Let's Talk About EV Conversion

I've been saying for the last 5 years that my next vehicle will be all-electric... but my Tacoma just won't quit running! Eventually the motor is going to explode and I'll have the choice to replace it with a used 3.4L or take this truck into the future with an electric motor.

I've been watching some stuff on YouTube about electric conversions and the more I watch the more fascinated I become by the concept. There are a lot of advantages of electric motors, and one of them is simplicity. You hook up the output shaft of the motor to the transmission and connect some batteries and you've got a working vehicle. Obviously there's a little more to it than that, but it sounds within the realm of possibility for a DIY'er.

Is there any interest on this forum for EV conversion? If there is, I bet we could collaboratively come up with some ideas on how you could do it.

For instance, leaving in the transmission and transfer case would allow you to keep 4WD and allow you to use reverse gear instead of running the motor backward. An electric motor would have enough torque to run the vehicle from a stop even in 5th gear, but keeping the transmission would give you more control over the revs for efficiency. I've seen people remove the clutch in some builds and shift using rev matching only, while other builds find a way to mount the flywheel to the electric motor and leave the clutch in.

Another way to do it would be to install the motor where the transmission is and connect it to the drive shaft. Run it backward for reverse. Much simpler setup, but you'd lose 4X4 unless you wanted to get creative...

Anyway, I'd love to have a discussion about an electric Tacoma build with some of you enthusiasts, if anyone else is interested. Detractors are also welcome! Anyone adding to the discussion to tell me why it won't work is being helpful too.

 

subbed to hear the debate(and possibly learn something)

 

I think it would be cool!

Love the idea of being self reliant with solar panels than to rely on gasoline.

In terms of overland exploring where you could camp out and recharge batteries for week at a time. Way less parts, repairs

Seems like no matter how tricked out your rig is you’re always going to depend on gasoline from a gas station. It’s a little ironic actually - how dependent we are on it in order to adventure. Not with electric tho

 

There was a fully electric Ford Ranger in the early 2000's so I'd start there.

 

I tried to wait for an EV truck or even a hybrid but last truck died at 17 years 300,000 miles so I bought a 2.7l instead. There used to be a shop in Sebastapol that did conversions and it seemed like an intriguing idea but as an afterthough instead of ground up purpose built not sure if the battery system would be safe enough shoe horned in place.

 

Just hook the motor up to the transfer case instead of the transmission. And you need a controller . I've read that it's best to get one off a factory EV . You can buy Tesla batterys.

Not sure if it would work but could also bring a generator to recharge the batterys.

 

You’d still need a transmission, even Teslas have one. Albeit, it’s only a one speed transmission.

 

Pretty sure that you don't.

I'll add to that. It depends on your application. But I have read of people who found it to be more reliable to not run a transmission. But I'm not a engineer so I'll digress to someone more knowledgeable.

 

Rivan Electric Truck

https://insideevs.com/news/346193/video-rivian-r1t-pickup-truck-beat-tesla/

 

I agree . Interesting subject and I would like to make an electric conversion one day, so I will keep following. I googled it once and someone in Finland I think, converted a Tacoma but no tech details were shared. The biggest challenge I see is what you mentioned:
"leaving in the transmission and transfer case would allow you to keep 4WD " I will not give up 5 speed manual and 4wd. There is plenty of room for batteries and battery trays...... I got a MIG welder........

 

I think doing the flywheel and clutch would be the coolest option. Maintain 4x4.

 

I like the idea of electric vehicles. I will be getting one as soon as the infrastructure allows my to travel across country with no worries about charging. A few people have converted older toyota pickups and use the for crawling which would be amazing with the control of power to the wheels.

 

I have zero desire to own an electric vehicle and do that. No interest in spending additional time waiting for a car to recharge.

 

This guy converted his 98 4runner as an Offroad toy

https://www.pirate4x4.com/forum/toy...4runner-off-road-rig-full-time-4wd.html?amp=1

 

I'm in! I am really getting annoyed with gas companies and the cost of refueling my Taco. As soon as people can figure out electric vehicles shouldn't be ugly or strictly an upper class luxury I will buy one. I just want a cheap normal looking electric vehicle, like a Camry but electric. I don't need all the luxuries a Tesla has.

