ev conversions

[yaris9876]

I am trying to get an idea of the differential set up on electric cars ,front wheel drive.
Most makers seem to have the large AC motor in the middle......how do you do the differential thing on those Evs? And I assume the steering pump has to be electric over hydraulic...can they use a regular steering box with those??

[eTiMaGo]

I'm so very very very tempted to do this, but finances won't allow for some time... You should look into EV West, they have a conversion kit for the MR2 which is also a transverse-mounted engine, there's an adapter plate to match the engine to the transmission. And there are tons of videos on Youtube about this kind of conversion.

Our cars already have electric steering so that's one less headache :)

[yarisbug]

I have two EVs and I can tell you that if you just want a cheap EV, find a good used Leaf. If you want a unique non-EV car converted it can get very expensive depending if you can do the work or not (there are kits).

[eTiMaGo]

I have two EVs and I can tell you that if you just want a cheap EV, find a good used Leaf. If you want a unique non-EV car converted it can get very expensive depending if you can do the work or not (there are kits).

very true in the West, but over here, Nissan and Hyundai only just recently started marketing their EVs (Leaf and Kona, respectively), and with no government incentives of any kind, they remain pretty expensive, though not prohibitively so (you could get a top-of-the-line Camry for the price of a Leaf, basically).