Electric Kit Car . . . . . ?

[restoman]

Are there any manufacturers supplying or working on supplying an Electric Kit Car?

[Wanchaiwarrior]

Came across this a while back.............

http://www.birkin.com.au/electric-birkin-s3-for-sale.php

No idea if its still available or not

HTH

Cheers

[restoman]

Link doesn't appear to work . . . . . . . but thanks for the lead (no pun intended . . . .) as Google turned up this:-

http://www.autospeed.com/cms/article.html?&tit...

Edited by restoman on Tuesday 26th July 13:39

[Equus]

It's a bit up-in-the-air how they will be dealt with in terms of IVA, at the moment (currently under review, pardon the pun).

But this company will sell you everything you need to convert pretty much any kit car to electric power (providing you can find somewhere to put the batteries) and will also probably be able to fill you in on the latest developments on the legislative front, too.

[CrutyRammers]

Yeah, there was a guy in the hall at stoneleigh who's there most years. Can't remember the name though, sorry.
ETA there's Dragon Electric Vehicles but I don't think it was them...ISTR it was something based on a Westfield chassis...not the iRacer either. It was yellow and mostly full of batteries .

Edited by CrutyRammers on Tuesday 26th July 15:28

[pherlopolus]

Wonder how long it will be before a leaf becomes a viable doner car

[Mr MXT]

There is an electric Westfield kicking about somewhere. Can't remember watt the guys name is though.

[FlossyThePig]

John Lilly is the man behind Dragon Electric Vehicles, he used to be chairman of the Battery Vehicle Society.

Kelvin, who posts on here as qdos, has been involved with electrifying a Midas. He hasn't posted for some time do I hope he is OK. Another refugee from the Battery Vehicle society.

I have an old Mk2 Midas in the garage waiting for an electric transplant. The spec keeps changing as technology gallops on. As I've now hit 63 it looks like it will be a retirement project. I won't stop working as I need to fund a load of Lithium based batteries.

[m60ddy]

Mr MXT said:

There is an electric Westfield kicking about somewhere. Can't remember watt the guys name is though.

Potenza technologies in Coventry developed the Westfield cars. There is one currently on the road. A gent called John races one in hill climbs. Apart from John all cars still owned by Potenza.

[Ozzie Dave]

There is also a very nice electric vortex. there was an aricle in CKC for it I think.

[singlecoil]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBTrTnh-snQ

You need to see this.

[Equus]

m60ddy said:

Mr MXT said:

There is an electric Westfield kicking about somewhere. Can't remember watt the guys name is though.

Potenza technologies in Coventry developed the Westfield cars. There is one currently on the road. A gent called John races one in hill climbs. Apart from John all cars still owned by Potenza.

There is the WiSPER (Westfield in Structural Plastics Electric Roadster) too - which long predates Potenza's ownership of Westfield and which is still around - and not owned by Potenza.

[Ambleton]

Electric cars are still way too far behind to think about a kit car installation. A traditional drivetrain is much lighter and a lot more tractable. You can make high performance electric cars that are good to drive and behave more like an ic car, but the electronics and coding is beyond the realms of the average kit builder at the moment.

Id personally stay well clear of high performance battery cars. You need to charge and discharge very quickly and the risk of thermal run away is quite high.

[ugg10]

MEV also dabbled in this area and have shown ideas based on the old Charger kit recently (aptly names).

http://www.mevltd.co.uk/kit-cars/charger

[singlecoil]

ugg10 said:

MEV also dabbled in this area and have shown ideas based on the old Charger kit recently (aptly names).

http://www.mevltd.co.uk/kit-cars/charger

They are doing a bit more than dabbling at the moment, as this video from Stuart, posted on the 11th of this month, shows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBTrTnh-snQ

It's called the Batt Mobile.

[Stuart Mills]

Ambleton said:

Electric cars are still way too far behind to think about a kit car installation. A traditional drivetrain is much lighter and a lot more tractable. You can make high performance electric cars that are good to drive and behave more like an ic car, but the electronics and coding is beyond the realms of the average kit builder at the moment.

Id personally stay well clear of high performance battery cars. You need to charge and discharge very quickly and the risk of thermal run away is quite high.

No need to worry about coding and all manner of complex stuff. It's all there on a plate these days. Just log on to any one of many sites that will sell the lot, all sorted. Battery packs with pre prog battery management systems and chargers and motors with pre prog controllers. The controllers are linked to the BMS to ensure you don't damage the batteries.

[Stuart Mills]

Complete Kit Car Magazine crew visited us today as by coincidence despite our main output being petrol based kits, we have 3 electric cars in at the moment. All interesting in various ways, so look out for a future issue of CKC that features all 3 in the foreground, not the Rocket behind.

[Ambleton]

Stuart Mills said:

No need to worry about coding and all manner of complex stuff. It's all there on a plate these days. Just log on to any one of many sites that will sell the lot, all sorted. Battery packs with pre prog battery management systems and chargers and motors with pre prog controllers. The controllers are linked to the BMS to ensure you don't damage the batteries.

I'm still not convinced. The coding you buy off a company isn't tuned to every install though and pairing motors isn't that easy (if youre using more than one).

Then there's all sorts of issues with crash safety, impaling the cells and water protection etc. Most of the guys I work with wouldn't touch electric cars for the moment, and we've built a few! The HV training is scary enough itself!

[pherlopolus]

Having built and setup a Megasquirt car I think it is just an evolution of this, ok some people will buy pre-configured and take it somewhere to tune, and some people will be more inclined to get into the coding. With MS you have the risk of 45psi fuel leaks, with EV you have runaway thermal events.

I can't wait to have enough disposable income to build something EV

[ugg10]

Stuart - is that a preview of the Toyota powered Rocket 2 ? Liking the new nose treatment if it is.