probably have some friends that can help me with this side of the project, I'm much more comfortable with the electronics and software side of things, I'm planning on this being a learning experience, but please let me know if you think this is a massive mistake and I'd be better off finding a company to do the conversion for me.

The range you are hoping to get (how many miles/charge)
Obviously in this more is more. I'd love a 600+ mile range à la Eric Lundgren's ridiculous BMW project but I know that his project is an outlier rather than the norm. My commute is a 10ish mile round trip so slightly more than 5-6x that (allowing me to charge once a working week) would be acceptable for a start, but being a camper I would like to do much longer distances between rapid chargers at motorway services on roadtrips.

What level of performance you are hoping to get
I'm really not too worried about performance honestly, anything to improve range would be more of a concern for me so AC for regen is a must. She's currently got a 1.9 diesel engine with 250,000 miles on the clock and no turbo. That's 94 ft/lbs of torque at 1,700rpm and 60bhp (that was when new) so almost anything will be an improvement!

What parts you've already considered, if any.
I'm currently thinking of building custom 18650 packs (or possibly 20700s if they are purchasable by the time it comes to actually buying stuff). This will give me much more flexibility in pack size and placement and I suspect an advantage in power density over prismatic cells.

For the motor I'm cautiously looking at the AC75 which is double the torque of her current engine, 50% more horses and a much much higher continous RPM, I would be keeping the transmission and my understanding is that doing so reduces the size requirement of the motor in comparison to direct drive.

I'd like to be able to charge from both Mennekes AC power (for normal usage as a commuting vehicle) and CHAdeMO DC power for quick charging at motorway services on roadtrips. I think I saw that Orion BMSes cover both of these?

I need a little help calculating the pack size I need. I managed to find out that a stock t4 has a coefficient of drag of 0.36 and Idris is lowered which in vehicles with rough undersides improves this coefficient, although I'm not sure how much by. The stock t4 is 1798kg but she has a full camper conversion in the back so she's probably a bit over 2 ton at a guesstimate (a similarly specced camper that got weighed properly came in at 2260kg). I have no idea what her rolling resistance is or how to work this out :s

Let me know what you think and what advice you have, also does anyone have more details on that t4 that got converted in Australia a few years ago and turned up on eBay? I'd love to see their conversion.

Many Thanks

Michael

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