Damn Hippies

[Bflat]

DISCUSS

1992 Volkswagen GTI Electric Conversion

Article on Jalopnik.

Have You Ever Wanted An Electric GTI?

[The_Hawk]

I seriously looked into doing this to the MK1 GLD I had.

The conversion itself is pretty straight forward as there are off the shelf electric motor and controller sets that basically bolt in. Prices aren't too bad either. I figured that roof racks + a solar panel or two on the top and I could all but run off the grid (since I essentially drive to and from the train station 5 days a week and park outside all day). My total travel distance is under 100km / week most of the time.

The down side is that you have to deal with engineering, full rego costs, full green slip (in NSW) and insurance… and then you still have a car that can't just up and decide to drive interstate meaning you might just need another car (and all the associated costs) anyway :S

I still like the idea and it's something I would consider, but I think that I would have to commit to two vehicles, one being an electric run about for local only commuting, the second being a dedicated track car so I can still have some fun on the weekends (Assuming of course the wife lets me take her car to tow my track car).

[Bflat]

The current '12 mile range' is what's the most concerning part in my mind.

[ryana89]

The current '12 mile range' is what's the most concerning part in my mind.

Like all 'good' idea's..... hahaha
Gotta love the reverse rake look.

[Stan]

electric cars will be a great idea when battery technology improves in the following ways:
cheaper, lighter, better range, fast charging.
What will make things a lot better would being able to get a few hundred k's out of a charge and a full recharge within an hour or two.
Then you will have a pretty useable electric car.
Until then, you still need a petrol car for longer trips, or for when the electric one is charging

[tek199]

you could always get a portable honda generator that runs all day charging your batteries (hybrid if you like). EU20i or similar. I actually thought about something like that for a drag car. Dont need much range.....

[wai]

The current '12 mile range' is what's the most concerning part in my mind.

This is the big problem with electric vehicles.

Not that long ago, Holden did a 24 hour demonstration of the Holden Volt on electric power only. Kind of backfired because in the 24 hours, they had to swap out the battery pack 122 times (that is one hundred and twenty two times), or a new pack approximately every 11.8 minutes.

What this showed that the way forward with electric vehicles is actually swappable battery packs (just like swapping gas bottles for BBQs), only the electricity providers do not want this as they then lose the ability to charge based on time of day.

Basically the electricity providers want you to use charging points where they will charge the most during the day, with off-peak at night. The problem is that most electric vehicles currently available will not hold enough charge to get you to work and then back home without a recharge.

Onboard recharging defeats the whole purpose of an electric vehicle, and the thing about regenerative braking is that you have to put the energy in first to then recover only some of it when you go downhill or slow down.

So it is down to the battery manufacturers where the capacity and life of batteries need to improve, and then we have roll-out roll-in battery pack swaps.

All a very long way off.

[walshydub]

Also on top of that the batteries used in the current generation of electric cars, Nissan Leaf etc only last for up to 4 years and will need replacing after that. The cost? $15,000...

The batteries used are the same technology as the ones in your laptop and phone and over time they loose their ability to hold charge. My 3 year old laptop for example can only hold full charge for 20 minutes.

Hydrogen or Fuel air Synthesis is the way forward. Electric cars and hybrids are all just a stop gap and will go the way of Betamax, minidisc, laser disc. Just needs someone to invest a large amount of money in the right direction.

[Ideo]

It's new technology.

The same stuff was trotted out about cars as opposed to horses.

[wai]

The thing though is that there is just not the development in battery technology that there was in cars.

The prime reason for hybrids and electric cars is so that manufacturers can meet their fleet average gas mileage in the US. The electric or hybrid vehicle is the simplest cheapest way to achieve it.

There have been many alternatives that have fallen by the wayside because of vested interests. UNSW developed an electrolyte based electric power source that would have taken no more time to re-fuel than petrol/diesel, but it got no support because it was not the model preferred by the energy suppliers. They want to retain control of the energy source and therefore the charging rate, and how it will be delivered. City of Sydney was trialling the MIEV and had the concept of "solar trees" where the leaves were solar panels. The only problem was actually finding space in the CBD where these "solar trees" could be placed without building shadows rendering them useless.

Even now, I don't believe you can actually buy the Nissan Leaf or the Mitsubishi MIEV. You can only lease them, and you have to qualify before you can lease. This is partly to do with the battery life issues. They also do not want it falling into the hands of anyone being too critical.

We are at the mercy of the oil companies at the moment, however it is not as bad as only being able to get your electricity from a particular supplier and then in a particular way.

At the moment, because of the closed supply, there is little research into better batteries (capacity and life). There is research into improving the efficiency of electric motors, only there is not that much more that you can extract out of an electric motor. There is far more capacity for improvement in delivering the electricity to the motor, but when that market is tied up, little will be invested in it.

But we are digressing

[michelinmeister]

battery technology has been stunted by exxon and the large oil companies in the past for obvious reasons...you only have to look at the mileage achieved by General Motors in the EV-1 (claimed 100 miles) and that was over 15 years ago.....If memory serves me Exxon bought out the battery company ... does a Nissan Leaf achieve 160 km range?

[BTJ]

battery technology has been stunted by exxon and the large oil companies in the past for obvious reasons...you only have to look at the mileage achieved by General Motors in the EV-1 (claimed 100 miles) and that was over 15 years ago.....If memory serves me Exxon bought out the battery company ... does a Nissan Leaf achieve 160 km range?

There is a great doco called the Death of the Electric car, all about the EV1 and how they were rounded up and destroyed. Quite simply they were too good. The petrol and energy companies were about to lose control so GM terminated the programme and crushed them all into tiny cubes.

Sad stuff.

[velly_16v_cab]

I have been following Electric GTI

Seems like those Yanks love these sort of things lol