Protege5 ultimate mod

[dimitri5]

Your saying it cost you a dollar a day to run a 220 outlet for 8 hours a day? I have a hard time computing that? What is the life span of the batteries? Where is this electric energy coming from? Did your old engine have a hole in the block? If so could you not find another block for less then 800 bucks to re use? Rather then buy something new? What are you going to do with the batteries when they do die, which they will. What if you get rear ended? Are the battery acids caustic? And 18000 can buy a lot of gas, at the projected cost of 1500 dollars a year for gas you can drive for more then ten years on that. But you are going to be able to go much further. Since your limited to 50 miles a day you won't be taking it out of town for long trips where people rack on the miles.

Get a bike for 300 bucks and be 177000 a head, use your car, truck, or hummer when it rains or you need to haul stuff

I might have messed up in my math, sorry, its about $2 per day, since it doesn't actually run 20 amps entire time, it slows down as it gets closer to full charge, plus it really depends on how many miles I run every day, which is less than 50, probably close to 30 on average. Bottom line its 1-2$ per day on average.

Batteries of this chemistry ( LiFePo4 ) last 3000+ cycles, which is over 10 years of average usage. They are dry and maintenance free, no acid there. They are 100% recycled, just like most batteries. This is safest battery type for vehicle applications, same batteries will be in Chevy Volt, whenever it comes out and in plugin Prius, whenever that comes out too.

In case of an accident worst case will be a short across the battery, which would immediately blow a fuse.

Energy comes from power plant, which can use variety of sources, granted half of it comes from fossil fuel today, but its used 3 times more efficiently than burning it in ICE engine. Power plants can and will change their source of fuel over time, but I won't have to change the car.

I am fascinated by electric propulsion and really hate gasoline, I am not a tree hugger, just hate inefficiency of a space heater with wheels ( 75% goes to heat, 25% to the wheels) and the fact that gas will run out sooner or later, very much likely in my lifespan.

I am not here to push anything, just sharing my experience, this forum helped me learn about my car and helped me reach my goal, that's all. There are plenty of forums specialized on EVs, where I am a regular poster, but since I really like my Protege5 I wanted to share with people over here.

Kstang, 100 years ago most people traveled by horse and cars didn't have much range and there weren't gas stations on every corner, so gasoline cars were probably ridiculed by sceptics like you all the time. People would probably say, I can take my horse where roads don't go, or my horse can haul its own food for long distance rides, etc.

That's fine, I am not offended at all, just sharing my personal point of view. Thanks for taking time to blow holes in my story and rain on my parade (dark)

 

[dimitri5]

Go buy a new phone.

The battery may last 2 days between each charge.

After having charged it for a year, it will last one day.

After another year it will last half a day.

After another, it will be leaking battery acid.

Sorry your investment failed.
Batteries do not last forever.

You are referring to Nickel Cadmium batteries which are still used in many cordless phones and power tools. Those had bad memory effects and were prone to many issues. Since then many different chemistries have been developed. Just Lithium batteries alone have 4-5 chemistries available, each with different pros and cons. Specific chemistry used in my EV and most of upcoming EVs from manufacturers is LiFePo4. It's known for its safety and longevity, so my investment did not fail. I did not fork over $10k without much learning first
(wow) tough crowd over here...

 

[dimitri5]

Honda is the only one on the right track with the FCX Clarity. That's if you even give crap and believe in the global warming myth. I do believe in conservation, but I am no tree hugger.

I am not a tree hugger and don't believe that humans cause global warming. I believe in finite fossil resources and hate to see its wasted at 25% efficiency. I also believe that exhaust is causing lots of health issues on a global scale, especially in cities with dense population, where EVs would be perfect along with more efficient public transit, be it electric or anything else other than burning gas right into people's intake manifolds.

 

[SocialStealth]

Your right. I fail (smoke)

Do you think you can give me some money to fix my car

 

[gimpo2]

Hey man, this is pretty ****** badass. Don't let the naysayers get you down.

