| Owner | Russ Sciville | ||||||||
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| Location | Leicester, England United Kingdom map | ||||||||
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| Vehicle | 1998 Lotus Elise S1 Probably the best and lightest sports car on the road. Only 118bhp from the ICE produces 0-60 in 5 seconds. | ||||||||
| Motor | Siemens Ford Ranger/Siemens 5133WS20 3-Phase AC For cost reasons I am using one of the Ebay sourced ex Ford Ranger motors which I have modified for non oil lubricated use. I need another so if anyone reading this knows of one, please get in touch. | ||||||||
| Drivetrain | Siemens 5133WS20 motor directly connected to the existing gearbox/differential fixed in third gear. | ||||||||
| Controller | Siemens Simovert 6SV I was lucky to purchase a used Simovert from the ever helpful Evisol who helped me greatly during this project. | ||||||||
| Batteries | 94 Hi-Power LiFePo4, 3.20 Volt, Lithium-Ion The cells are 50Ah in a rugged plastic shell. Unlike Thunder Sky cells, these do not require clamping together to stop them expanding, which helped when installing them. They only have 6mm threads in the contact studs which are rather puny. They came with a bag of aluminium screws which were ditched for stainless steel hex bolts for a better and tighter connection. The link bars appear to be very thin but carry the current (100A max.) without warming much. | ||||||||
| System Voltage | 320 Volts | ||||||||
| Charger | Brusa NLG513-Sx The Brusa is an excellent software configurable charger and very compact although very expensive. I have recently sourced a much cheaper charger from China which communicates with my BMS via CAN and will report on its progress. | ||||||||
| Heater | Ceramic electric element from a 1800 watt room heater I purchased from Ebay. This is only 100mm x 100mm x 15mm wide and has a 150mm computer type fan mated to it. It seems quite happy with the 300v pack supply and doesn't overheat. I am pleased I changed my original idea of using the coolant heat to pre-heat the heater air as it simplifies pipework in the rear of the car and tests have found that there is very little heat generated unless heavily thrashed. I used the original heater matrix as a radiator and sat it behind the RH side air vent. No fan is fitted yet as I cannot see a use for it. If you get stuck in traffic, an EV cooling system cools down, the opposite of an ICE car. | ||||||||
| DC/DC Converter | Siemens , part of the Simovert inverter 90A at 13.1v | ||||||||
| Instrumentation | Lotus at the moment. The inverter has a compatible tacho pulse output which works perfectly with the Lotus "Stack" instrumentation which is scaled up to 8,000 rpm. The speedo has a pickup on the rear wheel hub so that still works. | ||||||||
| Top Speed | 85 MPH (136 KPH) I am using third gear only which seems to be dead on. 1st gear has uncontrollable wheelspin. My top speed is only limited by the 100A limit I have given the inverter to keep the batteries to 2C for longevity. This limits the motor to 25Kw although it is capable of short term 67Kw with larger cells. 85 mph is at 6,000rpm so there is plenty left. | ||||||||
| Acceleration | I haven't timed it yet but when the battery current is limited to 100A (2C) and in third gear, I get about 10 - 12 seconds 0-60mph. Because the acceleration is so linear, the speed is deceptive and you pull away from most traffic after a couple of seconds. | ||||||||
| Range | 60 Miles (96 Kilometers) My furthest trip was a 55 mile run South of Stratford Upon Avon. The cell voltage was beginning to dip at the end, but I feel it had a fair bit left. | ||||||||
| Watt Hours/Mile | 200 Wh/Mile I haven't used the calculator yet but I use a second hand house electric meter from Ebay to note the power used to re- charge and I am amazed with the results. On a drive to work of 13 miles I need about 2 - 3 KWh (two - three units) to re-charge the batteries. Some of this is at silly speeds through the country. Why have we waited so long for electric cars? | ||||||||
| EV Miles |
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| Seating Capacity | Just two slim lithe people (surprisingly like myself!) | ||||||||
| Curb Weight | 1,800 Pounds (818 Kilograms) The Lotus is approx. 800Kg in standard form. I would expect it to be about 950Kg in EV form. The only changes I have made is to fit stronger springs at the rear to offset the battery weight. | ||||||||
| Tires | Original | ||||||||
| Conversion Time | Started in October 2007, it is now October 2009 and it is all finished and working with the addition of a BMS sourced from China. | ||||||||
| Conversion Cost | Lots but less than it could have been. £7000 for the 1998 Elise £700 for the motor (then $2 to the £1 !!!) £5,500 for the LiFePo4 Hi-Power batteries. £2000 for the used Simovert inverter £2000 for the Brusa charger. £1200 for the BMS system with colour touch screen Overall, not cheap but great fun. It was scary ripping out the engine and associated electronics, but surprising how it all unplugged and left the rest of the circuitry in place. | ||||||||
| Additional Features | I used the original gearbox for now but not the clutch as clutches are for ICE's. I am staggered how many people discuss using auto transmissions with electric motors on forums as they are so inefficient and simply not required. The Lotus for various reasons lends itself well to EV conversion. It is surprising how many areas there are for batteries, in the fuel tank low in the centre, in the front where the Pb battery and heater matrix was, and in the rear. Being able to use the original instrumentation gives it the professional touch. | ||||||||
| I now have the car fully legal with insurance, MOT test and it has been re-licensed as an EV. This gives me free road tax (£400 on my M3) and of course no servicing bills (my M3 is silly money!!!). I have now added some appropriate stickers to show other road users how last century they are. See this actual car when new on the front cover of the book "ELISE. REBIRTH OF THE TRUE LOTUS" by Alistair Clements. A brilliant book charting the development of the Elise from concept to reality. | |||||||||




