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Cars swapping vroom for volts in London garage

8 Comments
By Sylvain PEUCHMAURD and William EDWARDS

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It depends on the type of conversion. If the whole driveline is to replaced by something similar to that of a Tesla then there is no transmission as such. However, many conversions just replace the petrol/diesel engine with an electric motor which then drives through the existing manual transmission and driveline often using only one or two of the ratios because of the wide torque band of the electric motor. An electric motor can be coupled directly to the torque converter of an automatic transmission. As I said, it all depends, lots of options are available depending on cost and level of complexity.

There are many things to consider such as maintaining originality in classic cars being converted, hydraulic power steering, vacuum servo assisted brakes, need for regenerative braking (or not), etc etc.

2 ( +3 / -1 )

samuraivunylToday  05:15 pm JST

Great reply harry. But why bother keeping an existing drivetrain though which is based on the ice when it isn't necessary with an electric motor?

Thank you. The mounting of the electric motor and its associated transmission and differential is designed in from the outset when developing an electric vehicle and as such is easy to achieve. an electric car's drivetrain is actually very simple but is bespoke, e.g. all the mountings on the body are designed around the electric transmission.

A car which previously may have had a solid axle and leaf springs like the Land Rover would require a huge amount of chassis work to accommodate an electric motor and its associated equipment. Not having to do this and only having to replace the actual engine with an electric motor and mate it to the existing transmission, driveshafts, differential etc. makes life simple. Not that it can't be done, it can be but sometimes cost and maintaining originality are a factor. This is why older vehicles with their relatively unsophisticated drivetrains make popular conversions.

There are of course many variations, front wheel drive, rear wheel drive, all wheel drive. The original older Mini with its engine and transmission being one integral unit is a difficult one. As I mentioned earlier, the original engine provided vacuum for the brakes, hydraulic power for the steering, hot water for heating, these items all need an electrically operated work around and the whole thing has to be road legal.

I'm sure you get the idea.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Walk or buy a bicycle.

Problem solved.

Now, stop the war in Ukraine.

Thanks

0 ( +1 / -1 )

Would love to see a detailed real world comparative breakdown of the resource/carbon footprint/pollution impact of conversion as against new build.

My gut reaction is favourable to this idea of conversion though the price is off putting but it still uses batteries that have a limited life high replacement cost and no environmentally safe disposal not to mention the massive destruction in extracting the materials and rare earths needed for their construction. Not to mention the child labour/neo-slavery issues associated with some sources of supply and we are tying our selves to a new set of dependency with some very unsavoury and untrustworthy countries.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

GBR48, yep, and it is still one of the most trustworthy, which says all that is needed about some of the rest.

By the way, that protecting oligarchs in the law courts is inter alia why it is trustworthy, it’s laws protect individual property rights (one of the very basic and necessary foundations for a free, liberal democratic society) and its courts are not susceptible to political manipulation.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

@englisc aspyrgend

What would you consider a trustworthy country? The UK? Which ignored the UN ruling on the Chagos Islands. Is spraying pesticides that kill bees, slaughtering its badger population as a sop to the farming lobby, protects Russian oligarchs with its lawyers in its courts, ships refugees off to Rwanda, flogs arms to anyone, and plans to unilaterally break its end of the Brexit treaty in NI. I could go on, or you could pick up a copy of 'Private Eye' for the rest of the corruption.

There are no trustworthy countries, if by that, you mean political regimes. There are trustworthy people in each and every country that you can do business with. Ordinary people, working hard to earn and living by trading with others.

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