The electric conversion future

All things not relating to the other forums.
Post Reply
User avatar
VinceAtReal4x4s
Admin
United States of America
Posts: 2035
Joined: Mon Apr 12, 2004 10:36 pm
Location: Ca. or lost in South West USA
Contact:

The electric conversion future

Post by VinceAtReal4x4s »

I'd like nothing more than to stop giving a good percentage of my money every year to gas stations, although it's very hard for me to imagine off-roading without my diesel rattling on but, in the not too distant future, batteries are what we are looking at. For some people it's an environment thing but for all of us, it's surely a money thing, or will be sooner rather than later.

The new Tesla Model 3 gets 300+ miles on a charge and is likely faster than your other car is. The proposed and currently under construction SUV and pickup truck from Rivian claims 400 miles on a charge (that's serious!) and looks to be seriously capable machines, and are seriously fast! Volvo and VW are slowing down and will stop gas motor-only offerings soon. The rest will follow at some point. One new Hyundai car gets 59mpg and one goes 29 miles on battery before it's 50+mpg engine comes on. Will the eventual decline in fuel demand cause a price increase? What about gov. penalties on gas motors and/or fossil fuel at some point? The overall push to get rid of these engines has started strong in many places already.

Etc.

What Aston Martin is doing now is what we will need to copy in some way, at some point. Maybe EV West will chime back in one day on their Pinz conversion project.
https://www.engadget.com/2018/12/06/ast ... yptr=yahoo

For me, with almost $4/gal diesel, I'd convert now if I could. Charging a big battery will still cost something, but far less than the $75-85 I had to spend filling up my tank last time. I'm already canceling small trips in my Gwagen due to the costs, which will filter to all states at some point.

I hesitate but welcome it in the long run. I'd just need to get over the built-in connection I have to what it's suppose to sound and feel like, and adjust. We just need a battery powered jerrycan equivalent!
Some positives include:
No more tuning issues
No more trips to a shop for engine work you can't figure out on your own
Noise level drops to almost nothing for a Pinz and Volvo -big plus there!
And more acceleration than we ever dreamed of.

I hope we get better battery and motor options coming in this wave of electric car research. I think that 2018-19 marks the beginning of a major shift in auto technology and there's no reason for old cars to be left behind.

Some interesting specs of the Rivian R1T pickup. Hopefully true and if so, it beats out anything else in just about every way.
400-mile range, which is 40 miles more than my 21 gallon diesel tank gets me!
Curb weight, 5,886 pounds
750 horsepower
826 pound-feet of torque
0-60 in 3.2 seconds
Wading depth of 1 meter
Quad-motor AWD with independent motor controls
Double wishbone suspension in the front and a multi-link suspension in the rear
Dynamic roll control, adaptive dampers, and ride-height adjustable air-suspension
1,763-pound payload
11,000-pound tow capacity
Attachments
Amartin.jpg
Amartin.jpg (154.35 KiB) Viewed 4245 times
Rivian R1T.jpg
Rivian R1T.jpg (113.5 KiB) Viewed 4245 times
"For those who risk, life has a flavor the protected shall never enjoy"

Your donation makes this site possible!

Image
Derrickbwg
United States of America
Posts: 103
Joined: Sat Dec 16, 2017 8:09 pm
Location: TN

Re: The electric conversion future

Post by Derrickbwg »

Roughly 50% of fuel price is taxes. Do you believe the governments will give up that revenue stream? Environmentally I don't know, the emissions are there for gas, but batteries aren't made of butterflies and rainbows either.
I feel it will happen, and the cost to own and operate your vehicle will be the same or more eventually once they get to legislate it on a large scale. Probably a per mile tax that will even it all up.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

1975 710K
1974 710M
2018 G63
User avatar
VinceAtReal4x4s
Admin
United States of America
Posts: 2035
Joined: Mon Apr 12, 2004 10:36 pm
Location: Ca. or lost in South West USA
Contact:

Re: The electric conversion future

Post by VinceAtReal4x4s »

Of course they will tax registration more, add some other annoying technique to make money off drivers, etc.. It's already being talked about in Ca. since there are so many high mpg and electric cars there already. Regardless of how we feel about it, its' coming either way. Old cars with electric motors have a massive advantage in saving money vs buying $50+ of fuel every time you fill up and may very well be able to avoid some of the transition costs. Consider the generation gap now too. Kid drivers can't even change a tire anymore, much less work on a motor and they don't want to pay for gas at the prices that are coming. They are also being taught since age 1 how bad and evil anything old is, and how fragile the environment supposedly is. They will take those feelings to the dealerships, if they buy a car at all.

