I did some work for a company in Devon that fitted electric 'slave' drives after the gearbox to Transit vans, they got a good take up from local councils etc as it enabled some very quick conversions to be done to fleets to enable 'carbon credits'
If I remember correctly you could switch over from thermal to electric only, they had a modest bank of batteries underneath the sliding side door, but enough for a days stop/start and pottering about in the city. Best of both worlds.
 
Here you go, this kind of thing

Cropped-IPM-on-axle.jpg
 
JimS said:
I did some work for a company in Devon that fitted electric 'slave' drives after the gearbox to Transit vans, they got a good take up from local councils etc as it enabled some very quick conversions to be done to fleets to enable 'carbon credits'
If I remember correctly you could switch over from thermal to electric only, they had a modest bank of batteries underneath the sliding side door, but enough for a days stop/start and pottering about in the city. Best of both worlds.
Click to expand...
Yeh, I'd love to do this to a Freelander. As I say, replace the VCU with a leccy motor, or maybe put it somewhere like the fishtank, rotate the diff 90 degrees and do away with the props/VCU. Make a hybrid with regen. Gives 4WD, improved performance and/or improved ecconomy. Would only need a small battery pack or go larger with the intention of being fully EV round town - but still able to go longer distances.

I think @Tony Reeves is thinking along similar lines - and is much more likely to achieve something :)
 
J80s said:
With the engine out would there not be quite a bit of space under the bonnet even accounting for the motor? It depends very much on the battery size but series seem to have quite a bit of room in the wings/behind panels that might be usable without needing to use internal space or to minimise the clearance.
Click to expand...

Thats all good if you want to go all electric. But for a hybrid, you still need the engine. And all electric will seriously limit your range.

The spaces under the wheel arches are for the wheels under severe axle articulation. There are few unused spaces in a landrover.
 
Turboman said:
Thats all good if you want to go all electric. But for a hybrid, you still need the engine. And all electric will seriously limit your range.

The spaces under the wheel arches are for the wheels under severe axle articulation. There are few unused spaces in a landrover.
Click to expand...
You might be able to pack quite a few batteries inside the chassis itself! Would be trickey securing them though and getting at them for maintenance. Shame cos its wasted space.... well apart from keeping the car from folding in half.
 
GrumpyGel said:
You might be able to pack quite a few batteries inside the chassis itself! Would be trickey securing them though and getting at them for maintenance. Shame cos its wasted space.... well apart from keeping the car from folding in half.
Click to expand...

If they were small enough, you could, but a standard chassis is not designed for that. It might be possible to custom fabricate a chassis with brackets on the outside, to allow for a few batteries mounted alongside the chassis rails on the outside, there is a little bit of room there. Batteries would need to be quite low and thin, though.
 
Yeah I would be thinking of going all-electric, not hybrid, so get as much space as possible. Minimal range is fine for my purposes. I suppose it just comes down to a triangular calculation between range needed, battery storage space and battery technology (small higher capacity).
 
Cool. What else is needed in that setup- obviously a bunch of batteries and presumably more room for them under the bonnet.
 
JimS said:
This is the other way to do it, in wheel hub motors.
http://www.magtec.co.uk/index.php/en/products-gb/traction-motors/p074-in-hub-wheel-motor
Click to expand...
120kw per wheel - that'd definitely do it :)

Not an option on the Series though where the rigid axle is part of the suspension. Although you could create a great solution by bolting 1 on each diff I suppose. Does add to the unsprung weight as well which would affect ride quality.

I also wonder about how open to damage they would be in a conversion. If designed from new you could make sure they are tucked up inside the wheel as much as possible, but in a conversion I'm sure they would poke out alarmingly into 'whackable' territory.
 
