Australia's first electric MX5!

[Hoops]

Hi all,

Here's something a little different for you.. I've recently finished converting my old 1990 MX5 to electric drive, i.e powered by an electric motor and batteries - no more petrol engine! Here's some links to a summary of the specs, and also a photo journal of the conversion process for the more technically inclined:

http://www.zeva.com.au/registry.php?id=1

http://www.zeva.com.au/conversion_blog.php?vehicle=1



For interest, the electricity to recharge the batteries works out at about 1 cent per kilometre! (And yes, I recharge from Green Power so it all comes from renewable sources )

Open invite to anyone in Perth interested to come take it for a test drive too..[/img][/url]

[zombie]

Hi all,

Here's something a little different for you.. I've recently finished converting my old 1990 MX5 to electric drive, i.e powered by an electric motor and batteries - no more petrol engine!

Open invite to anyone in Perth interested to come take it for a test drive too..

Nice work! that is awesome.

I'd like to take you up on that invite

- Matt

[Okibi]

I was looking for more details on your car a few weeks back.

The MX-5 Club of W.A. is keen to have you along to an event to discuss your car and the conversion.

E-mail me Webmaster@MX5Club.com.au if you're keen.

- Dave.

[zz00me]

VERY COOL!

What does the car weigh now?

Have you had the car dyno tested?

How long does it take to charge the batteries?

What is the expected life of the batteries?

[Hoops]

VERY COOL!
What does the car weigh now?

About 1050kg; so a little heavier than stock. It's a pretty big battery pack.

Have you had the car dyno tested?

Not yet, it's only got a wimpy little motor controller in there at present so isn't very powerful, maybe a little short of a normal NA6. Not much point wasting my money on a dyno test! ;) I'll be upgrading it later this year to a much more powerful controller (a CafeElectric Z2K), so things will get much more interesting then.

I also plan to use it in the MC Sprint Series at AHG once it's got enough power to be competitive. Electric drives have some big advantages for track racing; the motor I've used (NetGain Warp 11) is capable of over 500Nm from 0rpm!

How long does it take to charge the batteries?

About 8 hours, due to the 2.5kW limit of single phase power (and the 20kWh battery pack). The batteries can theoretically be charged in under an hour.. if you have a three phase charger to do it!

What is the expected life of the batteries?

These latest lithium batteries (LiFePO4 chemistry) last around 2000-3000 cycles (depending on depth of discharge), so I should get about 300,000kms service life from the battery pack - probably longer than the rest of the car lasts!

[PUR157]

There are no words...

I bet the MX5 has never seen so much torque in its life...
You gotta do some crazy digital LCD readout of some sort for something this special...!

[Hoops]

I guess the inspiration came from:

- The documentary \"An Inconvenient Truth\"
- The documentary \"Who Killed The Electric Car\"
- The Tesla Roadster

i.e I truly believe that if the world doesn't kick it's petrol addiction soon, we'll be in for some serious trouble ahead. Since the automakers clearly don't want to sell us electric cars, I decided to build my own! And the Tesla Roadster was evidence that electric cars don't have to be slow and boring

[PUR157]

I see I see
I eventually had a closer look at your links...
(as you can see by my correcting my post)

If this isn't the way ahead... I can't think of what is!

[Steampunk]

Congratulations on a successful build Ian!
Are you planning on touring this internationally?
The hippies in California would go ape-poopie about this once it's fully sorted.

Well done.

Andrew

[Administrator]

Very nice car, I'll have a read too

[sliq]

hoops i've read about your vehicle somewhere before, can't quite remember..

congrats on the project, you deserve a pat on the back for taking a path no one has ventured ( in an mx5). and the best part about it is, you're an aussie

[MasterZ]

its very interesting to read, good job!
btw to you have any videos of it?

[Hoops]

1red5: The yankees are actually leading the world when it comes to backyard conversions of cars to electric! It is very much a movement coming from the people though, not the corporations. (There's already a few electric Miatas in the US, though mine is the first in the world to use lithium batteries and aim for high performance.)

I would like to tour it around Australia one day though.. once the performance is good enough to get the \"holy sh*t\" reaction from anyone in the passenger seat! (something like this little electric Datsun 1200, shown here racing against a big block V8: http://youtube.com/watch?v=zp_jwE0KdOk)

MasterZ: No videos of it yet, no.. maybe later. Definitely once it's out on the racetrack. FYI this guy in NSW has some good videos of converting his car to electric though: http://evcapri.com

[Steampunk]

I would like to tour it around Australia one day though.. once the performance is good enough to get the "holy sh*t" reaction from anyone in the passenger seat! (something like this little electric Datsun 1200, shown here racing against a big block V8: http://youtube.com/watch?v=zp_jwE0KdOk)

Well I've got ticket #00001 and am waiting patiently when you come our way

[Caffeine]

Awesome work!

I saw the first picture and thought 'noooo not lead acid' but I'm glad to see you have a proper battery pack in there