Converted Mercedes SL Electric Car On eBay Is A Real Beauty

Doesn't seem like the most efficient set-up, but nonetheless, this is still an interesting idea. Says it took 600hrs to convert; I wonder how much that translates to.

My 78 300cd has a fair amount of blow-by at 280k mi, and I've been wondering what alternatives (to buying a new metic motor) there will be if/when this one loses the ghost.

Has anyone seen any other interesting electric conversions they care to share?

The Porsche 914 that some school teacher did years ago was interesting.

That's kinda neat. I'd like to do a bug/dune buggy/914 someday as that's a common enough swap to just buy the pieces parts and adapters and bolt it together.

I'm still trying to figure out how to convert a 48" Bobcat walk behind mower from 15 hp Kawasaki (threw connecting rod through the casing) to electric but haven't had much success. The electric car supply guys don't know anything about non-car applications and lawn mower applications seem to be uncommon (some older riding mower or standard 20-24" push mower conversions are floating around).

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1980 300TD-China Blue/Blue MBTex-2nd Owner, 107K (Alt Blau) OBK #15
'06 Chevy Tahoe Z71 (for the wife & 4 kids, current mule) '03 Honda Odyssey (son #1's ride, reluctantly) '99 GMC Suburban (255K+ miles, semi-retired mule) 21' SeaRay Seville (summer escape pod)

Pretty car, shame they hacked it to put an electric motor in it.

914 with a wankel is pretty hot, several of those were done back in the day....

I remember when folks used to say that about hot rods . . .

Ain't no shame . . .

Apparently, the original motor and trans is part of the sale and can be put back.

Another cool electric car:

World

I really would like to learn more about this. Does anybody have any idea whether the driveline remains in place (I'm guessing manual transmission)?

The SL looks like it still has its gearbox intact, but sadly there's no mention of the car's specs.

Typically, electric motor cars don't have transmissions, just forward and reverse gears.

I have the AC and DC controllers, motors and programming to pull this off. ( I am an electric/IC forklift shop manager).

An AC drive with regen decel would be the best method.


iPhone 4

Links to a good start in studying the EV world.

EV Information - DIY Electric Car Forums

Lithium batteries are the biggest change. The lifespan of a lithium battery might be 5000 cycles as opposed to 400 cycles for lead/acid. They weigh about a quarter of lead/acid also.

Batteries are a consumable. With the cost of batteries and charging it might be hard to beat a super efficient gasser. But gas is going up, just a question of when.

I would be very careful about buying a converted car. Was it engineered or built in the shed by trial and error?

Electric Cars: How They Work

This seems like a pretty informative forum for EVs. They imply the EVs would use a gearbox. Maybe this is a custom application? Anyway, I'll be really interested to see where this tech goes in the next decade. Hopefully the old 617 in the coupe should hold out that long as I've just done some major work to address some deferred maintenance on her.

My highschool math teacher converted his mid 90s Toyota celica to electric and he adapted the electric motor to the Celicas 5speed manual transmission. I believe the theory was that of a gas motor, he wouldn't have to apply as much power to the electric motor on the highway and get more life out of the battery. He dailyed it for 2 years, then I graduated. Not sure if it is still on the road.

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68 280SL - 70 280SL - 70 300SEL 3.5 - 72 350SL - 72 280SEL 4.5 - 72 220 - 72 220D - 73 450SL - 84 230GE - 87 200TD - 90 190E 2.0 - 03 G500

Nissan GTR - Nissan Skyline GTS25T - Toyota GTFour - Rover Mini - Toyota Land Cruiser HJ60 - Cadillac Eldorado - BMW E30 - BMW 135i

So on average, around how much do replacement batteries cost?

This seems like a good set-up. Although, I'm not sure how this would work - does the flywheel then attach to the motor, so the trans has a standard clutch set-up, or would the trans input shaft be somehow mated directly to the axle of the motor, without using a clutch, etc? Although, without a clutch how would one go through gear changes?

EV Photo Album: Our Electric Cars on the Web

I love this site, there you will find tons of cost estimations, range, battery setups and anything your inner EV lover could ever crave.

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[GONE] - 1995 Mercedes E300 Diesel - 130k miles - Smoke Silver (702) over Mushroom leather (265) - Bladder blasting, coast-to-coast work machine.

People spend thousands on batteries. I think $1.1/Ah is the current price to beat. $3500-$9000 are in price ranges I have seen discussed.

I want around 36 lithium batteries. These are like what I want:

EVTV Motor Verks Store: CALB CA100FI 100Ah LiFePo4 Cell, Battery Cells, ca100fi

Cool links Delibes & TwitchK!

Thanks for the input....so prices for batteries seems to be the biggest issue. Hopefully as the EV industry expands, the economies of scale in battery production will reduce the cost as tech improves.