favguy

Coming this Autumn to a project journal near you....

Probably the most outrageous Favorit conversion yet....

The Electric Favorit! Henceforce to be known as "Project Favelec"!

Some taster pictures below

favguy

Revised instrumentation, including main system current use, voltage & auxillery system voltage. Also note lack of petrol engined fuel and temperature guages



Master electrical system shut off in place of previous (useless & faulty) headlamp dip system.



Yes it's the FavElec!



Unleaded sir?



No thankyou, I prefer 230 volts !!!

Final specs @ 21/10/08:

Base Vehicle: 1995 Favorit GLXIe Flairline, 20,000 miles from new, restored to as new condition.

Electrical System:
128 Volt Direct Current system, power source 40 x 3.2V 160Ah Lithium Iron Phosphate (Lifepo4) prismatic cells in series pack configuration.

Voltage and current control via
Curtis controller 1231C-8601, supplying an FB1-4001A Advanced DC Series Wound Motor rated at 30HP (equates to a petrol engine of approx 90BHP)

Transmission will remain standard but become semi automatic, or "clutchless" in the new drive system

Approximate calculated performance specs:

0 to 60mph in 12 seconds
Top speed of 85+mph
Constant crusing speed capability of 70mph
Maximum range of 100 miles

Full recharge time from any 230v wall socket from full discharge, approx. 6 hours.

Running costs approx. equivalent to 150mpg on a petrol driven equivalent, (& no car tax!)

Local emmissions: ZERO!

Emmissions at power station source to provide charge current, approx 25% of equivalent petrol driven Co2 emmissions assuming most dirty production, ie. coal. Nuclear would be virtually ZERO!

Any questions, feel free to ask me

TeflonTom

cool!

favguy

Not a lot of people know this, but Skoda actually built and sold an electric Favorit, the Favorit Electra in the early nineties...

tdirob

I dare you to lick the batteries....

On a more serious note, how much is it going to cost, and where has the electric system come from??

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Golf GT TDI - Standard (at the minute)

favguy

Total estimated cost is £6,000, all the main kit is coming in from California Batteries are also from US, but can be sourced here from golf cart supply specialists.

You can lick the 144v supply if you'd like, would you also like a wet sponge on your head so you don't suffer too much? LOL

PS, and before anyone comments, as this much kit is going on a lovely Favvy with a market value of all of about £300, it will be insured with a specialist kit car insurer with an agreed value to cover the full build cost

tdirob

Chicken

Looks like it will be a good project though. Are you doing all the work yourself??

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Golf GT TDI - Standard (at the minute)

philje123

This is so cool... always thought about doing something like this to a car!!

Keep us updated please.... very interested to see how things comes along!

Phil

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96 Felicia Laurin & Klement 1.3 spi Hatchback called Nelly

favguy

Yes, I'm planning to do all the work myself, fortunately I studied Electrical Engineering so am ok with it all, although to be honest, it's not that difficult and there are loads of US forums to get up to speed on the topic

I'll do you all a full photo build log as I progress.

youngsyd

Cant wait to see it mate!

The bonnet ok?

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Blood runs through our veins, thats where all similarities end....

youngsyd

Have you worked out how much it would cost to charge up?

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Blood runs through our veins, thats where all similarities end....

favguy

Hi Steve,
Yes the bonnets the right colour, and I've polished it so both sides are shiny now! I've got to seam seal and paint the inside outer edges yet to match, and it won't get fitted until the engines taken out and the motor and all the electric kit has been installed in the engine compartment.

When it's finished I'll bring it to the local Skoda meet!

I can't tell you what charging cost will be yet, until I've checked what I'm paying per Kwh for my electricity or tried the charger on the battery pack (which I don't have yet!) but I expect it to cost around £2 per charge, which should give a range of between 60-80 miles depending on final weight, efficiency & driving style.

*UPDATE* 14/07/2008, It will only cost around 55p per charge when I get on the right nighttime tariff

Regards

Paul

devonutopia

cool project. but with some of my journies, unless it were capable of 400+ miles on one charge, or there were really really regular places you can charge up at on the way, it would not be feasible for me.

Have you worked out how long it will take to recoup the £6000? For me in my mental maths, I would imagine in fuel terms alone, it's 300 miles for £10 (say) compared to 300 miles costing £35 in unleaded. £25 per 300 miles recouped, £6k back in 72,000 miles. Then there's the £200 (is it usually?) road fund license per annum. What wear and tear like on electric motors? I imagine reliability is good over combustion engines in general?

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Jason - Only a Skoda.
Custom Fabia Bonnet Lifter Kits - £45! Click Me.
Cheesy bonnet lifter video to "raise me up" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMnGECEi5Oc

See the mongrel's 260bhp Dyno Video!

Robshaw

Smart A$$ .

