[racerx944]

How is the progress going in converting your VIA motors van into an EV?

I have the van and the truck version and am thinking about converting one into an all electric one also.

I have been doing some digging on the truck version and I have not taken apart the van battery to see if it is the same as the truck.

I believe these battery cells are A123 LiFePO4 cells.

The information I saw on someone who had bought a battery from VIA motors is a 85.8V nominal voltage pack and there are 4 of those with 5.2KWH @85.8V and one with 2.6KWH(1/2 of the others) for a combined capacity of 23.4KWH.

I have calculated that there are 26 cells in series @ 3.3V nominal volt to get the 85.8V for each of the 5.2KWH modules so if multiplied by 4.5 modules, the complete battery pack is a 117S battery pack @ 3.3V per cell totaling 386.1V for the entire pack nominal voltage.

I believe the maximum voltage is 3.6V per cell and that would bring the maximum voltage of the pack to 421.2V maximum.

I am thinking about building a battery pack out of lithium ion batteries @ 3.7V nominal voltage and 4.2V maximum per cell in a 105S configuration to get a nominal voltage of 388.5V and 441V maximum voltage, which is slightly higher than the factory VIA motors pack and running both packs parallel that feeds into motor controller HV DC input.

What I don't know is how I can get a BMS that can handle a 105S pack to balance the individual cells for the "external" pack.

The "external" pack I am thinking about will have close to 50KWH capacity and combined with the factory pack, it should yield acceptable range.

Any advise would be appreciated.

 

[racerx944]

It doesn't matter, but it seems a little strange that they used a controller from Dana TM4 who only sells controllers to enable potential customers to use TM4 motors... but used it with a BorgWarner (formerly Remy) motor.

By the way, the name appears to be CO150 (with the letter "O"), rather than C0150 (with the digit "0")... it matters to online searching. It currently comes in regular (320-450 V input and max 615 ARMS output) and high-voltage (500-750 V input and max 425 ARMS output) versions, so it's not clear what the truck's battery voltage is likely to be.

According to my calculations, the CO150 is the 320-450V version as the battery pack will max out at 421.2V.

I believe the CO150HV is the one that ranges from 500V to 750V.

CO150 motor controller

Used in several automotive, commercial vehicle and motorsport applications, the CO150 is a versatile and very powerful motor controller.

www.danatm4.com

 

[racerx944]

It's a Vtrux.115 DOM traction motor

There's a press release with Dana bragging about the inverter being used in Vtrux.

No idea where you're going with all this, Brian...he's looking for a VCU to control the inverter that's already in the truck - the DANA.

Do you think it will be easier to leave the ICE motor in it and simply extend the range of "plug in" capacity before the ICE kicks in?

Suggestions would be appreciated.

 

[racerx944]

If you have the space and weight capacity you can certainly do that, and keeping the ICE retains the hybrid capability, but I don't see how it makes anything simpler. Keeping enough of the controls to be functional on batteries would help, but does the presence of the engine really help?

3 main reasons to keep the ICE.

1. Less work.

2. More range.

3. My lack of knowledge to make a controller work with electric only.

 

[racerx944]

3 main reasons to ditch the ICE

1. Less work

2. More range

3. Your lack of knowledge to make a higher battery capacity hybrid work

😈

I am not following but here is my line of reasoning.

It is a lot of work to take out the motor and all associated parts as opposed to leaving it in there as a range extender.

The gas engine has infinite range as long as there are gas stations.

My plan was to add in a parallel pack and use none of the car's BMS to manage it. It would have it's own BMS and charged by the car's charger.

With about 75KWH of capacity, I figure I would be able to get about 75 to 100 miles of real life electric range without towing a trailer or hauling a heavy load.

My plan is to splice the DC output of the parallel battery pack into the input of the motor controller (where it is joined with the factory traction battery output) where DC is split into the 3 phase AC output to drive the electric motor.

The charging would be spliced into the DC input from the DC charger/inverter output that is powered by the EVSE.

I am not sure if it will work as planned and specific input would be appreciated.

 

[racerx944]

Sounds simple in theory until you need to integrate that second BMS into the "motor controller" and ICE genset.

I am more familiar with putting lower voltage battery packs together up to 72V 20S configuration but never tackled putting together a battery pack of 400V though I have worked with 300V to 400V packs from other EVs and hybrids like the Chevy Volt and Prius. In one case, I took apart the Chevy Volt battery pack and used it as a part of my house (off grid) where I reconfigured the battery pack into a 14S configuration to get a 51.8V nominal (58.8V max) battery pack working in parallel with other size battery 14S battery packs that has been powering my house for 2 years charged by solar.

My plan is to make the second BMS separate to the second battery pack and typically all it needs is a correct input voltage to charge or discharge, which is all controlled by the BMS and does not need any input other than voltage and amps drawn by the controller and the voltage and amps input by the genset or charger.

The "motor controller" will pull whatever amps it needs out of both parallel separate packs at the same time and the genset will charge both packs at the same time. Can you be more specific in what type of integration it will need?

The problem I have is finding a 105S BMS rated for 100 amps or more. I have not done the calculation on the amps but if I need more amps, I will need to pack from a planned 105S4P to 105S8P LG Chem pouch batteries to have a total of 125KWH of capacity.