Mazda MX-5e Tesla Powered

[EmBe]

robcollingridge said:

Flying Phil said:

Hi Rob
With the Leaf motor having less power than a Tesla unit, will you go for a longer range or use fewer batteries and reduce the mass slightly? I think the power loss will not matter to most users most of the time, as I'm sure the leaf motor will give better performance than the existing 1.8 ic engine(?).
PS you will need to change the thread title though....

The plan is to still fit around 30kWh of batteries. Power will be lower at around 165bhp but we will still have lots of torque.

Can the thread title be changed by me?

Rob

Broadly similar kWh and bhp as our i3 - should make for a nice roadster. What's the target weight?

You need to email the mods (or report your own post in this thread) to get the title changed.

[robcollingridge]

The Nissan Leaf motor arrived today

We are aiming for less than 1000kg for the final weight.

[threespires]

I'm following with interest

[DanG355]

Probably not in your current plans, but longer term some form of manual gearbox in a car like this would be good. I know it's not needed, but electric cars miss the interaction of a manual gearbox as part of the driving experience.

I think in the future one of the large manufacturers will see this and make a lighter weight EV with some kind of manual gearbox - possibly Porsche with their electric Boxster or Honda as they tend to innovate.

[ChocolateFrog]

Sorry to hear about your loss.

Looks like the project is about to kick off properly now.

Is it possible to get more out of the motor than standard by turning the voltage or is that not feasible?

[otolith]

DanG355 said:

Probably not in your current plans, but longer term some form of manual gearbox in a car like this would be good. I know it's not needed, but electric cars miss the interaction of a manual gearbox as part of the driving experience.

I think in the future one of the large manufacturers will see this and make a lighter weight EV with some kind of manual gearbox - possibly Porsche with their electric Boxster or Honda as they tend to innovate.

It’s quite common for classic EV conversions to retain the manual gearbox, but in use it’s pretty much irrelevant - just leave it in one gear. You could synthesise the requirement for one by artificially cutting the power off, though.

[robcollingridge]

Stripped it down to just the motor and inverter. We are using a Thunderstruck VCU to control and interface this and will be doing some testing in the next few weeks.

[robcollingridge]

Enjoying driving the MX-5e and testing stuff whilst we do the research and ordering of parts. Fairly soon, she goes up on ramps and the engine/gearbox come out.

[robcollingridge]

Big set of deliveries today, including the ThunderStruck VCU. Just need a few more bits for the cooling system and we should be able to spin the motor up

[robcollingridge]

Very close to starting the bench testing of the Nissan Leaf motor. We have all the required connectors and cooling system bits in place now. We are using the Thunderstruck VCU for motor control but we are developing our own open-source Driver Control Unit (DCU). The DCU does the wireless security, keyless entry, data logging, personalised driving experience, etc. It is also inteliigently controlling the Tesla cooling pump (for now) based on various temperature sensors installed in the cooling system.

We are still enjoying driving the car under ICE power whilst the weather is good but, the plan is that we ICE comes out in October. We then start the one-way journey to electrification

[Murdoc]

Great thread, thanks for taking the time to post.

[RM]

Very interested to see how this turns out. Are you going to avoid drilling any holes in the body to keep clear of the DVLA's "Radically Modified Vehicles"?

[robcollingridge]

RM said:

Very interested to see how this turns out. Are you going to avoid drilling any holes in the body to keep clear of the DVLA's "Radically Modified Vehicles"?

Yes, we will not be modifying subframes or bodywork. The Nissan Leaf motor sits where the gearbox would be and uses a fixed 2:1 reduction gear to mate to the drive shaft. We need to swap out the old diff for a 7" crown wheel version to handle all the extra torque and we will upgrade to LSD whilst we do this.

Rob

[robcollingridge]

In preparation for our bench testing of the Nissan Leaf motor for our MX-5e we have been developing the Driver Control Unit (DCU) using open-source hardware and software. This enables keyless entry and start, a personalised driving experience, different driving profiles, data logging, a real-time clock, CAN bus integration, GPS poitioning & speed sensing, a digital compass and a 3-axis accelerometer. It also intelligently manages the cooling system for the batteries, charger, inverter and motor.

[Stereolab]

I can hardly change a lightbulb-in awe of this.

Please continue to keep us updated.

[robcollingridge]

Major progress today We have our prototype DCU all working and connected to the Thunderstruck VCU and Nissan Leaf motor. We have sorted out all the wiring between the components to get the motor running and we plan to do this for the first time tomorrow.

[threespires]

An interesting built.

[MC Bodge]

robcollingridge said:

Major progress today We have our prototype DCU all working and connected to the Thunderstruck VCU and Nissan Leaf motor. We have sorted out all the wiring between the components to get the motor running and we plan to do this for the first time tomorrow.

What is the purpose of the speaker?

[robcollingridge]

MC Bodge said:

What is the purpose of the speaker?

It provides audible confirtmation of button presses, etc. (it is optional) but it can also play out voice announcements and warning messages. It's basically a way of communicating useful information to the driver without them having to take their eyes off the road.

Rob

[robcollingridge]

Big step forward today We now have the Nissan Leaf motor running on our bench We can now progress to the next stage and remove the ICE from our MX-5 and test fit the motor.