I like the idea of this - to be honest I would have to see how reliable it was before doing all that to my car.

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devonutopia

I did do the 72,000 miles bit on a calculator though.

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Jason - Only a Skoda.
Custom Fabia Bonnet Lifter Kits - £45! Click Me.
Cheesy bonnet lifter video to "raise me up" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMnGECEi5Oc

See the mongrel's 260bhp Dyno Video!

mdk1

Will like to see this when its finished.
Good luck with the build.

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Mike.

Mine Skoda Roomster 3 TDI in matallic Anthracite Grey MK**LJK

Swmbo's Skoda Fabia 2.0I Elegance in Dark matallic Blue MK**LJK

favguy

Devonutopia,
Regarding the range, you are of course correct, if I need to do long journeys I'll use my other car (which is Petrol/LPG powered!) My normal daily car use almost never exceeds around 50 miles max so it'll be fine 90% of the time.

In any case, when the original Lead Acid battery pack dies after around 4 to 5 years of use, I intend to upgrade to Lithium Iron technology, this will give a range of around 150 miles due to much higher capacity and approx. 300kg weight saving!, these packs are prohibitively expensive now, but like any new tech. in 5 years should be affordable, they also have an expected life of 100,000 miles plus.

As to cost efficiency of the project, well in reality it's just not cost effective, especially compared to running on LPG as I do now, the break even point is probably a decade away, this will lessen when petrol gets to around £3 a litre in about 3 to 4 years, but it's still not going to save me money any time soon...

Motors last at least 1,000,000 miles (no kidding!) with brush changes every 80,000 or so, takes 15 minutes and costs a tenner or so! The costly bit is the battery pack. but remember, you never need to change oil, oil filter, air filter, plugs, leads, cam belt/chain, exhaust, clutch etc..

The reason for the project is just to do it, for the pleasure and the hell of it and to prove I can, I like engineering challenges and taking one thing and re-engineering it into something else, I suppose I'm just very eccentric, after all I think favorit's are great

Robshaw,
Reliability depends on how well engineered the conversion is, there is no universal kit for this kind of thing!, beyond choosing well matched and reliable drive system and safety components, which is quite easy due to the experience of 100's of americans who've been doing this for the last 20 years and online forums, it's all prototype work, really shouldn't be taken on by anyone who doesn't have the necessary experience in electrical and mechanical engineering along with good metalworking skills, (especially the electrical side, 144v high current DC can literally fry you (electric chairs use high current DC!) or shorting out the batteries can cause a big explosion!)

Most importantly, you need a huge amount of patience! Only time will tell if my effort is reliable...

For anyone who's interested, look up DIY Electric Car Forums - Electric Vehicle Build and Conversion Community

favguy

I was way out on the charge cost by the way, if I switch to an economy night time tariff, it's about 55p per charge

tdirob

how heavy are the batteries?

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Golf GT TDI - Standard (at the minute)

JohnD

Looks mighty interesting project.

I can testify to the power of traction battery packs when shorted (by accident) I completely fried the tendons in a finger over 40 years ago.

I assume this controller is a dc chopper type device driving the motor in a pulse width / speed manner. The ones i worked on used SCR's that occasionally 'fired through' with either hilarious results or more often disasterous collisions with buildings and people!

Good luck with it all

philje123

Is there any chance that you would be able to use one of those solar trickle chargers?

You could just leave it in the back window... that way when you're parked up it will be sticking a bit of charge back into the batteries.

Phil

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96 Felicia Laurin & Klement 1.3 spi Hatchback called Nelly

favguy

Hi all,

Yes the batteries are very heavy! Total battery weight will be between around 520 to 560Kg's dependant on the final choice Suspension springs will be updated to accomodate the extra weight. Although, I do lose around 200Kg's from the petrol component removal.


Yes, I think the controller works by chopping the voltage, switching on and off at very high frequency, if it fails, (which is unlikely with the chosen unit, very good reputation against failure) it does fail full on! hence two contactors are used to cut power by the ignition switch in the event of failure (for safety in the event of one arcing closed) a further manual release for the master breaker is installed (see picture above) and then an inertia switch to cut the power in the event of an impact!, so hopefully I've got safety covered.

Re the solar trickle charger, these are 12v and the best give out about 5 watts!, I might use one to top off the 12v auxillery system battery, but even for this it would have to be out in the light for days to have much of an effect.

Regards

Paul

youngsyd

Im very impressed with this paul, i really cant wait to see it!

Got an ETA for completion?

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Blood runs through our veins, thats where all similarities end....

favguy

Hi Steve,
I'd really like to have it done before the end of the year, depends on finding time and some money for it as I'm currently committing far too much of both to my business! This should ease by the end of August I hope when I can get stuck in properly

anewman

Can't wait to see some more progress on this project, looks great

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94 Favorit GLXIe Estate

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