VW Super Beetle - salvaging an AC Motor

2749 Views 5 Replies 3 Participants Last post by dbargaehr, Feb 24, 2019

dbargaehr

Discussion Starter · Dec 30, 2018

Hi All,

we've stripped the old ICE out of our '71 Super Beetle. I'm looking at motor options now. I know I'll be salvaging a battery pack from a Volt/Bolt/Tesla/Leaf, which shouldn't be a problem.

I'm interested if anyone has salvaged an motor from a Leaf or Volt/Bolt that works well in their Beetle conversion. I'm intrigued by the possibility....as long as the motor fits in the rear compartment?

Or even finding a used Siemens AC motor and making it work?

I've been researching Beetle builds for a while now, and it seems most guys either use off-the-shelf Curtis AC-50 motors (Pricey!) or they use DC motors from forklifts or the Netgain Warps. I'd really like to go AC.

We're really trying to do this as budget-friendly as possible, and a good-sized Curtis controller+motor runs around $4200, so I'm hoping I can find some info on salvaging a Leaf motor for under $1k and making it work.

We're looking to be able to do highway speeds (living near Los Angeles, highway speed is a must around here.)

If you know of any builds that have accomplished this, please send them along. I've been having trouble finding these inventive solutions.

PS: Conversion thread here: https://www.diyelectriccar.com/foru...-super-beetle-electric-conversion-198871.html

Thanks! -DEREK

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brian_

· #2 · Dec 31, 2018

dbargaehr said:
I'm interested if anyone has salvaged an motor from a Leaf or Volt/Bolt that works well in their Beetle conversion. I'm intrigued by the possibility....as long as the motor fits in the rear compartment?

Just about any motor from a production EV will fit in the space of a Beetle engine. The bigger challenges are

mounting the motor to the VW transaxle and mating the motor to the transmission input shaft (if that's the way you're going), or
making a whole salvaged drive unit (motor plus transaxle) fit (if that's the way you're going).

Some people have certainly mated Leaf motors to various transmissions, but it is still not straightforward.

A Volt (plug-in hybrid) and a Bolt (EV) shouldn't be grouped together. While both are branded Chevrolet there's little other connection. A Bolt has a substantial electric motor which might be suitable (although the housing is probably not workable), but a Volt has a sophisticated two-motor multi-mode power-split hybrid transmission system.

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brian_

· #3 · Dec 31, 2018

dbargaehr said:
I've been researching Beetle builds for a while now, and it seems most guys either use off-the-shelf Curtis AC-50 motors (Pricey!) or they use DC motors from forklifts or the Netgain Warps. I'd really like to go AC.

The other obvious choice, to go with the ACx induction motors and brushed DC motors, is the permanent magnet AC motor built in China, sold by an Italian company, and branded "HyPer9" by Netgain. It's just as expensive as other aftermarket AC options, but designed to work at power supply voltages typical of these aftermarket and brushed DC installations, rather than the higher voltage typical of production EVs.

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dbargaehr

Discussion Starter · #4 · Dec 31, 2018

brian_ said:
The other obvious choice, to go with the ACx induction motors and brushed DC motors, is the permanent magnet AC motor built in China, sold by an Italian company, and branded "HyPer9" by Netgain. It's just as expensive as other aftermarket AC options, but designed to work at power supply voltages typical of these aftermarket and brushed DC installations, rather than the higher voltage typical of production EVs.

Thanks! I checked out the HyPer, Warp, and Impulse stuff by Netgain. The controller coming with it is nice (like the ACxx from Curtis) but it's a steep price on those. I'm trying to do this 1) budget-friendly and 2) eco-friendly by recycling components. That's why i was curious about the electric motors from the Leaf, Soul EV, etc. I'm already planning on a battery salvage because otherwise batteries alone to get 20-24kwh is just a bonkers expense...I'm really curious about how they'd fit when it comes to a VW Bug. The engine compartment is not very big, obviously, but I'm planning on mating it to the existing gearbox, I have friends in CNC that can help me out on that and the adapter plate. The bigger challenge is finding one at this point.

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jbman

· #5 · Jan 10, 2019

I have a leaf motor that I'm using in my Mercedes. I can provide measurements, if that would be helpful. I do not have the gearbox from it, though. I suspect it would fit, and it might be a pretty straightforward swap with the gearbox.

Leaf motors are plentiful with several easy control options.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

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dbargaehr

Discussion Starter · #6 · Feb 24, 2019

jbman said:
I have a leaf motor that I'm using in my Mercedes. I can provide measurements, if that would be helpful. I do not have the gearbox from it, though. I suspect it would fit, and it might be a pretty straightforward swap with the gearbox.

Leaf motors are plentiful with several easy control options.

Sent from my SM-N960U using Tapatalk

Hi,

would be very interested in the dimensions if you can get them.

Are you using just the motor, or also using the inverter/controller as well?

Also, what year did you pull from?

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