eV BugRod Build

[dmpitsch]

Hello, I am Dan from Prior Lake, Minnesota and am new to the forum. I am an an avid car enthusiast, and have have been interested in EV's for a long time, and my latest project is going to be Hot Rod, custom VW Beetle EV that I officially call the eV BugRod.

Here is a rendering of the original V8 BugRod that was the inspiration for this project:

The following images show the CAD designs of the Beetle body chopped and channeled over an aluminum chassis with front longitudinal power and rear wheel drive. I will use a 3 phase ACIM motor driven by a Huebner v.2.0 Inverter Kit, direct coupled to a PowerGlide transmission. The suspension and rear drivetrain will come from a mid-80's Corvette (all aluminum IFS/IRS). I have most of the major components like the Beetle bodies, Corvette front and rear ends, motor, inverter kit, tires and wheels. The wheelbase will be the same as the Corvette (96.25") to preserve the steering and suspension geometries:



There will be 24 S13P12 Li-ion battery packs of my own design packed into the floorboards and rear chassis. Each will be 48V and 31 AH, arranged in 6S for 288V, and 124 AH. The motor is a 30HP (@1750 RPM), 208V Baldor 3 phase ACIM that I got for cheap. I figure that if I can spin it up to 6000 RPM, that should conservatively yield approx 250 shaft horsepower. The direct coupled PowerGlide will be in 1st most of the time around town, and perhaps 2nd on the highway:



This last image shows just the body:



I want to preserve a "Hot Rod" feel for this build, and plan to take it to conventional Hot Rod shows. I think there are a lot of people with more traditional Hot Rod background that would love to go electric if they saw some examples that fit the front engine, rear drive, full chassis paradigm.

I originally posted this build on DIY Electric Vehicles 18 months ago, so some of you may have seen this. We have been finishing up our shop expansion, and the actual build is underway now. More to come.

[sfk]

That's very comprehensive CAD model. You've done custom builds before I assume.

[dmpitsch]

I have done three muscle car builds with significant power-train, chassis and body modifications. and have rebuilt two VW Beetles. But this will be my most ambitious build so far. The conventional car build stuff does not concern me, and even the EV technology doesn't worry me too much. But the shear volume of work is my biggest concern. A Beetle based project helps keep this manageable, it is a simple platform to work on that I am very familiar with. I have done a lot of research, and have been planning this build for a while. Its go time!

[johu]

Yes, beautiful project! Did you build some sort of welding machine to make the battery packs?

[dmpitsch]

The battery packs will use 3D printed cell holders on either side of the 18650 cells and acts as a separator between the cells and bus plates (think of the Tesla S100 batteries). Then fuse wires are "attached" between the cells and the plates, so there are no nickel strips. I have soldered the wires on the prototype packs, but am still working on how to "weld" them in the final packs. I plan to fully share the process I come up with when I have ironed out all the issues, but am still in process.

That said, I have been looking at the 6pence Resistance Spot Welder, the JP spot welder and the kWeld - DIY battery spot welder kit as possible components on a gantry CNC table. Some sort of automation is essential, there will be approx 15000 welds for this one project. I also want to build a power-wall, so that will be at least the same amount again.