hmmm, i think an aussie version of white zombie should be done here.

im thinking a ute with lithium-ion packs and a few solar panels on the tray lid.

with the light weight of our dattos we could be electric pioneers.
im going to do more research on price and stuff needed.
far out instant tire frying torque. take that BP.
:)

I've thought about this myself.

Solar Panels:
Unless the car spends alot more time parked in the sun than actually driving it's probably not worth it. The tray area may be worth about 100W at the most in strong direct sun and cost a bundle. They'd be better on the roof of your house. The solar cars have state of the art panels and an extremely low drag coefficient and area using only on order of 100W to drive at speed. The main problem is solar energy is diffuse (i.e. spread out).

It would cost alot but if you drove the car everyday it would probably pay for its self in say 5-10 years and would be pretty unique. There's a number of places that do kits in the US, a place in Victoria that does conversions (Castlemain I think) and loads of webpages. Here's a couple

http://www.strathsteam.com/page10.html
http://www.aeva.asn.au/

I'd be impressed if you could do a conversion with good to high performance for less than around $10k. Depends what you want to use it for, for big power you need big batteries to supply the current, e.g. for a 144V system (a common dc system) you need 280 odd amps to make 40kW.

Another interesting prospect is salvaging electric motors from hybrid cars, I think Adelaide Uni had a student project along these lines, autospeed also have an article on it.

Best of luck, it's an interesting topic.

Prepare yourself with a 15 grand budget. Go for it though, would be fantastic to see.

If you have a search on that forum, one of our members here was already making plans to do it. Not sure what happened, or whether it went ahead or not.

I have a desire to do an electric 1200 4 door sedan. But it's 10 years away. I have the car, just waiting for more hybrid cars to make the parts cheaper. I'd like to go cvt and electric.

We can only hope that the gulf oil crisis makes ppl wake up to themselves and explore alternative methods of fuel for all applications...if it doesnt kill us all first.

Funny this thread should appear as I was watching Whitte Zombie vid again yesterday...keep getting drawn back to it for some reason.

Id love to go electric, I just don't think the technology is being made readily available enough yet, I know it exists and has had for a long time, there must be some good reason and its not how much it costs to make...considering you can pick up a cordless drill for under 20 bucks nowadays :)

Lithium Polymer is the way to go, since the introduction of these and brushless motors to remote control applications, most of the benefits of electric far outweigh nitro-powered engines...so why not scale it up?
Just think of how easy, cheap, quiet and CLEAN it could be, instant torque would only be the beginning of the bonuses.

Now that I think about it...I would still need to run some of that voltage to an amp and speaker under the hood so I wouldn't miss the mighty A series bark ;)

An EV is only regardless of near future battery technology only
a Commuting vehicle for those that travel less than 60km per day
by car which is 70% of the developed world or most of us.

http://www.asahi-net.or.jp/~MR5T-OKB/2ev-e.html

the above link shows a cheap alternative EV
A 2cv weighs 620 with its all alloy 2 cylinder 600cc
quadracycle architecture.

A Datsun 1000 POV ute or sedan 615kg and 650 respectively
A series running gear (wet) aprox.
engine 95kg wet
Exhaust 10-15kg
Radiator 10kg wet
Original battery 12kg
So about 140kg total (5-10kg +/- for fuel tank)
around 490kg.

2cv
Aircooled Engine 50kg (fuel tank +/- 5kg)
620kg - 50 = 570 kg

The Datsun K has 70-80kg less
Therefore 2cv EV final weight 655kg - 570kg = 85kg for EV equipment?

Datsun 1000 490kg + 85kg = around 585kg

That would give the 1000 a good 40klm range

The 2cv maximum speed is 115km/h. At a constant speed of 40km/h range is 57km for 1hr. 24min. Actual range is 20-30km at town use using 10 open-type lead-acid batteries at 12V-28AH = 3360 amps hours

Use lithium pack of 12000amp for 7000aud plus 1000 for controller and charger
then you have a big outlay up front for the batteries but over the years the
longevity will warrant the cost, especially a fuel goes to the 2 dollar mark.
12,000amp hours will quadruple the range of to 80-120km per charge.

Enough for everyday travel plus more but limited to commuting only.
The 1st car can be an A series powered :)