Convert your Car into an Electric
Electric Cars
Electric cars are on the rise in popularity for a number of reasons. With solar panels becoming more popular we are starting to see people charging their converted cars with their own home setup, giving them 100% energy independence. If people stop waiting on big manufacturers to make electric vehicles for them and start converting their own cars into electric, we could make a huge difference. This hub is designed to give an overview of how the conversion works and what components are needed. The basic concept behind an electric conversion is to take out the gas powered engine and replace it with an electric motor. The benefits of doing this are nearly endless. The main reason why people want to convert their cars is to eliminate the need to buy gas. Just imagine if everyone had a solar powered home that charged their car.
The Main Components
144v Electric Motor
A 144 volt electric motor is the most commonly used motor size used in a standard sedan conversion. If you have a car that is about the size of a Honda Civic then this would be a good size motor for your conversion. The shaft of the electric motor is coupled to the transmission so that when the motor receives power it will turn the transmission, giving the car movement.
Controller
The controller is the device that regulates how much power is to come from the battery pack to the motor. The controller will come with a lever that allows you turn the resistance of the electricity up and down. When the resistance is trun all the way up the motor recieves no electricity. When the resistance is turned all the way down then the motor recieves full elctric current, meaning that the motor is at full potential. This lever is then connected to the throttle cable of the gas pedal and allows you to regulate the speed of the motor with your foot just like a gas powered car.
Batteries
In most home conversions the battery pack is usually made up of 12 12-volt car batteries in order to give you the desired 144 volts. The battery pack can be wired in either series or parallel. The positive and negative terminals from the battery pack are then connected to the positive and negative input of the controller so that it can regulate the amount of electricity flowing from the batteries to the motor. The more electricity that is allowed from the the batteries the faster the motor will spin.
Battery Charger
Finally we need a way to charge our battery pack and we do that with a pug-in battery charger. These usually take about 6 hours to charge a battery pack of this size, but depends on the type of charger you get. The charge should be installed next to the battery pack with the positive and negative terminals connected to the positive and negative terminals of the battery pack. After you do that all there is to do is plug in the battery charger and you are charging your electric car.