Range Rover Classic - Electric Vehicle Conversion

[schmittel]

Inefficiencies in drivetrain on the Range Rover, weight and aerodynamics. These are going to murder the driving range. I’d be surprised if you get more than 20 miles from a charge with that motor and pack.

I like those old Range Rovers myself (had a couple) but I don’t see the combo as a useful EV after the fact. There’s a pro-converted one on YouTube that’s a super machine altogether, but it’s a €30k motor, pack and controller setup. Without looking to just rain on your parade, you’ll get more out of that old girl by sorting a replacement diesel engine for her.

I have considered that the 60 mile range might be optimistic, and for sure if it is low as 20 then the vehicle becomes a lot less useful. If that turned out to be the case I'd have the option to upgrade the battery pack to 64kw - more money for sure, but that's a decision I could weigh up pros and cons of at the time.

[schmittel]

Nothing too interesting to report on this other than:

a) cousin has said he’ll help and we’ve agreed terms
b) got confirmation that the insurance is not going to be an insurmountable problem

Got a contact for an SQI who has signed off EV conversions in the past, so am planning to call him this week for an initial chat.

Still looking for auto electrician with EV/High Voltage experience.

[kadman]

I will try and make contact with the leccy guy for you tonight.

[kadman]

I just left a message on the site with his friend.

[schmittel]

Cheers kadman, much appreciated

[schmittel]

Have chatted with the SQI who was very helpful with some do's and don'ts, but as kadman expected the weight distribution of my initial plan is not going to pass muster.

SQI says I'll have to split the battery pack, and distribute it probably 50/50 between front and rear axles. Advice is to weigh the front and rear in advance and try to distribute the batteries to replicate the relative original weight distribution.

This is a bit of a pain as it requires creating and mounting two new battery boxes, which is straightforward enough, but it does add a fairly significant job of work on the wiring I suspect.

[Hairy-Joe]

Sure if it was easy everyone would do it...

Good luck with it.

[JayZeus]

It’s a really bad idea I think. The driving range will be essentially useless. I don’t see a single real world positive. Best of luck and all that, but time and money could surely find a better use.

[schmittel]

It’s a really bad idea I think. The driving range will be essentially useless. I don’t see a single real world positive. Best of luck and all that, but time and money could surely find a better use.

I get that it is not everyone's cup of tea. Each to their own.

This will be a third car in our household. It will not be relied on for anything. But I am hoping if it works out, it will become the most used car in our household. We live just under 5 miles from a town, and 90% of our car usage is four or five local trips each day. School runs, shops, that sort of day to day admin stuff. Anything over a 30 mile range on this car will ensure that it is used daily for the majority of these trips. And anything over 50 miles range and it will probably cover over 95% of our car usage. I am hoping this car will be the least essential but most useful vehicle in our particular household.

But that's not really why I am doing it. I have a developed a geeky interest in the technology behind it, and whilst I don't plan on wiring the thing up myself I do intend to learn as much as I can about the whole process along the way. And if all goes well I have two other classics I'd be tempted to convert tackling more of the work myself in the future. It's a hobby. And it interests me more than taking up golf.

Thirdly despite having a longstanding interest in old cars - I have four of them currently - this Range Rover has sat idle for about three years since the engine packed in, partly because I cannot seem to muster the same enthusiasm for a regular engine swap. I have considered various options but never really done anything about it. I suspect if I had not got into the EV idea it would sit idle for another few years. Now there is some momentum to get it back on the road.

And finally, there remains a chance that once the engine is out and ready to accept the EV motor, the project stalls because I still can't find an auto electrician or a suitable donor/motor/battery pack within budget, or an unexpected expense crops up either in the car or in life in general, or a myriad of other reasons that can kibosh something like this. If that happens, that's not the end of the world, I know that I will be forced to sort the engine issue anyway and not just leave it naked. Disappointing, but not a bad thing.

All of the above are real world positives for me.

[SmartinMartin]

Sure go for it, the world needs the experience of people willing to take a chance and have a shot. I for one will be glued to the progress.

[isha]

As to the purposefulness or purposelessness of any task I think Kurt Vonnegut has good answers. Not only did he say "“I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different", which is as good a philosophy as any, but he also responded in 2006 to a class of children some of whom, under the direction of their teacher Ms Lockwood, had written to him seeking inspiration.