(Sorry in advanced, but I'm just rambling and throwing out ideas)

As far as an electric Tacoma conversion, that would be interesting, especially if you can keep the utility of a truck with the efficiency of an EV. My only concern would be that a 4x4 Tacoma Xtracab weighs a ton on it's own, not counting adding batteries to it. I feel as if a 4wd rig where the engine was just replaced with an electric motor would have such a small range it wouldn't even be worth it. The electric motor would not only have to push the extra weight but it would need to spin more components. Obviously just replacing the engine with a motor makes the most sense (and is probably the easiest), but is it the best way? I feel like if you're going to do it, do it as best as you can.

Part of what makes a Tesla so efficient is the fixed final drive gear. This simplifies, and reduces, the amount of parts that need to be spun by the motor and thus increases efficiency:

Electric motors really don't need a transmission, especially torquey ones such as the ones used in a Tesla.

I have looked into electric conversions before and thought 2 of these mounted in a truck (one in the front and one in the back) would be awesome. Super efficient, more room underneath the truck for batteries, and TONS of power. You could keep 4wd and remove the engine, transmission, t-case, driveshaft, gas tank, and differentials. Removing those components could make up some of the weight that would be gained by the batteries and reduce the amount of mechanical parts.

Another idea I had was putting a motor on each differential. You could still remove the engine, transmission, t-case, driveshafts, and gas tank to reduce weight and make room for batteries. 2 motors would be lighter and you would still have a good amount of power.

In my opinion a benefit of an electric vehicle is the extreme simplicity. This means not needing to deal with fluids, clutches, gears, basically any mechanical part that could break. Just replacing the engine with an electric motor still means you have a clutch, transmission, t-case, driveshaft, and differentials that all need lubrication and regular maintenance.

Again, sorry for my brain dump, but a project like this gets me excited. I feel like the current trend in car manufactures are crossovers, SUV's, and luxury vehicles all built to be rented and disposed of after 3 years. Us truck people don't get much love in the mainstream, especially when it comes to new tech (I'm looking at you 3rd gen Tacoma).

 

If you look at the last page of the thread linked above the guy was working on driving the front and rear diffs with 2 separate motors mounted mid-chassis

 

I was just looking through that . That's pretty much what I was thinking when I said attach the motors straight to the diffs.

 

I've been tossing this idea around in my head so I'm really happy to see this thread. I think this is totally doable and gets easier all the time.

There are several options.

1) Replace the engine, get a bellhousing that adapts a big electric motor to your transmission. You can get by with a less torquey, higher revving motor this way. EV west seems to support this option the most.
2) Use a bigger motor, get rid of the transmission, use a divorced transfer case, retain 4wd.
3) Get rid of engine, transmission, transfer case and use 2 motors mounted back to back to maintain 4wd. You'll need smaller, but really torquey motors - the gear reduction of a transmission is not to be trifled with, but nor is the starting torque of an electric motor.

There's a bunch of differnet motors on the market. The Warp 9 ( https://www.go-ev.com/motors-warp.html#WarP_9 ) seems really interesting to me, but I haven't had time to dig into it. This will take some calculation to get something that really works well. The fun part is electric motors can put out rediculous power for short times, which would be super fun.


My plan would be #3, it offers the most opportunities for fun things like AWD/4x4 and being able to use 1 motor when you're just cruisnig, etc. I would probably set it up to use used Tesla battery packs becuause those are going to be easy to get (you can already get them on ebay).

I haven't looked into controllers yet because the controller is going to depend entirely on what motor you want to run, as well as getting all the accessories like power steering and air conditioning worked out, as well as adapting it all to your current dash.

Then there's the whole charging aspect... Not having access to the supercharger network of Tesla is going to be a major bummer.

I'd type more, but I have to run. Subscribed.

 

A t-case is just a 2-speed transmission with 2 output shafts.

 

That's totally what I had in mind. But you wrote it so much more elegantly. And had a pic