Friday, 20 March 2009

Worlds first, registered totally industrial EV conversion

I began this planing this project after visiting the AEVA field day in October 2007. After much planing and calculating in Excel, I started purchasing parts (the motor) in December 2007. 

It took a while to find a vehicle that would suit. I looked at Toyota Town Aces, Suzuki Carrys Toyota SBVs and finally settled on a Toyota Hilux extra cab ute in April 2008. My requirements were to carry 360kg of SLA batteries + inverter and have 4 seats (for kids) without significant chassis modification. 

It was cheap for the model, but reasonably tidy. Some rust that needed dealing to but OK. This model is popular with young guys and this one had been painted black and had dark tinting, so I had to de-bogan it as well. 

To get to the point, I finally got it registered on the 7th of March. 

I am very happy with its performance on road. Thanks to Tuarn (acmotor on the AEVA formus) for your inspiration in leading the way, despite me bing first to register.  

The tweaking and fiddling with settings took a while but got there in the end. It even has regeneration which is necessary in my hilly area. 

If there are any other registered industrial AC conversions around, do challenge my "subject" as I would be interested to know more about theirs, and concede to a lesser accolade of Australia or NSW.     
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3 comments:

  1. Anonymous21 March 2009 at 00:15

    Hi Mal,
    congrats again.
    Well, there has been a number of industrial component based conversions before, but to my knowledge all in one capacity or another funded by corporate or university money, so your claim as the first individually made & financed & registered conversion of this type seems a valid one.

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  2. Anonymous24 March 2009 at 05:03

    There are many conversions in Europe, Italy in particular where these cars have been in use in a number of places, especially sites protected by UNESCO where the question of pollution is very relevant in terms of damage it makes to cultural heritage. That's an old news I'm affraid. Our company has one of these cars (FIAT e-Scudo)since one year. And we helped our customers make many cars like that.
    BR
    George, www.lithiumbalance.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. Anonymous24 March 2009 at 16:51

    George, it is the detail that matters in Mal's claim.... Not just any EV conversion, an industrial, off the shelf motor and controller. AC components not purpose built or modified for EV.
    (Thus low cost and avaiable)
    BTW nice BMS at lithiumbalance.
    I am happy to scrutinise any claim.
    Please send info to info@aeva.asn.au
    Tuarn

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