[piotrsko]

flywheel provides negligible power for the car. for the conversion, all things being equal, a very light flywheel is desired.

gear box provides lower torque (and current) demands from the motor, and can provide less back EMF in the higher gears. SEE also thread under Why automatic transmissions will work in..... Most people opting for a clutch wish to replicate the ICE experience for the masses that cannot fathom the difference.

Generally not necessary to idle the electric motor, UNLESS you are powering the alternator, power steering, or vacuum brake boost pump.

finally, no the experience won't be the same, it will be better. Permagrin is hard to remove from a satisfied DIY'er in their conversion.

I would suggest a wander through our extensive WIKI, and welcome to the forum.

 

[dtbaker]

Most builds I have seen on the Internet have connected the motor directly to the gearbox as a direct drive. The Flywheel, clutch and Gearbox are therefore redundant. I understand this is a simple maintenance-free system.

I think you will find that most folks DO end up using a transmission. DC motors are great but cannot provide enough torque in a high enough gear to accelerate from stop and reach desired top speed at less than 5000 rpm.

There is lots of room for discussion as to how you want to couple the motor to the tranny though! clutched, or clutchless is a grand debate.

 

[tomofreno]

To add to what dt said, AC motors generally can be run to higher rpm than DC series motors but they run out of poop (torque) at higher rpm, so generally also work better with a transmission as far as maximizing acceleration unless a very powerful AC motor is used. Those cost about as much as you would pay for a new subcompact car, so most of us use transmissions with AC or DC, unless we are satisfied with top speed limited to around 65 mph or less (depending on gear ratio chosen), taking longer to get to that speed, and having anemic acceleration around that speed.