EV Owners Thread

[CXRAndy]

There is scope with certain vehicles to get more power and range.

For example The early Nissan Leafs, can have larger motors from later models and larger batteries fitted.

 

[BrumJim]

I recently bit watched an ev conversion car show on TV. It made me wonder how feasible it is to increase range on EVs? ICEs traditionally got molded by those into that sort of thing. People converting vans to campers often chipped their vans from 115 or 125bhp up to 140 to 160bhp depending on make and model. Can you do something for EVs?

Only by fitting a larger battery, or by restricting power.

There is an option to increase power. Motors can be over-driven for a short time, resulting in temperatures rising at an unsustainable rate, but as long as it isn't continuous, it is fine. There is some controversy in this area, with manufacturers looking at the subscription model and controlling through software, i.e. if you don't pay us £XXX per month, your car's maximum power will suffer as a result.

 

[DRM]

In theory yes you can increase range, by fitting a replacement battery pack with more cells in it to increase the amount of KWh's it can deliver. in reality it boils down to available space in the cars bodywork/chassis that will allow the fitting of a larger capacity battery pack in to that particular space, adding a battery pack elsewhere in the car's body wouldn't be worth it as not only do you have to find a suitable place, but also run extended wiring, of the correct capacity to connect it into the high power side of the drive system, and canbus control wiring for the data and charge control side of things, possible problems may involve altering software so that the car knows it has a larger battery, and the cost of a larger charger that can cope with delivering the correct power to allow it to charge correctly, all in all I think the quote would render the whole exercise pointless.

 

[mistyoptic]

In theory yes you can increase range, by fitting a replacement battery pack with more cells in it to increase the amount of KWh's it can deliver. in reality it boils down to available space in the cars bodywork/chassis that will allow the fitting of a larger capacity battery pack in to that particular space, adding a battery pack elsewhere in the car's body wouldn't be worth it as not only do you have to find a suitable place, but also run extended wiring, of the correct capacity to connect it into the high power side of the drive system, and canbus control wiring for the data and charge control side of things, possible problems may involve altering software so that the car knows it has a larger battery, and the cost of a larger charger that can cope with delivering the correct power to allow it to charge correctly, all in all I think the quote would render the whole exercise pointless.

Plus those batteries are no lightweights and so upgraded suspension and brakes probably required

 

[DRM]

Plus those batteries are no lightweights and so upgraded suspension and brakes probably required

Yes, that too, the only way I think it could work is if a newer type of higher capacity cells become commercially available, that fit in the existing casing, so it only uses existing control wiring & power cabling, which may well happen in the future as the technology improves and develops

 

[cougie uk]

My car is being delivered 2 months early!
But I haven’t got the home charger sorted yet. How feasible is it to use a domestic supply for a few weeks if i’m only averaging 50-80 miles a day?

My leaf takes about 3-4kwh an hour on the granny.

80 miles would be about 23 kWh ISH.

So a good 8 hour charge should see you right. Or something like that. You'll have to see how it is with yours.

We usually charge to 80% each night and then there's plenty of range for anything unexpected.