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One day there will be conversion kits to replace the gas motor with electric. Maybe that will exist in time.

grzm 10y ago
I don't know. :/ Are you thinking about a particular niche? For example, I don't remember conversion kits for regular gas automobiles to switch to unleaded. Not exactly the same thing, but perhaps somewhat comparable? And given the state of engine integration in vehicles today, I'm not sure how easy it would be to replace everything that's different between an electric vehicle and an ICE one. For example, batteries versus fuel tank. Or am I thinking about this wrong?
- WillPostForFood 10y ago
  Regular gasoline cars run fine on unleaded gas, so no conversion kit was needed. But you are right in being skeptical - it wouldn't make sense to convert a gas powered car to electric. You wouldn't just swap a combustion engine for a electric engine. You'd need to change everything - engine, transmission, gas tank, air conditioning, dash/info center. And then you'd want energy recovery, so you'd change out braking systems. Best case is you'd end up with a heavy, expensive, inefficient, poorly balanced electric car.
  - sporkenfang 10y ago
    > dash/info center Hell no. I'm keeping the tape deck! The rest does sound quite plausible though. At best one would end up with an improperly balanced car from the difference in engine weights alone unless pains were taken to ensure the car's weight and weight distribution stayed the same.
- gregpilling 10y ago
  conversion kits did exist for the fuel change. It was mostly about putting in harder valve seats. The lead was a useful lubricant for the valves. My idea is that the small block Chevy engine is ubiquitous in the hot rodding world, and it is often combined with a Turbo350 transmission. This combo (or one roughly the same shape) has now been built by GM over 100,000,000 times. They hit that milestone in 2011! http://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/news.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2011/Nov/100M/1129_100M_Engin.html http://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/news.detail.html/content/... So we take the Remy250 motor, used to propel the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid (I own one), the Remy is small, about the size of the torque converter in the Turbo350 transmission. That leaves the shape of the engine as a shape to fill with lithium batteries, and the rest of the transmission case can hold the inverter. There is enough room, I have measured. You may only get 50-100 miles, but it could be a drop-in replacement. Since all the mess is self contained in one blob, it is a matter of yanking the old stuff out and shoving the new stuff in. Basic hot rodding, being done since the automobile was invented. If it could retail for $20,000 to $25,000 the aftermarket industry would eat it up. I am a SEMA member for 12 years, so I know. Any VC want to fund this idea? I have most of the pieces pulled together, just need to pay for some engineering time.

grzm 10y ago

I don't know. :/ Are you thinking about a particular niche? For example, I don't remember conversion kits for regular gas automobiles to switch to unleaded. Not exactly the same thing, but perhaps somewhat comparable? And given the state of engine integration in vehicles today, I'm not sure how easy it would be to replace everything that's different between an electric vehicle and an ICE one. For example, batteries versus fuel tank. Or am I thinking about this wrong?

WillPostForFood 10y ago
Regular gasoline cars run fine on unleaded gas, so no conversion kit was needed. But you are right in being skeptical - it wouldn't make sense to convert a gas powered car to electric. You wouldn't just swap a combustion engine for a electric engine. You'd need to change everything - engine, transmission, gas tank, air conditioning, dash/info center. And then you'd want energy recovery, so you'd change out braking systems. Best case is you'd end up with a heavy, expensive, inefficient, poorly balanced electric car.
- sporkenfang 10y ago
  > dash/info center Hell no. I'm keeping the tape deck! The rest does sound quite plausible though. At best one would end up with an improperly balanced car from the difference in engine weights alone unless pains were taken to ensure the car's weight and weight distribution stayed the same.
gregpilling 10y ago
conversion kits did exist for the fuel change. It was mostly about putting in harder valve seats. The lead was a useful lubricant for the valves. My idea is that the small block Chevy engine is ubiquitous in the hot rodding world, and it is often combined with a Turbo350 transmission. This combo (or one roughly the same shape) has now been built by GM over 100,000,000 times. They hit that milestone in 2011! http://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/news.detail.html/content/Pages/news/us/en/2011/Nov/100M/1129_100M_Engin.html http://media.gm.com/media/us/en/gm/news.detail.html/content/... So we take the Remy250 motor, used to propel the Chevy Tahoe Hybrid (I own one), the Remy is small, about the size of the torque converter in the Turbo350 transmission. That leaves the shape of the engine as a shape to fill with lithium batteries, and the rest of the transmission case can hold the inverter. There is enough room, I have measured. You may only get 50-100 miles, but it could be a drop-in replacement. Since all the mess is self contained in one blob, it is a matter of yanking the old stuff out and shoving the new stuff in. Basic hot rodding, being done since the automobile was invented. If it could retail for $20,000 to $25,000 the aftermarket industry would eat it up. I am a SEMA member for 12 years, so I know. Any VC want to fund this idea? I have most of the pieces pulled together, just need to pay for some engineering time.