Batteries are made of toxic stuff, yeah, but they last a long time these days and outweigh any environmental arguments, especially as they get better and better because there is and will be massive demand. Look at what Musk built in Reno. The Chinese recently claimed to have made the first functional solid state battery which will really change things, if true. It will come at some point and fill-ups will take about as long as one does now. Look whats going on in France too. Diesel cars are already being outlawed in some Euro cities. It will get worse for dino fuels over time but much faster than ever before I think.

I'm personally most interested in no noise and going as fast as a car in my 40+yo 4x4... not to mention making my own fuel with a big solar array (someday). Talk about being free of auto related hassles!
"For those who risk, life has a flavor the protected shall never enjoy"

Your donation makes this site possible!

Image
Derrickbwg
United States of America
Posts: 103
Joined: Sat Dec 16, 2017 8:09 pm
Location: TN

Re: The electric conversion future

Post by Derrickbwg »

Will electric rates stay the same or go through the roof due to the extremely high demand? Will any vehicle savings be eaten up by higher costs for electric to your home and business? It will be interesting.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

1975 710K
1974 710M
2018 G63
User avatar
VinceAtReal4x4s
Admin
United States of America
Posts: 2035
Joined: Mon Apr 12, 2004 10:36 pm
Location: Ca. or lost in South West USA
Contact:

Re: The electric conversion future

Post by VinceAtReal4x4s »

Where I live, two homes within sight of me are using solar power all day long with no support from the power company at all. Soon it will be battery supported at night. They will no longer be connected! Who can charge them money then? You need lots of panels to make the energy needed to charge a car but it's being done now, to some degree, in the sunnier states. Hopefully that will trickle east someday as panels increase in efficiency.
"For those who risk, life has a flavor the protected shall never enjoy"

Your donation makes this site possible!

Image
Derrickbwg
United States of America
Posts: 103
Joined: Sat Dec 16, 2017 8:09 pm
Location: TN

Re: The electric conversion future

Post by Derrickbwg »

when any goverment....especially CA sees you have more cash in your pockets....they will find a way to get it....that I'm certain of. It's where it is going and I agree with you on that. I just don't believe at the end of the great electric revolution...that you will have one dime more in your pocket.

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk

1975 710K
1974 710M
2018 G63
Derrickbwg
United States of America
Posts: 103
Joined: Sat Dec 16, 2017 8:09 pm
Location: TN

Re: The electric conversion future

Post by Derrickbwg »

" Who can charge them money then?"

The same government that charged the entire population (a TAX) for NOT buying a certain product.....

Sent from my SM-G935V using Tapatalk
1975 710K
1974 710M
2018 G63
User avatar
TechMOGogy
Canada
Posts: 2831
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2012 11:39 am
Location: Ontario, Canada

Re: The electric conversion future

Post by TechMOGogy »

It’s coming but let’s not fool ourselves, electric cars are not “clean”
Never mind the batteries, just because you plug it in does not mean your getting magic fair dust power.
Coal baby and nuclear power! Once we get everyone needing even more power we’re going to have to go full nuke or start strip mining the rain forest to burn more coal.
Don’t get me wrong electric vehicles are great and coming (I have an 80hp electric motor in my Volvo that adds a nice kick of instant torque) but they are not clean.
I also remember 2 years ago HomeDepot had free electric vehicle charging but that’s all gone now :(
72 Pathfinder | 75 710M 2.7i | 96 350GDT Worker
User avatar
VinceAtReal4x4s
Admin
United States of America
Posts: 2035
Joined: Mon Apr 12, 2004 10:36 pm
Location: Ca. or lost in South West USA
Contact:

Re: The electric conversion future

Post by VinceAtReal4x4s »

We have a ton of charging stations popping up around here (including a hydrogen hook-up at one gas station for that new Honda I assume). From Tesla stations beside a Barnes and Nobles, to big malls to Home Depot as well, which are all up and running and some of which are still free for now.

