Planning EV Race Car
Hi All,
My name is Alex. I'm a big EV enthusiast and I have decided that I want to build a race car. I have little experience disassembling and reassembling cars but I am fairly apt with my hands and I'm fairly bright.
Here's a little bit about me, I am a student at a small university in upstate NY. I worked for two years for the University of Toronto on the original Surface and Google Glass with regards to notifications. I am going to major in Physics.
I have considered which car will serve as the basis for my car. I would prefer if I kept that private for now. Its a small car, perfect for racing.
The range I would like to achieve is around 80 miles at very high speed.
Parts:
Yasa 750 (H if available) x4 probably.
Battery pack ideas? Looking for Li-Ion
Rimac Battery Packs - if they are for sale.
Drive inverter?
Reinhart Controllers - PM250
Basic knowledge of EVs:
Energy goes in to the car from the grid through an adapter into a charger. The charger fills the pack. When you push down on the accelerator the controller allows current to flow into the inverter which converts the DC -> AC to spin a brushless motor. The motor usually connected to a reduction gear or gearbox spins the gears etc.
Is that correct? How does one program regenerative breaking?
That is really all that I have thought about.
I'm willing to push the limits financially right now. I would, however, like to keep track of the price of the parts.
Any and all help is greatly appreciated.
Best,
Alex
My name is Alex. I'm a big EV enthusiast and I have decided that I want to build a race car. I have little experience disassembling and reassembling cars but I am fairly apt with my hands and I'm fairly bright.
Here's a little bit about me, I am a student at a small university in upstate NY. I worked for two years for the University of Toronto on the original Surface and Google Glass with regards to notifications. I am going to major in Physics.
I have considered which car will serve as the basis for my car. I would prefer if I kept that private for now. Its a small car, perfect for racing.
The range I would like to achieve is around 80 miles at very high speed.
Parts:
Yasa 750 (H if available) x4 probably.
Battery pack ideas? Looking for Li-Ion
Rimac Battery Packs - if they are for sale.
Drive inverter?
Reinhart Controllers - PM250
Basic knowledge of EVs:
Energy goes in to the car from the grid through an adapter into a charger. The charger fills the pack. When you push down on the accelerator the controller allows current to flow into the inverter which converts the DC -> AC to spin a brushless motor. The motor usually connected to a reduction gear or gearbox spins the gears etc.
Is that correct? How does one program regenerative breaking?
That is really all that I have thought about.
I'm willing to push the limits financially right now. I would, however, like to keep track of the price of the parts.
Any and all help is greatly appreciated.
Best,
Alex
21 - 31 of 31 Posts
That article is in serious need of revision; out of date, and erroneous, info all through it. There are people on this site using AC with multiple ratio transmissions. It works well with smaller motor packages, like those from HPEVS, to help them move (relatively) heavier vehicles....This article makes it seem as if an AC motor can only have a single speed transmission...
KnowledgeHi, I am back with a couple of questions.
So far I have:
Motor
Drive Inverter
Controller
Transmission
Battery
Charger
Adapter
Car
What am I missing?
A
Skills
Experiece
Seriously, if you are going to do this and make a "Real" race car, you should get a good (EV ?) race engineer on board before you waste a lot of time and money.
I'm here to learn. I'm young. I have no experience with EVs. I was asking for parts. I know that I need to learn more. I don't expect to just build this thing.Knowledge
Skills
Experiece
Seriously, if you are going to do this and make a "Real" race car, you should get a good (EV ?) race engineer on board before you waste a lot of time and money.
A
If you have time, aptitude to learn and most of all a forgiving budget, you'll be fine. Recognize that this is going to be harder and more expensive than you expect. But that doesn't make it impossible. Try to avoid spending huge amounts of money on something until you are sure it's what you want. For instance, if you have a motor in mind, go with the mindset that it's the wrong choice and prove to yourself that it's not.I'm here to learn. I'm young. I have no experience with EVs. I was asking for parts. I know that I need to learn more. I don't expect to just build this thing.
A
This forum has lots of examples of people who started with very little knowledge and made a great car. They all had access to money. Most of the people on here are looking for something that's not too hard, not too expensive, and has been done before.
Plus, this is all about information sharing so you can utilize the knowledge and experiences of others, to avoid those costly mistakes - imitate what's been proven, if you're not sure. You'll learn in the process...
Also, if you start an actual build thread, you will probably get more opinions, advice, and feedback, here than you'll know what to do with - for a race car. A fair portion of that will come from engineers and/or racers, some of whom have extensive experience, and the "trophies on the mantle" to prove they know what they're talking about.
