Comment on A 2014 Ford electric with dead batteries is only worth 500$, even if you spent 20/30k on it
squashkin@wolfballs.com 2 years agootherwise it won’t be street legal
velomobiles, some diy EVs, car kits, I think these things are legal. Also maybe we can change the law. but yeah there are legal limitations to work through.
I like the hybrid idea too or a gas car for long trips (or rent one) and EV for shorter.
iamtanmay@wolfballs.com 2 years ago
Saw it on Top Gear, when they built their own EV car from scratch. They said only existing chassis are highway legal. Not sure what the car kits are, but the rest are probably classified as something else, like e-bikes, carts or something. Highway legal chassis require a lot of paperwork, crash testing and so on.
I also saw this girl on youtube who made a EV Pickup out of her Tesla. It was months of work with a team of technicians... its really hard
Rather than making your own car, it would be more practical to put together a replacement battery pack yourself. You can see Linus Tech Tips video on making packs for cameras... the car packs use the same cells, just in much higher quantities.
I wouldn't do it myself, because its still a lot of work for just 1 replacement pack. I would buy a generic one and adapt it to my car.
squashkin@wolfballs.com 2 years ago
yeah I think you're right, the div EVs are conversion kits from gas cars
the gas car kits are just standalone for gas, sounds basically like IKEA but for cars (assembling the parts yourself), I'm sure they're already approved: https://hiconsumption.com/best-complete-kit-cars/
from what I read, the diy conversion didn't sound too hard, it's just expensive for a lot of batteries. And you want to pick cars that are lighter which may reduce options. But I may have overlooked the difficulty involved.
https://www.diyelectriccar.com/forums/
yeah I was thinking it's probably those 18650 cells, in teh OP story I was wondering if they would be able to use some other battery and just convert the power using some kind of electronic device (?) - sounds possible
iamtanmay@wolfballs.com 2 years ago
Its a 2014 Ford... I don't think they had the DRM shit built in at the time to keep owners from fiddling with the car.
It would be generic batteries with generic charging circuits.
The issue probably is most garages don't have electricians who would be able to set it up for them. Real shame, considering its MUCH easier to get into EV modding like you said than gas engines, due to their simplicity. Its basically a RC car
iamtanmay@wolfballs.com 2 years ago
Oh ! Very interesting. It would be great if there are ones that allow you to keep the gas engine, aka hybrid. EV motors are tiny compared to gas engines. All the weight is batteries.
I would love to buy a reliable older gas truck, add a electric drive for short grocery trips
EV Kits also sound like they would be compatible with generic battery packs