Yeah not 100% clean in most places so far but if you have seen some of the new solar farms being built in Ca and Nevada, you can see what's coming. The ones you pass on the way to Vegas from SoCal are intense and even generates power at night via molten salt that is super heated during the day by reflectors. It has a conventional solar plant newly built beside it too, and more will follow. Hook up a 400 mile range car to that grid and you are clean all the way and not depending on Arab, or anyone's, oil.

My main interest for now comes from the reduction in noise, speed increase and the overall reduced costs, which may be much more significant for an old car that is sort of off the grid in many ways, as far as new laws, sate-wide regulation and the DMV go, plus no more smog tests for many states. There will likely be a long period of time where these new theoretical taxes/fees won't apply, esp. to an old converted car. Like right now- if I had a Pinz that could go 300+ miles on a charge today, I'd be looking at a far better and much cheaper situation than any current petroleum-based scenario, in just about every way. There's almost no on-going costs other than the increased electric bill. (and in my case it would be very low)

Last car show I was at, a guy showed up in his old VW bug which was just converted. He was all smiles and kept talking about how fast it is now (real fast) and how quiet it is. I think he said he was getting around 100 miles on a charge on that set-up. A Pinz would have the ability to hold a LOT of battery power.
"For those who risk, life has a flavor the protected shall never enjoy"

Your donation makes this site possible!

Image
User avatar
TechMOGogy
Canada
Posts: 2831
Joined: Wed Feb 01, 2012 11:39 am
Location: Ontario, Canada

Re: The electric conversion future

Post by TechMOGogy »

Wonder where EVWest is with their electric Pinz conversion?
Their old air cooled conversions while crazy expensive are also amazing as they can take an old, slow, smelly vehicle and make it a daily driver again!
I would love to see their electric AC solutions as they could be retrofitted into a gas Pinz
72 Pathfinder | 75 710M 2.7i | 96 350GDT Worker
tgreening
United States of America
Posts: 78
Joined: Sun Oct 14, 2018 9:02 pm
Location: Ohio

Re: The electric conversion future

Post by tgreening »

TechMOGogy wrote: Fri Dec 07, 2018 9:32 pm It’s coming but let’s not fool ourselves, electric cars are not “clean”
Never mind the batteries, just because you plug it in does not mean your getting magic fair dust power.
Coal baby and nuclear power! Once we get everyone needing even more power we’re going to have to go full nuke or start strip mining the rain forest to burn more coal.
Don’t get me wrong electric vehicles are great and coming (I have an 80hp electric motor in my Volvo that adds a nice kick of instant torque) but they are not clean.
I also remember 2 years ago HomeDepot had free electric vehicle charging but that’s all gone now :(


Unfortunately many people DO believe it’s all Fairy Dust and Unicorn Farts. They don’t stop to think and reverse engineer where all that power comes from, and what a lithium mine looks like vs your average oil well.
User avatar
VinceAtReal4x4s
Admin
United States of America
Posts: 2035
Joined: Mon Apr 12, 2004 10:36 pm
Location: Ca. or lost in South West USA
Contact:

Re: The electric conversion future

Post by VinceAtReal4x4s »

TechMOGogy wrote: Sat Dec 08, 2018 1:46 pm Wonder where EVWest is with their electric Pinz conversion?
Their old air cooled conversions while crazy expensive are also amazing as they can take an old, slow, smelly vehicle and make it a daily driver again!
I would love to see their electric AC solutions as they could be retrofitted into a gas Pinz
That's what Ive been wondering. How does the AC work on these cars and will the research benefit a retro kit later that I can put it in an old truck.
"For those who risk, life has a flavor the protected shall never enjoy"

Your donation makes this site possible!

Image
Post Reply