Just starting out

Hi Pirate

$50,000 will build you an awesome car
BUT it won't build you a saloon car as good as a Tesla S

It can build a car to meet specific needs (high performance, looks....) better than something like the Tesla - but not overall

There is a reason it has cost millions to develop the Tesla

Anyway - the first thing you need to do is to determine
What are your specific needs??

Then we may be able to help you with ideas/suggestions

Hi Pirate
Have you built a car before?
The reason I ask is because it is the little jobs that eat the time and money
If you have a body/chassis built with motor and all running gear in place - you are about 7% of the way there!
The other 93% is all little finicky jobs

Your options:
Conversion
Kit car
Scratchbuilt - existing design
Scratchbuilt - your design

Each step is a lot more work than the previous one

If you have a budget of $50,000 and range requirement of 300 miles
your battery will cost ~ $30,000
Leaving $20,000 for everything else

How often do you drive for 300 miles? - is it worth hiring a car for those journeys?
300 miles is getting awful close to the edge of the envelope with today's technology

If you want your own design - what do you NEED?
What can you live without?

My car is real basic
- no doors, no windows, no windscreen, no heater, no padding, no interior trim
It is great fun - but no good for a long drive
And because it is no good for a long drive it does not need a long range

http://www.diyelectriccar.com/forum...-dubious-device-44370p2.html?highlight=duncan

I'm not exactly trying to build a Tesla, but something similar to it where i have all the control over the design.
I realize this will be a tremendous amount of work,

Hi Pirate
I don't want to throw cold water on this BUT
Tesla will have put a huge amount of man hours into their car
Maybe 600 man years - possibly more!

If you want a car this millennium you will have to either use other peoples work or settle for something easier (simpler)

People say things like
"Issigonis designed the mini"
What they mean is
"Issigonis headed up a team of 100 engineers who designed the mini using a lot of parts from existing cars"

There is a huge amount of work in the simplest areas

Range requirements
300 miles is close to the limits with present technology
But if you expect to take a couple of years it may be OK by then - maybe not
Designing a car with the ability to take 300miles of batteries will cause a lot of compromises on other things like performance

I would advice designing with a more modest range and
(1) Hope that you will be able to put 300 miles worth of batteries into a hole for 150 miles
(2) Use the extra batteries on a trailer for your bimonthly trips