Trabi/IFA Chat Forum
Electric Trabants: Introducing the 601e
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In reply to a post by hunterknox, post: 18993, member: 1155
I would love an electric Trabi to go alongside a proper one but I'm not sure there's a business in it - I suspect your customer base is people who want a Trabi and wouldn't mind modifying it rather than people who don't have a Trabi because of the engine. It's hard enough to get people to buy new electric cars, let alone ancient East German ones.
The other problem with electric cars in the UK is charging points. I don't know what proportion of people have a garage with mains supply but it must be low and the public charging network is a bit sporadic. I did look into getting an electric car recently but the only public charging points my town are at the town hall - OK if you're on the council but not ideal for your average schmo like myself.
All this said I wish you the best - if you can get your business sorted and I can find somewhere to keep spare cars you can add me to your list of potential customers
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The other problem with electric cars in the UK is charging points. I don't know what proportion of people have a garage with mains supply but it must be low and the public charging network is a bit sporadic. I did look into getting an electric car recently but the only public charging points my town are at the town hall - OK if you're on the council but not ideal for your average schmo like myself.
All this said I wish you the best - if you can get your business sorted and I can find somewhere to keep spare cars you can add me to your list of potential customers
.
Thanks for your support.
I have actually been in contact with a company conducting trials in the center of London who have retrofitted some production electric taxi's to charge through inductive loops set in to the tarmac of the Taxi ranks, they seem keen to look in to charging options with me on my project. I think public charging is getting better though I too share your concerns about the lack of serious investment from councils in to this technology.
I truly have no idea if people will like or loath these cars but its not putting me off building one to try it.
Thanks again
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In reply to a post by turbofiat124, post: 18995, member: 777
Not saying I'm totally against electric cars. Just saying for long range, they are not practical. OK if you are just puttering around town in one.
Guy at a car show was trying to convince me how efficient his Nissan Leaf was to a gasoline engine. I asked him, so if you figure up how many kilowatts it takes to recharge this car equal the same range as gasoline, then what would it cost? He said something like 40 cents per gallon. Impressive. But then I asked, how much would it cost to replace all of these batteries. He said something like 10 to 15 years. HMMM, I once had a car battery that lasted 12 years and a calculator battery last 20 years but I think those are extremely rare cases. Most car batteries last me 3 years. Also I think he paid $40,000 for his car.
Another thing I've noticed with my father's golf kart. When the batteries start getting low on power, they will go dead in a hurry.
My daughter has this battery powered car. She is only four and runs it until it just about won't go. Then she's "Daddy, my car is dead!" So I have to push it back to the house. Even though it has three LEDs that tell the state of the battery when the test button is pressed. Sometimes I wish I could just top it off with petrol and be done with it.
Then I try to convince her it takes about 10 hours for the battery to recharge. She thinks it takes 15 minutes. I think to myself, "Yeah it would be great to be able to recharge a battery in 15 minutes."
I try to make her park it on the porch to keep it out of the weather but it sits outside in the yard most of the time. I thought about securing a solar cell to the hood and connecting it the battery. That way the sun will keep the battery recharged. That means less pushing it up hills back to the porch!
If they can ever get it sorted out to where you can drive 400 miles on a charge and recharge the batteries in an hour, I might go for it but I think that's a long way from now.
Speaking of solar electricity. If a battery is connected to a solar cell and there is no light present, will the solar cell suck the power out of a battery?
My father got me this solar cell for keeping car batteries maintained for Christmas one year. I did not know what to do with it since most of my cars are kept in the garage. I thought I would be clever and mount it in the window of my yard barn and use it to maintain the batteries over the winter on my lawnmowers:
http://s222.photobucket.com/user/turbofiat/library/Yard barn?sort=2&page=1
Well for some odd reason, both batteries went flat one winter. Then the next winter. So I'm thinking, this device is not worth a crap.
But after I recharged the batteries, they have held a charge this season.
I've got two theories.
There is a device on the solar cell. I don't know if it's a voltage regulator or it has diodes in it to prevent current from flowing backwards. Maybe it's not doing it's job.
Maybe the wood is salt treated and the arsenic in the wood is conductive?
Guy at a car show was trying to convince me how efficient his Nissan Leaf was to a gasoline engine. I asked him, so if you figure up how many kilowatts it takes to recharge this car equal the same range as gasoline, then what would it cost? He said something like 40 cents per gallon. Impressive. But then I asked, how much would it cost to replace all of these batteries. He said something like 10 to 15 years. HMMM, I once had a car battery that lasted 12 years and a calculator battery last 20 years but I think those are extremely rare cases. Most car batteries last me 3 years. Also I think he paid $40,000 for his car.
Another thing I've noticed with my father's golf kart. When the batteries start getting low on power, they will go dead in a hurry.
My daughter has this battery powered car. She is only four and runs it until it just about won't go. Then she's "Daddy, my car is dead!" So I have to push it back to the house. Even though it has three LEDs that tell the state of the battery when the test button is pressed. Sometimes I wish I could just top it off with petrol and be done with it.
