DIY electric vehicle – Part 2

It's been a long time since there was an update. My excuses. I had to move the workshop blah blah blah…apologies really. In the last message, I had promised an adapter plate and batteries. Well, I can say early that I produced 50% of the goods. The batteries are inserted and the adapter plate is still pending!

Battery

Thanks to my good friend Leon at Lithium Power, we were able to get hold of 6 Tesla 24v modules. At this point, the plan is to only use 5 modules, leaving 1 in reserve. Leon also included some adapter boards that he designed for easy BMS integration. I'm pretty sure I'll go for the ZEVA BMS, but it hasn't been purchased yet.

Flywheel and Clutch

I am often asked why I use a clutch and flywheel combo. The answer for me is quite simple. It's for security. Attaching the electric motor directly to the flywheel will allow me to mechanically disconnect the drive in the event of a fault or failure. As soon as I depress the clutch, the drive is disconnected. The alternative to this would be to attach the electric motor directly to the gearbox input shaft via a coupler. I'm not a fan of this method. We will obviously lose efficiency using the flywheel, but after weighing everything I decided to continue with the flywheel and clutch setup.

Steering wheel coupler

The coupler is a fairly important part of the build and links the output shaft of the electric motor to the flywheel. I originally purchased a press fit blank from CAN EV (Canada). This coupler needs to be machined to fit and as it stands I have a few 3D printed models to test my designs.

Adapter plate update

I was delaying the production of the adapter plate because I ended up ordering a new lightened flywheel and clutch combo. I wanted to make sure all the dimensions were all right. I only have one chance with this adapter plate and I want to get it right. Fingers crossed now that the football season is over we can make real progress in this area.

Hyper9 Specifications

Just in case anyone wanders over to the Hyper 9 electric motor specs. Check out the pic. If I had the $$ to put two together, I would!

Now what?

Lab test! Adapter plate! Battery boxes! Cabling, cabling, brackets…the list goes on.