Ben Goren via EV wrote:
Thanks, Jerry. A 200+ mile BEV Ghia certainly sounds like a fantastic
car...
The Ghia happened to have several attractive attributes for an EV. It
was very light, it was reasonable aerodynamics, and enough room for
batteries. John Bryan's Ghia was one example. He carefully measured the
efficiency of his Ghia, and got it under 100 watthours/mile.
That's good enough for a 100-mile range even on lead-acid batteries. The
only cars that do better are things like James Worden's Sunrise, which
was built as an EV from the ground up, and got as low as 60 watthours
per mile.
But I went ahead and bought the Mustang the day before yesterday.
The Mustang is still a pretty good candidate. It's still a small light
car, and the aerodynamics aren't too terrible. Plus, it's a classic car
that many can appreciate! I believe John Wayland converted one for
someone. He's a genius at building beautiful high-performance
conversions -- have you contacted him for details?
I'm expecting not much more than a tenth the all-electric miles
A low range expectation makes your job a lot easier. I've been reading
this thread while on vacation, and you have received a lot of great
advice. It must be confusing; but it's better to have too many choices
rather than too few, though it may not seem that way at the time. :-)
I'm interested as well, as I have a small Chevy pickup and have been
thinking about exactly the same sort of conversion.
I don't know much about what Netgain was doing in their solution. If you
have contact information on it, let me know! Given their other products,
I'm sure it was a DC brushed motor. This would be a cheaper approach,
and would deliver far more torque for its size than AC. If their motor
had interpoles or a sepex field, it could also have done regen as easily
as an AC motor.
I don't think your hybrid control problems will be nearly as difficult
as you think. The Mustang just has a carburetor and simple throttle
linkage. Add the EV controller's potbox to the accelerator linkage. Then
add some kind of mechanical link that disconnects the throttle linkage
from the carburetor when you switch to EV mode (so you're not "pumping"
the gas and flooding the engine when it's not running). Then, provide a
manual switch to select:
- ICE mode: Carburetor linkage connected, EV controller off.
- EV mode: Carburetor linkage disconnected, EV controller on.
Shift to neutral so you're not forcing the ICE to rotate.
- Hybrid: Bot enable at once.
In hybrid mode, both the ICE and EV motor will naturally provide an
amount of torque controlled by the accelerator pedal. They won't fight
each other; their torques will just add. If you're in ICE mode and
driving at some particular speed and accelerator pedal position and turn
on hybrid mode, the EV motor will add torque, and you will speed up. But
your natural response to lift the gas pedal slightly will correct for it.
If the EV motor/controller has regen, you will get it just by letting up
the gas pedal. You could also shift the transmission to neutral, so as
much as possible of your braking is done by the EV motor.
It won't matter for your car, but in a vehicle with power steering,
power brakes, air conditioning, etc. one could also leave the ICE idling
in EV mode (since the throttle linkage is disconnected). This way, the
ICE powers all the accessories, using a minimal amount of gasoline,
while you EV motor does all the "driving".
Thus, you can drive it manually with only a little "finesse".
It only gets complicated if you want a system that automatically starts
and stops the ICE, and switches between modes based on some criteria.
--
The definition of research: Shoot the arrow first, and paint the target
around where it lands. -- David Van Baak
--
Lee Hart's EV projects are at http://www.sunrise-ev.com/LeesEVs.htm
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