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I've spent the weekend watching videos of and reading about converting classic cars (VW Beetles, Porsche 911s and others) into electric powered vehicles (some o

by ak39 9y ago

I've spent the weekend watching videos of and reading about converting classic cars (VW Beetles, Porsche 911s and others) into electric powered vehicles (some of them gloriously restored!). It was exciting to learn this: 1. Electric conversion is about three things: batteries, chargers and motors. Of these three, batteries have been the least technologically convenient aspect of converting to electric - until recently. For years batteries have remained heavy and expensive, rendering them inefficient for use to power modern vehicles (it's all about size for the kW). Electric motor tech and battery charging tech have been past their "S" curves and are considered mature, buyers being spoilt for choice. 2. Over the last 5 years, battery tech has improved both in size-to-power ratios as well as in dramatic reduction in costs - and there's more to come. (Soon with graphene and Samsung we will have 5x speed in recharging). The tide is definitely changing on the battery tech front. All three factors for electric conversion now make electric powered vehicles (that can do more than 200km daily) a viable possibility - eve for home DIY conversion. 3. It is not surprising therefore to see a growing cottage industry of DIY electric conversion kits in the US already. (Google "DIY electric car kit") ICE (internal combustion engine) motor companies have always kept their R&D and production process of powerful and efficient motors as their competitive advantage. That's their mojo. The gas motor and drive train technology is essentially the car that customers have been buying. This is the very heart of the industry at threat. 3 components and goodbye to a century of battle-test crankshafts, pistons, intake manifolds and injection designs! Gone. It is my humble opinion that we ought to be more excited about the DIY home kits for electric vehicles instead of the Teslas and big automakers.

ZeroGravitas 9y ago
As a mid point between DIY and new cars, Jaguar have created a drop in replacement for the xk drivetrain which allows them to (reversibly) convert classic cars to EVs: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2017/09/jaguars-restored-this-old-e-type-with-an-electric-upgrade/ https://arstechnica.com/cars/2017/09/jaguars-restored-this-o...
jacobolus 9y ago
> [...] we ought to be more excited about the DIY home kits for electric vehicles instead of the Teslas and big automakers. Can you explain why? Who is “we”? Are you anticipating that a sizable fraction of the 1+ billion gas cars in the world are going to be converted by DIY home kits? I personally can’t imagine hundreds of millions of DIY conversions (or even professional conversions). Practically what I care about is (a) getting fossil fuel burning out of my neighborhood (and out of places where people live, in general), and (b) dramatically reducing the amount of CO2 we put into the atmosphere, on a global scale. As far as I can tell the way we will get there is by sales of new electric cars largely supplanting gas cars over the next 2 decades or so (also pickup trucks, buses, delivery trucks, freight shipping trucks, etc.). Policymakers can speed this up by tightening emissions standards for all vehicles, banning ICE cars from some roads or areas, increasing fuel taxes, subsidizing electric cars, funding basic research in battery technology, etc.

by ak39 9y ago

ZeroGravitas 9y ago

As a mid point between DIY and new cars, Jaguar have created a drop in replacement for the xk drivetrain which allows them to (reversibly) convert classic cars to EVs: https://arstechnica.com/cars/2017/09/jaguars-restored-this-old-e-type-with-an-electric-upgrade/ https://arstechnica.com/cars/2017/09/jaguars-restored-this-o...

jacobolus 9y ago

> [...] we ought to be more excited about the DIY home kits for electric vehicles instead of the Teslas and big automakers. Can you explain why? Who is “we”? Are you anticipating that a sizable fraction of the 1+ billion gas cars in the world are going to be converted by DIY home kits? I personally can’t imagine hundreds of millions of DIY conversions (or even professional conversions). Practically what I care about is (a) getting fossil fuel burning out of my neighborhood (and out of places where people live, in general), and (b) dramatically reducing the amount of CO2 we put into the atmosphere, on a global scale. As far as I can tell the way we will get there is by sales of new electric cars largely supplanting gas cars over the next 2 decades or so (also pickup trucks, buses, delivery trucks, freight shipping trucks, etc.). Policymakers can speed this up by tightening emissions standards for all vehicles, banning ICE cars from some roads or areas, increasing fuel taxes, subsidizing electric cars, funding basic research in battery technology, etc.