Here is my latest progress on the 550 EV. I have shaped the 1inch tube around the back of the seats. The photo doesn't really show the curve across the back. Its an important piece as it sets the shape for the back panels. I still need to grind off the welds. I have made some more progress on the inner bonnet panels. These are also important because they form the seat for the bonnet to sit when closed. I still have some adjustments to make so they fit together neatly. But you get the idea. I also need to create the panel in front of the dash. I need to make it deep enough to support the wind deflector. I have also worked on the dash area around the dials. I haven't included photos and it is causing me a bit of grief. I am trying to shape it in plywood so I have a base to staple the vinyl onto. but its a complex shape. You can see the passenger side dash pad in some of the photos. It was relatively simple compared to the driver side with the dials. I will keep pressing forward and see where it leads me.

Here is the latest on my project. The driver side of the dash is finally starting to take shape.

Will the tach on the instrument cluster be used to measure motor or gearbox speed or of some other use? I don't know if motor speed is a concern on electrics given the flat torque curve.  

The surround is interesting and you seem to be making good progress on this.

  Davo99 said  

Will the tach on the instrument cluster be used to measure motor or gearbox speed or of some other use? I don't know if motor speed is a concern on electrics given the flat torque curve.  

The surround is interesting and you seem to be making good progress on this.

The motor doesn't have a standard way to measure revs. The only way I could do it would be to glue a magnetic sensor on to the end of the shaft.
Revs are important but only a slight risk with my voltage. The higher the voltage the greater the risk as they would spin more willingly.

When people talk about a flat torque curve they are correct but misleading. The curve is very consistent but it does drop as the revs increase. In other words flat does not mean horizontal.

My setup has a driver to show current through the tacho. Not sure how useful that will be. Maybe a novelty for the passenger.

The dash is coming along and has even improved since these photos. But I still need to refine it quite a bit before I will be happy.

Here's my latest progress

Here is the latest progress

Here are a few of the latest pics of the project

Looks fantastic.
Electric cars are taking a battering lately. The ship that has caught fire carrying cars from Germany to the U.S. has some electric cars on board.
The batteries in the electric cars are being blamed for making the fire harder to put out.
Whether that is true or not, I don't know.
I am guessing there may be some petrol industry marketing man in there pushing their line a bit.
Are the batteries you are planning on using different chemistry to what are being used in current electric cars?
Cheers
Pete

You seem to be making good steady progress and your fabrication and metal shaping work is astounding! The covered Dash looks great.  Are you going to make the bonnet transparent or have some other idea for that?

I was trying to make something out of an old 44 gallon drum the other day and after a few hours cutting, beating, bending and swearing at it, I laid it flat, ran the tractor over it a few times to get it flatter and put it round the side of the shed where I can later deny ever having lid eyes on it before.  

Again,  Fantastic work!

  Godoh said  

Looks fantastic.
Electric cars are taking a battering lately. The ship that has caught fire carrying cars from Germany to the U.S. has some electric cars on board.
The batteries in the electric cars are being blamed for making the fire harder to put out.

Hadn't heard of that but then again, I make an effort to avoid watching the brainwash.... fictio.....News these days. I occasionally skim the headline and that's about it.

I have seen a couple of vids of those Tesla packs catch fire when someone did the wrong thing with them and they seem near impossible to put out. In one the fire brigade came and pretty much contained the fire so it didn't spread and tried to stop the other cells from exploding by keeping them cool but some went off like bullets.

I believe the life 04's are different and either don't burn or don't burn as energetically.

I had one of those jump pack starters do a run away on me.  I have NEVER seen so much smoke come out of a package that size before nor would I have thought it possible.
The volume and thickness as well as the duration was astounding. Could have filled a large all with it cause it certainly filled my back yard and many meters above it.

  Quote  

I am guessing there may be some petrol industry marketing man in there pushing their line a bit.

Well there is always that but I wonder if they are remotely worried?  Going to be 50 years before they even need be concerned I reckon and they will just lower the price to keep the profits flowing and undermine the take up of electric.

I really wonder if electrics will be anything near what the hype makes out?
If grid power get as unreliable as I'm pretty certain it's going to in this country, then that will be the biggest handbrake to their uptake and the distances we travel here.

Their uptake is lagging WAAAY behind the predictions but Predictions are more fantasy and hype to push an agenda than anything based on reality.
I think the last big prediction I read forecast there should be about 150Million less of us on the planet than there are atm.  :0)

  Godoh said  

Looks fantastic.
Electric cars are taking a battering lately. The ship that has caught fire carrying cars from Germany to the U.S. has some electric cars on board.
The batteries in the electric cars are being blamed for making the fire harder to put out.
Whether that is true or not, I don't know.
I am guessing there may be some petrol industry marketing man in there pushing their line a bit.
Are the batteries you are planning on using different chemistry to what are being used in current electric cars?
Cheers
Pete

As Davo says the Lifepo4 are the way to go for a compromise between safety and function. They are not as good for energy density/range. But the chemistry does not catch fire. However the plastic case can still burn. So it's not like there is no risk, its just not the unstoppable type of risk. They are a leading contender for my project but I'm not locked in just yet. The particular cell I am tending towards is a Headway cell. They are great because they have screw terminals top and bottom. This allows a physical mounting point and eliminates the need for spot welding cells together.

Commercial manufacturers use various chemistries but they tend towards better energy density/ range at the expense of some safety.

Looks like I need to purchase a tractor to complete my range of metal working tools LOL.