Also, if you start an actual build thread, you will probably get more opinions, advice, and feedback, here than you'll know what to do with - for a race car. A fair portion of that will come from engineers and/or racers, some of whom have extensive experience, and the "trophies on the mantle" to prove they know what they're talking about.
I just quoted a large pack made from our team supplier's lowest cost "energy" Pouch cells rated at 30C continuous.
30C Line Up
10kWH would be $9,000 (450BHP) 3 boxes
20kWh would be $18,000 (900BHP) 6 boxes
30kWh would be $27,000 (1350BHP) 9 boxes
or about $900/kWH and $20/BHP
100C
Just for comparison a drag racing pack of my 6S 4.5Ahr 100C cells
$150 each 6PX15modules = $13,500
Boxes $2,250
Total $16,000
90X6X3.7X4.5=8.9kWh
250VX100*6*4.5=675kW or 905BHP
or about $1800/kWH but only $17/BHP
but, these obviously weigh half as much and are half the volume.
Fill in your pack requirements, multiply it out and see if that's in your budget.....
30C Line Up
10kWH would be $9,000 (450BHP) 3 boxes
20kWh would be $18,000 (900BHP) 6 boxes
30kWh would be $27,000 (1350BHP) 9 boxes
or about $900/kWH and $20/BHP
100C
Just for comparison a drag racing pack of my 6S 4.5Ahr 100C cells
$150 each 6PX15modules = $13,500
Boxes $2,250
Total $16,000
90X6X3.7X4.5=8.9kWh
250VX100*6*4.5=675kW or 905BHP
or about $1800/kWH but only $17/BHP
but, these obviously weigh half as much and are half the volume.
Fill in your pack requirements, multiply it out and see if that's in your budget.....
So if I'm understanding this right, faster discharging packs are cheaper per kW/BHP but more expensive per kWh.I just quoted a large pack made from our team supplier's lowest cost "energy" Pouch cells rated at 30C continuous.
30C Line Up
10kWH would be $9,000 (450BHP) 3 boxes
20kWh would be $18,000 (900BHP) 6 boxes
30kWh would be $27,000 (1350BHP) 9 boxes
or about $900/kWH and $20/BHP
100C
Just for comparison a drag racing pack of my 6S 4.5Ahr 100C cells
$150 each 6PX15modules = $13,500
Boxes $2,250
Total $16,000
90X6X3.7X4.5=8.9kWh
250VX100*6*4.5=675kW or 905BHP
or about $1800/kWH but only $17/BHP
but, these obviously weigh half as much and are half the volume.
Fill in your pack requirements, multiply it out and see if that's in your budget.....
The benefit to pouch cells is that they are malleable (to an extent) so I could shape them around the space that I have remaining in the car, correct? What are the downsides?
And people on this forum tend to prefer Li-po because of the slight increase in energy density over Li-ion right?
How does one determine their discharging requirements?
What is the rated voltage on those packs? The 30c ones.
Thank you,
A
Yes your choice is low $/kwh or low $/kwSo if I'm understanding this right, faster discharging packs are cheaper per kW/BHP but more expensive per kWh.
The benefit to pouch cells is that they are malleable (to an extent) so I could shape them around the space that I have remaining in the car, correct? What are the downsides?
And people on this forum tend to prefer Li-po because of the slight increase in energy density over Li-ion right?
How does one determine their discharging requirements?
What is the rated voltage on those packs? The 30c ones.
Thank you,
A
And remember volume and weight.
No don't bend the pouch cells. They are actually pretty delicate foil sheets packed together to create multiple parallel cells.
Not sure what folks on the forum prefer, they both have their place.
Two points to determine. The peak battery horsepower and the duration of the load. Those two help pick your cell type and quantity.
Rated voltage? They are 3.7 nominal they are fully charged at 4.2V and empty near 3.7V
Sorry, I've been kind of MIA the passed couple of months. I was wondering if anyone has any experience using both supercaps and li-ion batteries in the same pack? How would that work? Sorry if this is a stupid question, I am just trying to acquire some general information.
A
A
Not stupid, but it gets asked frequently. If you mean paralleling a bank of supercaps with batteries, it could help stiffen the pack a little. But it is not worth the cost, complexity, space and weight that it would consume at this time. It would be far better to use the money, space, and weight to add more batteries. To do this right would require a rather complex piece of power electronics to get all the energy out of the supercaps. But even with that it still isn't worth it. The energy storage of supercaps is not yet good enough.Sorry, I've been kind of MIA the passed couple of months. I was wondering if anyone has any experience using both supercaps and li-ion batteries in the same pack? How would that work? Sorry if this is a stupid question, I am just trying to acquire some general information.
A
Sleuth around and you will find some of these threads.
21 - 31 of 31 Posts
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