I think art and engineering or tinkering around are very similar. They are both the manifestation of what did not exist before, the bringing into the physical world of various visions and ideas. Both are quite mathematical, in my experience. They both involve problem solving.
Anyway here's what Kurt said.
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20220822_203051.jpg (212.29 KiB) Viewed 16040 times

[Cyclepath]

Interesting approach here with the battery box in the front?!

https://www.electriccarcafe.com.au/besp ... ange-rover

[schmittel]

Interesting approach here with the battery box in the front?!

https://www.electriccarcafe.com.au/besp ... ange-rover

It's good to see those photos. I'm actually surprised the battery box isn't bigger given that they were aiming for a 150 - 200km range!

It looks like they used a motor called a Hyper9 which seems to quite a popular choice with Land Rover/Range Rover conversions, but I think likely to end up more expensive than the Leaf idea.

After talking to the SQI, we'll definitely have to have some of the batteries in the front.

Planning to get the engine out first and see what sort of space we have. At that stage it may be that will go with an earlier leaf motor, - one that is in a stack as in the picture posted above - and use the space the stack is taking up to mount battery boxes.

[schmittel]

So before I start pulling this apart I need to weigh it, ideally with corner scales showing front and rear distribution.

Car is not particularly mobile, so cannot just drop in somewhere. Anybody know somebody with scales in the North Wicklow area who does house calls?!

[schmittel]

Am resurrecting this thread as New Year's resolution is to get this done.

Since I last posted not much has happened because I lost the storage space the Range Rover was in and that's where I planned to do the work. Car was brought home and has been sitting in a lean to shed ever since. Not quite out of sight, out of mind but impetus lost nonetheless.

Have now decided I'm going to have to make do with the lean to shed as a workshop.

Since my original posts on the Nissan Leaf flirted with the idea of a Lexus GS450h gearbox which has an electric motor in it - these have been used in many conversions, a big advantage being in left a lot of space in the engine bay for batteries.

But to kick me in to action I have stopped dithering about which motor to use gone ahead and ordered a Nissan Leaf motor, inverter etc plus zombieverter controller - delivery should be within the next couple of weeks.

Now I've spent some money and will be tripping over the parts I am going to have to make a start!

[schmittel]

My plan is in the first instance to get the entire electric motor working on a bench test set up as it would be in car but powered by an alternative HV source - i.e not an EV battery pack.

This will help me learn and understand the A - Z of things, and when (if!), I've got that all working I'll install in the car without batteries.

After it is installed in the car, I will finalise position and distribution of the batteries. At that stage I'll have a better idea of space, weight distribution and budget available for the batteries.

In terms of kWh and range I will be constrained principally by budget. But as mentioned above I don't have huge range ambitions for this car, if it is intended to be solely a local runabout.

The good news is price of batteries seems to have come down a little bit since I first started thinking about this.

[schmittel]

So, some stuff arrived:

Nissan Leaf motor stack:

leaf-motor.jpg (104.34 KiB) Viewed 8263 times

All wrapped up in here is a 110kw motor, inverter, PDM with charge sockets/main HV cable, and low voltage wiring harness

The brainy bits:

controller.jpg (67.97 KiB) Viewed 8263 times

On left is throttle pedal, on right is the controller.

To all of the above I need to add a 12v power supply, an HV power supply, a few resistors and contactors and a bunch of wiring and in theory that's all I need to spin the motor.

A few resistors and contactors and a bunch of wiring should be arriving next week, so I'll get to test that theory soon enough!

[schmittel]

Red letter day in that I managed to spin the motor this morning!



So now that I understand how the whole thing works outside the car all I have to do next is get it working in the car!

[Fratello]

That's great. I watch progress with interest.

[kadman]

Will you also need to upgrade the brakes and suspension to deal with the increase in weight?

[schmittel]

Will you also need to upgrade the brakes and suspension to deal with the increase in weight?

Not planning on it. The thinking being brakes and suspension were designed to handle the original Rover V8 engine which was the guts of 180kg, + full fuel tank, exhaust, radiator and a host of other components and their fluids I'll be removing - probably at least 250kg coming out of the car.

Leaf stack is about 80kg, which gives about 170kg for batteries before I'm worried about increased weight. I'm more concerned about the difficulty in distributing the weight than any increase.