What size pack would you be looking to put in?
I can certainly see the headway cells would be much easier to put in the car.  
They seem to be the normal Lifepo chemistry in a different package?

I was watching a vid a while back about battery chemistry's and energy density's. Very enlightening. They were comparing the energy density of liquid fuels to that of energy density of batteries.  The upshot was when you build a battery getting near the energy density of liquid fuels, you have in fact built an explosive.

Going to take a LOT to get batteries near liquid fuels yet and a long way off if even possible.

No, I think the tools you have and the things you can do with them are just fine. Tractors are fitting by nature for the plebs like me with no skills what so ever.  
They do however make it easier to load our embarrassing stuff ups into the ute to take to the scrapper's .

  Davo99 said  

What size pack would you be looking to put in?
I can certainly see the headway cells would be much easier to put in the car.  
They seem to be the normal Lifepo chemistry in a different package?

I was watching a vid a while back about battery chemistry's and energy density's. Very enlightening. They were comparing the energy density of liquid fuels to that of energy density of batteries.  The upshot was when you build a battery getting near the energy density of liquid fuels, you have in fact built an explosive.

Going to take a LOT to get batteries near liquid fuels yet and a long way off if even possible.

No, I think the tools you have and the things you can do with them are just fine. Tractors are fitting by nature for the plebs like me with no skills what so ever.  
They do however make it easier to load our embarrassing stuff ups into the ute to take to the scrapper's .

My target capacity really depends on the weight of the chosen cells. I really only have about 100kg to play with. So that roughly equates to about 10-14kwh....Not massive but it isn't the type of car you would take on a long road trip.

Yes Headway are just a different packaging of the same chemistry.

Yes there is a lot of talk about increasing capacity. But I think the better direction is to make batteries easier to charge in a short timeframe. Charging more frequently (say every 500km or so) would generally be acceptable if it could be done in a few minutes.

I am in touch with a super experienced metal shaper who was trained in Italy in the 60s on Ferraris and Maseratis etc. I asked how I can get wheel flare profile guides to make sure I get them right. He responded saying early maserati and early Jag had a similar profile......Yay problem solved  

So now I just need to purchase an early maserati or jag

  galderdi said  

Yes there is a lot of talk about increasing capacity. But I think the better direction is to make batteries easier to charge in a short timeframe. Charging more frequently (say every 500km or so) would generally be acceptable if it could be done in a few minutes.

That is a good point.

If the recharge time could be made similar to that of refueling and IC car, that would be a big hurdle overcome for a lot of buyers.

I regularly go Visit my Dad. about 400Km/ 4 hours.
I often have dinner with him and am back home by mid night. An extra hour for charging would not be viable for me to do that.

If I could stop half way or so as I often do for a Pit stop and a coffee and recharged in 10 Min, that would be fine.  May take some significant cooling to allow the energy transfer that quick though.

  Davo99 said  

  galderdi said  

Yes there is a lot of talk about increasing capacity. But I think the better direction is to make batteries easier to charge in a short timeframe. Charging more frequently (say every 500km or so) would generally be acceptable if it could be done in a few minutes.

That is a good point.

If the recharge time could be made similar to that of refueling and IC car, that would be a big hurdle overcome for a lot of buyers.

I regularly go Visit my Dad. about 400Km/ 4 hours.
I often have dinner with him and am back home by mid night. An extra hour for charging would not be viable for me to do that.

If I could stop half way or so as I often do for a Pit stop and a coffee and recharged in 10 Min, that would be fine.  May take some significant cooling to allow the energy transfer that quick though.

Some of the EVs (such as Tesla) are able to charge to 80% in about 20 minutes. The last 20% is much slower on any battery. So I would expect the 10 minute goal will be realistic soon. However there is still an added challenge. The faster you charge (or discharge) the shorter the life of your battery. Not such a concern for the usecase like the one you describe if it is only every few months. But its a different story for those doing consistently higher distances. So I think there will continue to be usecases for hybrid or hydrogen solutions for the foreseeable future. I think we will see EV Trucks for short to medium haul but I don't see it being viable just yet for long haul in a place like Australia. I have said this before and got a wave of abuse.  Specifically I was saying that I would not expect 100% EV uptake in Australia for the next 10 years. I would bet money we will not achieve 100% EV sales in Australia within 10 years if commercial vehicles are included in the statistic. This doesn't mean I am against it, I just don't think it is a realistic expectation.

Another interesting thought. Think about the rise of Uber. Now think about why we own a specific vehicle... We choose a vehicle that has the best compromise across our range of requirements.....commute to work, towing, spirited driving through the hills, travel to family, 4x4 on the beach etc etc. Mostly we can't afford to buy a specialist vehicle for each usecase and vehicle wear and tear is a blocker for sharing vehicles. Who would want to share a combustion vehicle with an unknown person. There are so many components that can be significantly impacted by abuse which can't be superficially detected. Yes there is still risk wish sharing an EV but the components that could suffer from abuse are greatly reduced. The normal maintenance costs will also drop. So I predict rental services and services to emerge/expand/evolve offering vehicle sharing. For example I purchase a small EV for commuting to work 220 days per year plus the same EV for 50 trips to the shops per year. But then I take a share vehicle with greater range for a road trip 4 times a year. Plus for now I can still hire a combustion 4x4 to drive for long distances in areas where charges may not exist.

Any updates on that superb car ?

Here are a few of the latest photos. As always I am happy but I would do things differently if I had my time over. As you will see I still have a load of work to do around the tail and passenger rear corner. But it is coming together.

Wow that is amazing! Well done!