Can electric cars be tuned?

[Eighteeteewhy]

Either hybrids or fully electric. What would you do? Bigger batteries, more powerful magnets.
Would tuning the petrol part of a hybrid upset the electric bit or vice versa?

[Buff Mchugelarge]

Add more power..

Simples

[MaximumJed]

There are people who have already supercharged the Prius engine, with good results as far as my memory stretches.

http://autospeed.com.au/A_111655/cms/article.html

[thinfourth2]

Its been made by man it can be altered by man

I don't think anyone has played with factory versions yet but a few home brews running around

http://www.plasmaboyracing.com/history/2010.php

[Cledus Snow]

A mate of mine is strapping a turbo to the petrol bit of his CR-Z. He has plans for the electric bit too.


Apologies if that's too technical.

[Chrisw666]

You can modify RC and Scalextric cars, so yes in time.

[The Wookie]

Yes. In fact one of the more popular electric motor suppliers already sell the same motor in different states of 'tune' ranging from 50kw to 150kw

Upgrades could be to power electronics, extra cells, capacitors for short term boost, lots of stuff can be done.

[Eighteeteewhy]

What about things like the Tesla. What could you do to it?

[Noesph]

thinfourth2 said:

Its been made by man it can be altered by man

I don't think anyone has played with factory versions yet but a few home brews running around

http://www.plasmaboyracing.com/history/2010.php

I seen this fella on youtube years ago, good stuff.

[TheEnd]

There's going to be control maps, and the ECU will be based by torque requests.
Pedal positions at certain RPMs will pass through the ECU to make something more natural to drive than an electric motor, and I guess all of those can be changed.

[thinfourth2]

I think regenrative braking is one area that would be intresting to play with

Also there a shedload of mods out there for a prius ranging from bigger batteries to a mod that lets you run a house off the batteries

[tbc]

could always stick two E6's together and make a EE12

[Chrisw666]

Eighteeteewhy said:

What about things like the Tesla. What could you do to it?

Fit a 2.4 supercharged V8

[jimxms]

I remember hearing that someone had modified a Lexus GS450h by removing some sort of 'limiter' that restricted the amount of torque going to the wheels when pulling away.

With the restrictor relaxed/removed, the car could do some insane burnouts and produced some hefty figures on a dyno.


Unfortunately though, most electric cars/hybrids are still under some form of warranty or are not yet old enough to be considered disposable..and therefore game for modifications by their owners.

[Ledaig]

If you have a look on ebay you can find magnets which you attach around the charging cable.
They apparently align the electrons and give you a more efficient charge which can be drawn off the battery more effectively and create less heat.

Less heat = more power.

[freecar]

Ledaig said:

If you have a look on ebay you can find magnets which you attach around the charging cable.
They apparently align the electrons and give you a more efficient charge which can be drawn off the battery more effectively and create less heat.

Less heat = more power.

If you put the magnet on the power cable for the motors it'll properly align the charge and give more power! And better MPG!

[jimxms]

Ledaig said:

If you have a look on ebay you can find magnets which you attach around the charging cable.
They apparently align the electrons and give you a more efficient charge which can be drawn off the battery more effectively and create less heat.

Less heat = more power.

Combine that with a resistor based tuning box and you'll have one swift electric car!

OTOH, I've heard that the petrol powered superchargers are snake oil products.

[anonymous-user]

I predict lots of people with dead batteries and even batteries on fire if you attempt to increase the regen power. And also a lot of dead inverters when you try to wind up the peak torque.

Unless you really know your electric motors i would suggest you leave it well alone !

[AlexiusG55]

This had a few minor powertrain tweaks:


Also, the top speed of the Lexus LS600h is apparently governed, so that could obviously be removed.

[FreeLitres]

See you at the lights, chumps!