Then I try to convince her it takes about 10 hours for the battery to recharge. She thinks it takes 15 minutes. I think to myself, "Yeah it would be great to be able to recharge a battery in 15 minutes."
I try to make her park it on the porch to keep it out of the weather but it sits outside in the yard most of the time. I thought about securing a solar cell to the hood and connecting it the battery. That way the sun will keep the battery recharged. That means less pushing it up hills back to the porch!
If they can ever get it sorted out to where you can drive 400 miles on a charge and recharge the batteries in an hour, I might go for it but I think that's a long way from now.
Speaking of solar electricity. If a battery is connected to a solar cell and there is no light present, will the solar cell suck the power out of a battery?
My father got me this solar cell for keeping car batteries maintained for Christmas one year. I did not know what to do with it since most of my cars are kept in the garage. I thought I would be clever and mount it in the window of my yard barn and use it to maintain the batteries over the winter on my lawnmowers:
http://s222.photobucket.com/user/turbofiat/library/Yard barn?sort=2&page=1
Well for some odd reason, both batteries went flat one winter. Then the next winter. So I'm thinking, this device is not worth a crap.
But after I recharged the batteries, they have held a charge this season.
I've got two theories.
There is a device on the solar cell. I don't know if it's a voltage regulator or it has diodes in it to prevent current from flowing backwards. Maybe it's not doing it's job.
Maybe the wood is salt treated and the arsenic in the wood is conductive?
Wow there's a lot there.
So where do I start, certainly the range on an electric car is a worry, it's not like you can just pop in to a service station and top up with electrons. That having been said, the battery in your daughters car will almost certainly be a gel type lead acid battery and they have very limiting discharge and charge characteristics.
I am using LiFePo4 batteries, much more modern technology and these can actually accept around 80% of they're full capacity in around 1/2 hour on a fast charger in a service station.
In the UK, most of the main service stations now have this facility so with a little forward planning, you would be able to do a long journey in one.
RE the idea of solar, they dont discharge when there is no sun as they have diodes in the system to only alow electron flow in one direction. You fathers battery probably died due to the cold as this can seriously affect older batteries. Not sure about arsenic??????
Thanks
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In reply to a post by RogerDerSchrauber, post: 19053, member: 1507
It's been done. http://suchen.mobile.de/fahrzeuge/details.html?id=229618020&sortOption.sortBy=searchNetGrossPrice&damageUnrepaired=NO_DAMAGE_UNREPAIRED&scopeId=C&isSearchRequest=true&sortOption.sortOrder=DESCENDING&makeModelVariant1.makeId=24200&pageNumber=1
Is the caravan for hauling around all the necessary batteries for the outdated motor and controller?
This is nothing like my idea fortunately, they have simply fitted a giant motor to the input of the gearbox and presumably jammed it in top gear.
It makes for an inefficient conversion as its heavier, still has the drag of the gearbox and the noise of the drive assembly.
I would like to think I can do better than that.
Thanks for the feedback though.
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I don't have anything against electric vehicles. I may think different since Trabants are a rarity over here but I just think they should be preserved as best as possible. Yes I have mentioned putting a 60HP Yamaha snowmobile engine in mine, but that's only if I had to. They may not have the same status as other cars but I think they are special.
One thought has crossed my mind. Here in the US you can register some vehicles as low speed vehicles. A good example are "Kei cars" like this van below. I think they were built in China by some company and were marketed by Cushman. I believe they were some a Suzuki knockoff. In order to federalize them, they had to knock out the 4th gear so the vehicle wouldn't go more than 30 mph. I think their actual top speed is 45 mph. But I have some some electric Kei vans from China sold over here.
You can register golf carts as low speed vehicles as long as they have lights, seatbelts, horn mirrors, etc. and don't exceed 30 mph. You can also reprogram the computers on electric golf karts to go well over 50 mph! Although the range is reduced.
I thought it would be cool to make a Trabant replica and transplant it to a golf kart frame. Maybe lay plastic over the entire car and make a mold out of fiberglass. Just like a kit car.
Here is my inspiration:
[MEDIA=youtube]GaVjaNw7zYs[/MEDIA]
One thought has crossed my mind. Here in the US you can register some vehicles as low speed vehicles. A good example are "Kei cars" like this van below. I think they were built in China by some company and were marketed by Cushman. I believe they were some a Suzuki knockoff. In order to federalize them, they had to knock out the 4th gear so the vehicle wouldn't go more than 30 mph. I think their actual top speed is 45 mph. But I have some some electric Kei vans from China sold over here.
You can register golf carts as low speed vehicles as long as they have lights, seatbelts, horn mirrors, etc. and don't exceed 30 mph. You can also reprogram the computers on electric golf karts to go well over 50 mph! Although the range is reduced.
I thought it would be cool to make a Trabant replica and transplant it to a golf kart frame. Maybe lay plastic over the entire car and make a mold out of fiberglass. Just like a kit car.
Here is my inspiration:
[MEDIA=youtube]GaVjaNw7zYs[/MEDIA]
 Northern Ireland, Ireland
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