Custom Electric Vehicle laws?

[theprodigyp]

I was wondering what the regulations on custom cars would be, especially electric ones. I am looking to designing one during my college career for fun/projects. I am an art major and will be taking shop classes which include metal smithing and welding and such. As well as I have a friend whos dad owns a custom motor cycle shop so I would have access to a load of tools and machines. I live in Maryland, USA so I dont know what the regulations would be on the frame of a custom car design. Also side note I am interested in researching more before I make a step to this, so I am looking at the mechanics as well. Is there anywhere to buy an electric drive train (Which is best?) [Chain, gearbox?] or would I have to buy the motor and do the fabrications myself such as make the mount or gearbox?

 

[dnmun]

yes, it is essentially all created by hand work. the adapter plates to attach the motor to the transmission can be found for a number of combinations of motors and trannies. spend some time on evalbums looking at what people did and there is the diyelectriccarforum too.

 

[turbo1889]

Probably one of the easiest ways in terms of legal hurdles is to just take an existing automobile and replace the drive system with electric.

Guy I know did that with an old Nissan (I think it was a Nissan) little pickup truck and just took out the internal combustion engine and hooked up an 8-Kw motor under the hood to the existing manual clutch transmission and drive system and everything. Worked really well especially when downshifting to slow down when hauling a big load because that is how you re-gen braked with it and if you were good at downshift compression braking with an IC you just used the same technique except for it worked even better to slow down without having to use the regular brakes.

He didn't have to do a thing in my state up here of Montana as far as legal issues. Law up here requires no notification or paperwork or anything of any kind for replacement of a worn out motor on an existing vehicle and they don't care if you replace it with a different kind of motor. Quite possibly the same in your area (check) or if any paperwork or anything is required it is probably quite minimal compared to a whole new vehicle from scratch.

 

[theprodigyp]

yes, it is essentially all created by hand work. the adapter plates to attach the motor to the transmission can be found for a number of combinations of motors and trannies. spend some time on evalbums looking at what people did and there is the diyelectriccarforum too.

Ah thank you! I will check those out! I was thinking of designing something like they have in RC off road cars where its interdependent suspension on all wheels and I would design a little gear box type thing to control the back wheels. Except make it chain or belt driven inside. Gear driven seems like it would cause too many problems. I will definitely check those sites out though! thanks for the tips!

 

[theprodigyp]

Probably one of the easiest ways in terms of legal hurdles is to just take an existing automobile and replace the drive system with electric.

Guy I know did that with an old Nissan (I think it was a Nissan) little pickup truck and just took out the internal combustion engine and hooked up an 8-Kw motor under the hood to the existing manual clutch transmission and drive system and everything. Worked really well especially when downshifting to slow down when hauling a big load because that is how you re-gen braked with it and if you were good at downshift compression braking with an IC you just used the same technique except for it worked even better to slow down without having to use the regular brakes.

He didn't have to do a thing in my state up here of Montana as far as legal issues. Law up here requires no notification or paperwork or anything of any kind for replacement of a worn out motor on an existing vehicle and they don't care if you replace it with a different kind of motor. Quite possibly the same in your area (check) or if any paperwork or anything is required it is probably quite minimal compared to a whole new vehicle from scratch.

For sure! I actually was planning that with my current truck but then I thought well maybe I can just sell it and build my own. But Hopefully I could get by easy with putting an electric motor in it after I get the transmission replaced and make a new mount for the electric motor. Its funny you mention it working with a manual transmission because mine is a 5 speed manual trans and I didnt know if an electric motor would work. I thought of converting it to electric and mounting some solar panels on a bed cover to charge the batteries so it would be essentially on going for a long time. I could drive on a full charge and then while I am not driving the batteries could charge up some and keep me going.

 

[teklektik]

There are myriad details to be worked out when converting a car to an EV - never mind designing and building an entire (workable) vehicle from scratch.

There are any number of sites spinning conversion tales, but one that I enjoyed seeing unfold was the Kiwi EV conversion. This was done by a nice guy with few mechanical skills who sort of had a vision. The whole multi-episode endeavor is nicely chronicled on YouTube. There are many more technical and complex, but this one is a good watch even if it isn't what you have in mind - it will help to get the entire project in focus.