I love the idea of converting an older vehicle to stand alone battery power, but is it practical, and it doesn't come cheap.
Went to an Eco Fair last weekend, here in Cairns, there were many exhibitions there for e-bikes, solar energy, etc, but what I found interesting was an electric powered 1953 Morry Minor that a guy converted some years back, he uses it every day as a commuter to his business, which is solar energy and ev conversions, he has had lots of use out of it and it just continues to serve him faithfully.
From what I could gather the new battery technology, (smaller, light weight, modular cells, efficient charging), is progressing rather well and I have hopes that I will live long enough to see much improved storage capacities of these batteries.
I was a bit taken aback at the $15,000 conversion cost for the Morry, but it was a prototype, and as the guy said so much of the equipment used is now being made cheaper and lighter, that being said I really see not much future for ev conversion of existing vehicles when you can buy new ones with perfectly integrated systems. All electric 4x4's will be hampered by lack of suitable rang:cool:e, and as it is hard to judge the terrain ahead on a 4x4 trail, power consumption rapidly rises with load, so an advertised range of 100 miles of running on the blacktop could turn into 25 miles, (or less), of driving a trail, and as has been pointed out, no charging stations are available in the bush, you cannot even walk out and bring a "Jerry can" full of electricity back to top up.
I love the idea of electric vehicles, absolutely, for those in the city, but as my son, who is an engineer/manager with a large electricity distribution organisation here says, if everybody gets an electric car, the supply grid and power stations will collapse with overload, so there is a bit of forethought and upgrading to be done before it all proceeds that way.
But I have a feeling that the last new vehicle I buy before shuffling off this mortal coil will be an all electric powered vehicle, oh, I'll still be keeping my '98 Disco tdi for those out of town excursions to the bush.
 
Gazbo said:
I love the idea of converting an older vehicle to stand alone battery power, but is it practical, and it doesn't come cheap.
Went to an Eco Fair last weekend, here in Cairns, there were many exhibitions there for e-bikes, solar energy, etc, but what I found interesting was an electric powered 1953 Morry Minor that a guy converted some years back, he uses it every day as a commuter to his business, which is solar energy and ev conversions, he has had lots of use out of it and it just continues to serve him faithfully.
From what I could gather the new battery technology, (smaller, light weight, modular cells, efficient charging), is progressing rather well and I have hopes that I will live long enough to see much improved storage capacities of these batteries.
I was a bit taken aback at the $15,000 conversion cost for the Morry, but it was a prototype, and as the guy said so much of the equipment used is now being made cheaper and lighter, that being said I really see not much future for ev conversion of existing vehicles when you can buy new ones with perfectly integrated systems. All electric 4x4's will be hampered by lack of suitable rang:cool:e, and as it is hard to judge the terrain ahead on a 4x4 trail, power consumption rapidly rises with load, so an advertised range of 100 miles of running on the blacktop could turn into 25 miles, (or less), of driving a trail, and as has been pointed out, no charging stations are available in the bush, you cannot even walk out and bring a "Jerry can" full of electricity back to top up.
I love the idea of electric vehicles, absolutely, for those in the city, but as my son, who is an engineer/manager with a large electricity distribution organisation here says, if everybody gets an electric car, the supply grid and power stations will collapse with overload, so there is a bit of forethought and upgrading to be done before it all proceeds that way.
But I have a feeling that the last new vehicle I buy before shuffling off this mortal coil will be an all electric powered vehicle, oh, I'll still be keeping my '98 Disco tdi for those out of town excursions to the bush.
Click to expand...
By the time the only journeys you take are from the retirement complex to the doctors - an electric vehicle's range is adequate :)

I agree with what you've said. Converting an ICE car to EV is only practical as a challenge and for (expensive) fun. If you want an electric car - it is probably not much more expensive to buy a new actual electric car which will be designed efficiently for electric.

In most countries as well, it is not an environmentally friendly solution. The actual production of EVs, basically the batteries and future disposing/recycling of them, is not kind to the environment and the fuel they use is similarly pumping huge quantities of muck into the atmosphere at the power generation plant. NZ is cool because almost all our electric is green having been produced by hydro or thermal - but one good shake down south and that's it, the lights, computers and EVs go out!
 
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