 

[aMaff]

You are referring to Nickel Cadmium batteries which are still used in many cordless phones and power tools. Those had bad memory effects and were prone to many issues. Since then many different chemistries have been developed. Just Lithium batteries alone have 4-5 chemistries available, each with different pros and cons. Specific chemistry used in my EV and most of upcoming EVs from manufacturers is LiFePo4. It's known for its safety and longevity, so my investment did not fail. I did not fork over $10k without much learning first
(wow) tough crowd over here...

We just have some people who automatically reject anything that doesn't fit with their small view of reality

1 question: how has this affected the weight of the car? And particularly, the weight distribution?

 

[MakeMeGoFast]

Pure Awesomeness.........

 

[judman13]

Honda is the only one on the right track with the FCX Clarity.

Ha You actually think a hydrogen powered vehicle will solve the problem of oil dependence and this so called problem of "extreme climate change" formally known as global warming??
2 major problems with hydrogen powered cars.
1. The infrastructure to support hydrogen cars does not exist. The cost of producing such a structure quickly enough to supposed the cars effectively would be astronomical!!
2. Hydrogen is just as expensive as gasoline...the process to gather, extract, and refine hyrdogen for the proposed usage is intense and expensive.

Sure hydrogen is "green", but viable....not in 40 years.

You want some options that are ready to work??
http://www.aptera.com/

http://www.commutercars.com/

 

[aMaff]

Alright guys, I can see where this thread is going and I don't like it. Dimitri has a ridiculously cool and unique mod on his P5 that he's sharing with us... let's try not to let this denigrate into a flame war over alternative energy, k?

Thanks,

The Management

 

[JCell]

i love it..... hopefully someday i can see it running around the streets

 

[MakeMeGoFast]

Alright guys, I can see where this thread is going and I don't like it. Dimitri has a ridiculously cool and unique mod on his P5 that he's sharing with us... let's try not to let this denigrate into a flame war over alternative energy, k?

Thanks,

The Management

Please never refer to yourself as "The Management" again, its quite disturbing.....
next thing I know you'll be asking me where the TPS reports are and telling me
I have to come in on Saturday.....ugh........(lol2)

 

[aMaff]

Please never refer to yourself as "The Management" again, its quite disturbing.....
next thing I know you'll be asking me where the TPS reports are and telling me
I have to come in on Saturday.....ugh........(lol2)

That's the idea (rlaugh)

 

[cbrcrx]

Ha You actually think a hydrogen powered vehicle will solve the problem of oil dependence and this so called problem of "extreme climate change" formally known as global warming??
2 major problems with hydrogen powered cars.
1. The infrastructure to support hydrogen cars does not exist. The cost of producing such a structure quickly enough to supposed the cars effectively would be astronomical!!
2. Hydrogen is just as expensive as gasoline...the process to gather, extract, and refine hyrdogen for the proposed usage is intense and expensive.

Sure hydrogen is "green", but viable....not in 40 years.

You want some options that are ready to work??
http://www.aptera.com/

http://www.commutercars.com/

At one time the infrastructure to support gasoline cars didn't exist. The plan, no matter what it would be, is to gradually switch over. By the way, I'm not ragging him for doing this. I think it's great to make something unique.

 

[madsmartguy]

Dimitri, zdorvo, really f**cin cool. 18000 does sound like a lot though, does that include the price of the used car?

 

[kstang]

Sorry didn't mean to stir the pot, and i do understand the need to tinker and learn. I also understand that for your uses this fits the bill for you. You drive less the 50 miles a day and I assume you are happy with the reliability. I guess my issues are with people trying to pass technology like this as the "silver bullet" to all our issues, but I am not saying you ever claimed that or even eluded to that. The greatest issues with this to me is cost. But like all technology the cost of top of the line today will be 1/2 next year. So eventually with more demand and more manufactures creating their own systems the cost will come down and range and speed will get better.

