So I have a 1992 Toyota Corolla with an automatic transmission. I would like to turn it in to an electric car with the help of some friends. I’ve read a little about it but almost everything refers to cars with a manual transmission. What are some things I need to know? Is there a place that can walk me through things? Any and all information is greatly appreciated!
How Difficult Would It Be To Turn A ‘92 Toyota Corolla Automatic In To An Electric Conversion?
Posted by admin on September 22nd, 2009
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There are kits for converting cars in general. I googled ‘corolla electric conversion’ and got quite a few hits. You might also rummage through the EV album (listed below). There’s a search bar at the top which will cough up pages like:http://www.evalbum.com/type/TOYO
One very reputable kit dealer I’ve used is athttp://www.kta-ev.com/
Phone Wistar and tell him what you’re thinking.
Beware though that converting a car will tend to give you a range of around 40 miles (maybe that’s ok!?). Sharpen your math pencil…
A ‘normal’ car carries about 12 gallons of gas or 433 kWh (kilowatt-hours) of energy. $2000 of deep cycle lead acid batteries will load up the car but only give you less than 30 kWh of energy. The efficiency of a gas engine is only about 35%. The efficiency of an electric motor is 90% but _lead_acid_ batteries have their own efficiency problem called the Peukert Effiect. In my EV, it’s about 66%. The net efficiency of the EV will be about 60%. That means it’s like you only have 18 kWh of energy, compared to the 433 kWh x .35 = 151 kWh for the original car. 18kWh/151kWh x normalCarRangeOf350miles = 40 miles.
There are other types of batteries ‘out there’. Perhaps you can find some NiMH.
And the 1st guy was right: you can’t use the automatic.
The Brant book is great on theory, why’s and wherefore’s.
The M. Brown book is more nuts and bolts.
I’ve read that it takes a couple of long weekends to do the conversion. That seems optimistic to me; it takes me a couple weekends to clean the garage…
It would be cheaper and easier to buy a new electric powered car.
You will have to replace everything under the hood apart from the steering column. Not to mention finding a proper electric motor and battery and the safety issues inherent to installing this equipment.
It wont be easy at all to do this you will need great amounts of money and time and I also think you cant do it on Automatic. But if you are spending the time to get rid of a fuel engine to put in a electric one I think you might as well gwt a new gearbox there are plenty of those for a 92 corolla
Electric Car Conversion Kits
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wont be easy, but its possible