Since the car is a part while the engineering drawings are being made, I've been researching lithium batteries. I got a message lately reminding me that the price has come down quite a bit since I first wrote my FAQ on Lithium batteries too.
It does seem that Thunder Sky may be on their way to fixing their quality issues and the price is coming down. I found a couple of retailers (Elite Power for example) that offer 52 60 amp cells (equivalent to the 13 Optimas in my car) for $6240. Not bad.
The charger Elite Power offers is a HUGE thing, but I believe my Zivan can be reprogrammed for lithium. I haven't seen a good BMS system for sale though. Elite Power has a system designed to work with that big charger and Hot Juice Electric is dropping production of their BEQ boxes so that they can focus on bringing a controller to market. I'll keep looking.
Meanwhile, I'm having the kit racks tweaked a bit so that the 52 lithium cells can be installed without modification.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
Monday, March 2, 2009
On to Phase 3...
Well, the project is now officially in Phase 3.
Back when I started this project, the activities were part of three phases.
At any rate, after I pulled out #2 battery to have it tested, I thought it was a good idea to start getting the battery racks drawn up so they could be duplicated. Pretty soon, all three racks were out of the car and it was nearly completely disassembled. I had intended on testing the range and 0-60 times first, but that will have to wait.
While I'm waiting on the drawings to be finalized I've been working on the installation manual. This is no easy task, but it's coming along.
Next is to find someone to test the kit in order to make sure the shop-made parts fit properly and the instructions are right. The plan is to offer the racks and brackets at cost and provide support for someone local to convert their car.
Back when I started this project, the activities were part of three phases.
- Phase 1 was to design and build the car.
- Phase 2 was to test and drive the car
- Phase 3 was to document the conversion so that a kit could be made
At any rate, after I pulled out #2 battery to have it tested, I thought it was a good idea to start getting the battery racks drawn up so they could be duplicated. Pretty soon, all three racks were out of the car and it was nearly completely disassembled. I had intended on testing the range and 0-60 times first, but that will have to wait.
While I'm waiting on the drawings to be finalized I've been working on the installation manual. This is no easy task, but it's coming along.
Next is to find someone to test the kit in order to make sure the shop-made parts fit properly and the instructions are right. The plan is to offer the racks and brackets at cost and provide support for someone local to convert their car.
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