I have decided to buy both DIY EV conversion guide documents (Les & Jane Oke’s and Gavin Shoebridge’s)

But the problem I am facing right now is how to send the money can I give the money (in local currency) to one of my relatives family whose brother is leaving in USA so that he will give you the money in US dollar? as soon as you recieve the money you gave me the password so that I can download it .
best regards,
fikre

I am a proud South African and very proud on the SA developed Joule electric car which is almost ready for production – if the makers can get the required funds. The car has been shown at both the Paris and Geneva motor shows and has been tested by CAR magazine in SA. It was designed by Keith Helvet, a South African who was chief designer at Jaguar and developed by a team consisting mostly of ex-military engineers.

I used to work as an automotive engineer at the Nissan factory in South Africa, and also had my own company manufacturing small agricultural vehicles for the African market.

While I currently work in the IT industry and am near retirement, I live about 40km of freeway distance from my office and believe it should be absolutely feasible to use an EV to travel to work and back – even if it does not have the latest technology. While am capable of designing and building a vehicle from the ground up, it will save time and money to convert a small car (or even a light sports car) to electric drive, while getting all the standard safety and convenience features ready to go.

What I would like to see is a Bill of Materials of what this should take, so I can do some cost calculations as it applies to South Africa. Do you know of anybody in South Africa who is part of the EV conversion community?

Thanks,
Chris

Nevermind the 10 or 15% extra gain over + above all that which you’d get with Regenerative-Braking and a fully functional Buck-Boost-Converter with ONE MILLION CHARGE/DISCHARGE LIFESPAN ‘mil-spec’ Maxwell Corporation Ultra-Capacitors.

Please tell me your thoughts on making a new ultra-efficient & very high MPG mileage vehicle ……. one with a constant-RPM engine-generator that’s sized for maybe 15 or 20% above your AVERAGE Baseline Power Need? You’ll of course make sure that any probable contributions from the switched-reluctance-regenerative-braking-EV-motor are accounted for when deciding just how small this Eco-Fuel or Fuel-Cell Generator could be.

If the torque is never routed through the tranny because the tranny is not there and is not required, then any old-technology efficiency losses do not exist. Again, Pulse-Width-Modulation electronic EV motor regulation is how this is done.

The car will ultimatley be a toy to build and play with so I am not too worried about distance but figure with the weight and size should be able to get to town and back (20km) without a problem and maybe pass a few crusties on mobility scooters.

I liked the idea of converting a short tray truck and fill it with batteries to add distance but then am not really into covering a lot of miles. Have yet to do power calcs and need to work this out but if someone has worked out how far 6 X second hand 80ah batteries will run 800kg (including batteries) thru a 33kw/72vt motor please let me know.

Really nice day down here in NZ

BJ