Hi everyone,
So I had the good fortune a few months ago of meeting ev legend Otmar thru our shared passion (?) of VW Vanagons. Otmar got me to thinking of converting one (or more) of my other
'works in progress' to ev propulsion. I own 'Vanomo' a DIY 'Doka' (double cab pick-up) I made out of a perfectly good vw van about ten years ago, a mk1 vw Jetta coupe, and a Suzuki Samurai.
I live on the Oregon coast where I feed my passion for riding fat tire electric bikes on the dunes, sandfields, and the single track paths connecting them. I've been doing the 'efats' for about three years now and have built three so far but those are pretty much just bolting together existing components without much fabrication work involved. Now I want to take the leap and starting with either the Suzuki or the Jetta swap in an electric motor, controller, and bunches of 18650 batteries (just kidding about the batteries!)
The argument for the Samurai conversion is pretty strong: I don't need anything with more than 60 miles range or more than 60mph, relatively light weight, enough space behind the seats for batteries?
The argument for the Jetta conversion is pretty strong. Really cool looking early 80's couple with a sizeable trunk and good sized engine bay. Would like to have greater range and more mph for occasional interstate jaunts but cost might be a limiting factor.
At any rate where should I start? Bought a book 'Build Your Own Electric Vehicle' a number of years ago but it's pretty dated (lithiums were just coming on-line when it was written) so I don't know how much good it will be beyond basic architectures.
Would love any suggestions!
Thanks in advance,
Mark
So I had the good fortune a few months ago of meeting ev legend Otmar thru our shared passion (?) of VW Vanagons. Otmar got me to thinking of converting one (or more) of my other
'works in progress' to ev propulsion. I own 'Vanomo' a DIY 'Doka' (double cab pick-up) I made out of a perfectly good vw van about ten years ago, a mk1 vw Jetta coupe, and a Suzuki Samurai.
I live on the Oregon coast where I feed my passion for riding fat tire electric bikes on the dunes, sandfields, and the single track paths connecting them. I've been doing the 'efats' for about three years now and have built three so far but those are pretty much just bolting together existing components without much fabrication work involved. Now I want to take the leap and starting with either the Suzuki or the Jetta swap in an electric motor, controller, and bunches of 18650 batteries (just kidding about the batteries!)
The argument for the Samurai conversion is pretty strong: I don't need anything with more than 60 miles range or more than 60mph, relatively light weight, enough space behind the seats for batteries?
The argument for the Jetta conversion is pretty strong. Really cool looking early 80's couple with a sizeable trunk and good sized engine bay. Would like to have greater range and more mph for occasional interstate jaunts but cost might be a limiting factor.
At any rate where should I start? Bought a book 'Build Your Own Electric Vehicle' a number of years ago but it's pretty dated (lithiums were just coming on-line when it was written) so I don't know how much good it will be beyond basic architectures.
Would love any suggestions!
Thanks in advance,
Mark