E-Lorean Electric Conversion

[bitMuse]

Thanks for the update! What are you using for cells, and how many kWh are you targeting? The battery looks smaller than I expected, but mostly because my future plans (someday...) aim for 200-300 mile range, which suggests something into e 80-90 kWh range like a Mach-E or Model S. I expect to fill the entire engine compartment and then some, although I want to avoid putting anything in the trunk if possible.

Also, are you building a cooling/heating system for the batteries?

-- Joe

I'm using SPIM08HP cells. Their characteristics are 8AH 3.7v. String configuration of 4P96S. Nominal voltage of 355.2v. At 32A that's 11366.4Wh, or 11.3Kwh. Max discharge rate is 400A (60C) Tesla motors use (on average) around 234Wh per mile, so it's an estimate range of 48 miles. Peak voltage is 403.2V, 32A 12902.4Wh or 12.9Kwh for 55 miles of range (est).

In my first post I originally called out this is mostly a 'temporary' battery pack while I wait for better technology, and the delorean isn't my primary vehicle. That remains true. I'm not using any cooling besides forced air. If you want a lot of range, plan to drop about 30-40k on battery, charger, electronics, etc. Which is totally fine -- I just wanted to save money and I went with the literal cheapest $ to Kwh option that was out there as I had an intent to later return to this.

You will end up needing to cut up the trunk. There is no way around it for that much power.

[jangell]

Cool, thanks. I was looking into LFP cells, mostly for stability and long life at the expense of energy density. But they're relatively small; I'd need 220 of them in a 2p110s configuration for 352v nominal. My plan was to fill the engine compartment as well as the transmission and fuel tank area, and possibly the pontoons if needed, although this puts a lot of extra weight in the back, and various custom battery boxes for the odd shapes. I haven't done any CAD of the design yet, so I don't know how much I can squeeze in those spaces before resorting to the trunk. I can drop the pack by 50v if needed to save space. I plan on designing a cooling/heating system for the batteries too, but I'm in the very early stages of all this.

In 10 years solid state batteries should make all this easier (half the size for the same range), but I figure I should design for what exists now and upgrade later.

Thanks again!

-- Joe

[r00b]

The pontoon in the rear is mostly empty, have you considered filling the space with batteries?

[bitMuse]

The pontoon in the rear is mostly empty, have you considered filling the space with batteries?

I did not, no. but it wasn't a design concern for me, as my batteries fit neatly in the butt.

[bitMuse]

Still been super busy. The car was at DeLorean Northwest for a bit with the extremely knowledgeable and awesome Toby. There we sorted and organized a bunch of my inventory, managed to get some body pieces back on the car, added headlights, repaired and restored a bunch of rivnuts, added a stability bar to the front suspension, among many other tasks that all needed done.

From there, I set up a little workshop here in my new shop which is a bit tighter than the old one.

To avoid boring you guys, here's a short progress collage of me building the workshop.















From there I went on to assemble the battery pack. I moved all my stuff into the shop, got some mild steel made for what will become the 'test battery pack' in two modules, and started welding and assembling...



I don't have a lot to say about these. This is the front battery pack module. I guess I could say these don't weigh so much when they're pieces, but when you put it all together it's pretty heavy! Who knew???



This is the rear battery pack, which I'm slowly putting together on the crane now and welding up all the support brackets.



For reference, here's the CAD design:



Keep in mind this is just the test battery pack! Like I said in my first post, lithium ion prices would come down! And would you look at that???? CATL has dropped the price of lithium cells from 23k to 5k. I could already afford to put in an 80KWH pack, and in fact I have a design in CAD now to do that, but I'm going to stay on track and just get the car moving with what I have.

Mostly, aside from working on the traction pack. I am also working on the car's electronics, sound system, and interior so I can start getting things working like .. lights.. brakes.. power steering.. etc.




Here's the new deckboard designs I built up in my 3D scans. I'm using 5mm aluminum for the deckboards which I will bring up to half inch using dynamat on the exterior and carpet over. I eliminated both the storage area and the battery pocket to use as spaces for 8" subs. Which I'm sure I'm not the only person to come up with for that design. I've also added an access panel for the CANBUS main switch which distributes power and CANBUS signals throughout the car.

Rather than resin or body glue, these will be mounted using M6 aluminum rivnuts directly to the fiberglass clamshell.


To help improve the sound of the subs and give me more surface area to mount electronics, I added 3.2mm aluminum plates to seal off the top air gap for the previous storage areas. These mount to the front and back of the deckboards and fiberglass shell to improve structural rigidity and remove possible vibration.



Of course, now that I took up the normal 12V battery spot I had to relocate the battery, so I made this little battery tray to relocate it to the engine bay.

And that's all I have for updates for now! I'm currently working on the main electronics board for the CANBUS brains. More updates to come.