Crazy idea: EV powered type 65 (tesla drive unit, Volt battery packs)

[joekitch]

something I've been wanting to do for a long time, but only now do i have enough liquid capital to even think about it:

The general concept is to use a tesla rear drive unit at its full voltage, so it'll be making something north of 450 horsepower in a rwd configuration.
chevy volt cells are plentyiful and a couple of them will give the needed voltage and "enough" range (like, 100 miles or so) while keeping that teeth shattering torque

but of course the most annoying part of a conversion is figuring out all the packaging. To that end...

are there any cad files for the type 65 coupe? both the bare frame and the body work. there's CAD files for tesla drive units and chevy volt batteries already
has anyone successfully done something like this before, and documented it?
would you personally consider something like this almost blasphemous? or are you morbidly curious how this could go

[Misterfubar]

I personally don't think(or care if others do) that it's blasphemous. It's got the potential to be an awesome project and I'd love to see someone build one. When my FF is finished it will probably be the last gas powered car I'll ever own, all my new cars will be electric.

[John Dol]

There have been electric Coupes before, so it’s not new. However none build with the Tesla drive train.
Maybe you can get CAD drawings from FFR but that’s probably proprietary.
Coupes are being built in all kinds of fashions so this will no doubt be a high end version. I like the idea a lot, although it will be weird to hear fffffffffff instead of WAAAAHAAAAAHAAAA. ;)

John

[UpNorth]

Hope you can do this.
Would be awesome to follow such a build.

[Alphamacaroon]

I spent many hours seriously looking into this myself and came to the conclusion that it is totally possible, but crazy expensive.

https://hsrmotors.com/products seemed like they had everything it would take. The only reason I decided against it was that by the time I priced it all out it seemed like it would be $30-40K extra for the drive unit and batteries. The drive unit seemed like a great deal when compared to an engine, but the batteries were the killer (if you wanted any serious range). You might be able to get them much cheaper from a salvage Tesla.

Even though the voltage might match up, I'd be concerned with Chevy Volt batteries because they probably aren't designed to handle the current draw from a Tesla drive unit at full power. The Tesla units are liquid cooled and probably have much larger gauge wire connections than the Volt batteries (admittedly just a guess). The battery modules are built to be as light as possible and I suspect that means they don't provide much in terms of over-protection above what the stock motor is rated for. But who knows, you might be able to build modules from scratch.

[q4stix]

I know from asking previously that Factory Five will not give out the CAD model even when offering to sign a non-disclosure agreement. Best bet is to get some rough dimensions and go from there. My build is requiring a ton of changes to pull off so I've been slowly figuring out measurements but only of individual sections and on paper and not in CAD.

[John Dol]

http://https://youtu.be/q7vTCK9ywBA

Here’s a company that converts muscle cars to electric cars. They could probably do what you want to do just not using the Tesla drive train.

HTH

John

[Big Blocker]

Here's one that showed up at last Saturdays Cars & Coffee meet in Vegas:

https://i.postimg.cc/R0QqQ2V2/IMG-0608.jpg (https://postimg.cc/jW2sRgfh)cute strong boy names (https://treetop100babynames.com/)

https://i.postimg.cc/T2S2mTJp/IMG-0598.jpg (https://postimg.cc/mhYGWfqs)

https://i.postimg.cc/0QjxM46Y/IMG-0603.jpg (https://postimg.cc/4KDjjBQy)chase chase bank near me (https://banks-nearme.com/chase-near-me)

From my understanding, it's LEAF batteries, not sure what motor is from. Gets about 100 miles on a charge.

Very, Very quiet . . .

Doc

[flynntuna]

EV West here in San Diego county has Tesla batteries for sale.

https://www.evwest.com/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=329&osCsid=esoiivgk3rm9ujst31vdur6934

[DetactGarageMech]

The pointed cylindrical item on the horizontal bracing - looks as if it aligns the hood to the body - what is the name for this item?
I haven't seen this before. Presuming there is a grommet (metal/rubber/plastic) on the hood for mating and alignment.

106308

[John Dol]

That's an after market piece. Factory Five gives you a domed nut for that purpose with a receiver plate on the hood.

HTH,

John

[Big Blocker]

DetactGarageMech,

Not sure where this builder got his but most motorcycle shops sell "decorative" spikes that other builders have used to create alignment posts. Look for studs or spikes, threaded.

HTH

Doc

[joekitch]

I spent many hours seriously looking into this myself and came to the conclusion that it is totally possible, but crazy expensive.

https://hsrmotors.com/products seemed like they had everything it would take. The only reason I decided against it was that by the time I priced it all out it seemed like it would be $30-40K extra for the drive unit and batteries. The drive unit seemed like a great deal when compared to an engine, but the batteries were the killer (if you wanted any serious range). You might be able to get them much cheaper from a salvage Tesla.

Even though the voltage might match up, I'd be concerned with Chevy Volt batteries because they probably aren't designed to handle the current draw from a Tesla drive unit at full power. The Tesla units are liquid cooled and probably have much larger gauge wire connections than the Volt batteries (admittedly just a guess). The battery modules are built to be as light as possible and I suspect that means they don't provide much in terms of over-protection above what the stock motor is rated for. But who knows, you might be able to build modules from scratch.

volt cells on p85 units are used pretty often on other builds actually, haven't heard of over-draw issues. Volt cells are famously underrated from the factory anyway on capacity, something like 30% of their charge bottom end is software locked out which ended up being totally unnecessary, and the cells suffer no meaningful degradation when that's dropped to 10%
two unlocked chevy volt packs (each pack containing two small and one large sub-cell) gets you something like 40kw capacity which is usually enough for AT LEAST a hundred miles of range even with a lead foot on a p85 drive unit. Although range is always super nebulous until you actually finish the thing.

one good example of this tesla drive unit + volt batteries architecture is this lotus evora that puts down something like 450 horses at the half shafts which is.....scary
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=If09etyztl8

[joekitch]

some examples of what that general drivetrain config can do:

a 9.5 second quarter mile factory five 818 with 125 miles of range

https://youtu.be/F6ITzRiAUTg?list=PLl0_UMyNNQrLEw9LWVo0lYjDF62f1O1A U

[joekitch]

....and a lotus evora with similar power and range

https://youtu.be/If09etyztl8?list=PLl0_UMyNNQrLEw9LWVo0lYjDF62f1O1A U&t=202

[Alphamacaroon]

That is insanely awesome.