I do have some legitimate questions?

Weight? did you add weight? Take away weight? What about distribution.
What is the difference between a full tank of gas vs the battery pack?

Does cold temperature affect the battery life? Most batteries have these problems? Are there measures to help this?

Does performance get worse as % of battery drop. Say you can go 80 at 100% battery, can you do 80 at 5% battery?

What does the U.S. Department of Transportation's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration say about a set up like this? Is there any certification to make sure the car is still safe?

Also have you ran the car on a wheel dyno to see what kind of power it makes?

 

[Bret2002]

Awesome man! really cool and interesting to see this done. kstang has some interesting questions on the performance of the batterie over the course of one charge but i was interested in how much power you are putting down to the wheels now because i know electric vehicles can have 100 percent of the torque available on command as opposed to us ICE guys having to deal with a torque curve (not that our four cyclinder has much of one anyways haha). is it a stop light warior now ? has the handling been sacrificed? is there bad torque steer? just a few things i was interested in(drive2)

 

[i12drivemyMP5]

Cool stuff, niche usage, good questions above, cost prohibitive & much more practical for times when gas is not available or cost is even more crazy than it can be now. Will the golf courses let you use it as an all weather cart? Still, kudos for doing it. Just seems that inspections/insurance & coupla other things would be huge hassle in this hyper red tape era we live in now.

 

[dimitri5]

Thanks everyone for your support, I am glad this thread turned into positive direction.

No doubt that EVs today are a niche market, many shortcomings exist, does not fit the bill for everyone. But someone has to rock the boat to ensure progress, so I figured why not me? I am lucky to be in warm and flat Florida, which removes some of EV's shortcomings. Yes, its expensive today, I barely afforded this project and only hope to break even in 5-7 years if gas prices will go up again, but its a lot of fun to learn, build and drive.

Weight distribution was a challenge, I managed to put back as much weight as I removed under the hood, so front sits the same as before, but I added about 300 Lb in the back and installed Ground Control coilovers with stiffer spring rates, to bring rear to OEM height. It was lower by 1.5 inch, which may not sound bad, but I didn't like the look of it. Basically the car is 3000Lb now, which is like driving 2 adults in the back, so its not a big deal.

This battery type is much less prone to extreme temp, it works well from freezing cold to 120F hot, without any issues.

Performance is the same from 100% to 0%, discharge is very flat and very little voltage sag on these batteries. They work great right up to the point of empty, which makes it important to know your range and watch the state of charge gauge a.k.a. "fuel gauge", but I guess its no different from gas car, how many people run out of gas in the middle of the road?

As for government issues, it varies from state to state. Some states have ridiculous restrictions, some don't. Again, I am lucky that Florida doesn't seem to care much. Essentially my car is no different than a heavily modified hotrod, I could pass inspections if need be.

Its true that 100% of torque is available at 0 RPM, so I have software limiting on the controller to avoid rapid torque increase, to save the batteries from huge spike of current and save drivetrain and tires from smoking. If this was a racing car, it could smoke tires from dead stop, see White Zombie EV racing on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3THUk5_jEw

I also have automatic tranny in my P5, so its smoothes out torque.

Still, it has awesome acceleration from dead stop, probably better than OEM, and I get about 20 seconds from 0 to 60mph, not sure how it compares to OEM with auto tranny, I never measured it before the conversion. Opposite to ICE engine, torque and acceleration drops with higher RPMs, so its best from stop, but not as good when cruising, although still decent enough to pass people if needed.

I don't have access to dyno, but according to numbers, I have 64kW of power at dead stop, which is about 85 horsepower. But electric drivetrain is much more efficient, so its difficult to compare apples to apples.

Thanks

 

[Rockin03mp5]

very nice dude!

a friend and i were looking into doing this when batterys get cheaper. plus i would like 100 miles on a charge. but very nice! and it looks so much better than the other ev's!

 

[Qcpro5]

Congrats this is very cool