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.

• 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

The third phase was originally just to promote car conversion at shows, but making the kits became more important...

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.

Survey says!

I've gotten a number of questions about providing a conversion kit for the Miata so back in August of last year I posted a survey to determine what kind of kit people were interested in. The link was on all pages of the main www.evmiata.com site and asked you to vote for the components, battery and kit type that you'd like to see.

The choices were:

components

• 156v WarP/Zilla
• 144v WarP/Curtis
• 144v WarP/Belktronix
• 144v Selectria

Batteries

• AGM
• Lithium
• Flooded lead acid

Kit Type

• Basic - Battery racks, brackets, motor mount and adapter
• Standard - all the above plus motor charger, controller and associated parts
• Complete - all the above plus bolts, cable ties and pre-terminated cables

The results were pretty impressive:

• 405 total surveys taken
• 180 votes (45%) went with the 156v WarP/Zilla route
• 29 votes (7%) went with the 144v WarP/Curtis route
• 57 votes (14%) went with the 144v WarP/Belktronix route
• 137 votes (34%) went with the 144v Solectria route

Of those voting for the 156v WarP/Zilla...

• 102 votes (57%) were for AGM
• 65 votes (36%) were for Lithium
• 13 votes (7%) were for Flooded

And for those voting for 156v WarP/Zilla with AGM...

• 27 votes (26%) were for Basic kits
  
• 26 votes (25%) were for Standard kits
  
• 49 votes (48%) were for Complete kits
  

So, as they say in politics, the people have spoken.
I'm closing down the survey today.

Thanks to all of you who participated in the survey!

Survey results - first pass

This morning I decided to see how the Conversion Kit survey was going.
I had 49 responses so far with the majority (45%) going with my components (156v, WarP 9, Zilla...) and 59% of those went with the Optima battery option. I'll take that as a vote of confidence - or maybe I was just lucky. This group was pretty split between the Basic kit at 38% and the Complete kit at 54%.

The runner up was pretty interesting... actually something I was considering for my next conversion...
39% of the votes went for an AC system from Selectria and the majority of the battery votes (47%) of this group went with Lithium. A good number (37%) went with Optimas.
Interesting...

There is still time to get your vote counted in the survey, and it only takes a few seconds (because there are only 3 questions). Just click here.