Price for converting my own smart car

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mas
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Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 11:35 am
Location: Herts U.K

Price for converting my own smart car

Postby mas » Mon Aug 04, 2008 6:37 pm

" The price with the listed large pack of top quality lithium ion batteries
would be £28,829.80. However, we now have a lower cost source of lithium ion
batteries (not yet listed on the web site) and could convert you Smart car
from around £17,500-00 to £20,000-00 depending on battery pack size,
performance and range. "

Do you think this is genuine or an April fool sent in advance :roll:

Oh well defo not be going down that route

MalcolmB
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Joined: Sat Jun 23, 2007 8:07 pm

Postby MalcolmB » Mon Aug 04, 2008 8:19 pm

Hi Mas

Does sound a bit steep, but you are buying a one-off machine and the higher price sounds as if it is for the LifeBatt packs, which are top of the range. Do you know which motor/controller and the size of battery pack these prices were quoted for?

mas
Posts: 26
Joined: Wed Jul 09, 2008 11:35 am
Location: Herts U.K

Postby mas » Tue Aug 05, 2008 5:57 pm

No m8ee sorry I just put that one down to experience :roll:

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dargles
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Location: Southampton

Postby dargles » Tue Aug 05, 2008 8:54 pm

Hi, Guys.
A cross-over from the other post today.
I've just visited Quiet Cars in Lymington. I still haven't managed to talk to Vaughn yet, but had an interesting chat to the lads there. The important bit here is that the Quiet Car 2 costs £13K. The lads reckoned that had they used Lead-Acid bats, they might have got the cost down to something like £8K. This was an informal conversation and not for quoting, but it gives an idea of the comparative cost of Lithium-Ion compared to good (bad?) old Lead-Acid.

However, if you can buy a brand new, 4 seater family car with Lithium-Ion batteries, in-wheel motors, regenerative braking, and clever electronics for £13K, I fail to see how this company you mention can manage to charge £17-20K for a conversion!

Regards, David

MalcolmB
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Postby MalcolmB » Tue Aug 05, 2008 10:46 pm

I totally agree that most people are going to baulk at the prices quoted. I wouldn't dream of paying that sort of price myself. But the reason I asked what specs your quotes are based on is that most newcomers expect more from electric vehicles than they can deliver at present.

They offer good performance, near silent operation, low running costs and low maintenance costs, but limited range, unless you have an exceptional budget. If you want to keep purchase costs within reason you have to make a compromise between range and performance and you have to realise that you're paying for most of your "fuel costs" up front.

Using currently available battery technology I reckon the maximum range that most people would be willing to pay for, with the right marketing/packaging, is around 50 miles, which fits most second car range requirements. Prices still need to fall some before more people start switching, but we're heading in the right direction. :)

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qdos
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Postby qdos » Tue Aug 05, 2008 11:19 pm

Electric vehicles certainly are not cheap at the moment and you most certainly do need to comprimise but too often folk seem to compare them with a vehicle which they want to use as a primary go everywhere in Europe car. The reality though is most journeys are relatively short and consequently range doesn't really need to be such a big issue.

Vaughn's car seemed to me to be the first reasonably priced decent machine I've looked at and the good thing with the Quiet Car Company is when you buy the car you get the batteries included in the price and they are not on lease to you which is a further additional cost to consider.

Out of Curiosity was the expensive Smart conversion quote from someone in Somerset? It sounds like it might have been

mas
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Location: Herts U.K

Postby mas » Wed Aug 06, 2008 9:19 am

Quick reply to gargles , indeed I am not an idiot who thinks you can get something for nothing and just as you have , I have wondered how a company could justify this

I even wondered if it was a 'go away you cant be a serious purchaser type quote ' , I hope not because indeed I am !

Im not out to slate anyone , far from it so I have avoided posting the company name and think thats fair do's.

I am definately looking at creating / adapting my own vehicle now but am worried re finding help with the engineering side for any adapting.

The quiet car company thing is a shame , Im disappointed that the car couldnt have been marketed with a top speed of say 55 or 60 so folk like me could commute in it. Have to say though the ' quiet car number 2 ' looks very good value indeed compared to ther nice offering , I wonder how they compare in the flesh.

I like the nice car co 2 seater and only need 2 seats but again 40 MPH ? not a lot of cop for a commute. I know they say its for a ' city car' but I like many folk commute in at 60 to 70 and just cant do 40 on a major A-road.

The hunt goes on but isnt that part of the fun :P

microman
Posts: 48
Joined: Sat May 24, 2008 7:58 pm
Location: Durham

Postby microman » Wed Aug 06, 2008 11:39 am

Yes the QC2 looks good, but 50mph (perhaps only 40-45mph up a gradient) isn't quite good enough for my extra-urban driving either. Paradoxically, because it looks like an ordinary car, other road users will expect it to behave as one. There would simply be too much hassle from the commuters who now use our C-class country roads as regular routes.

I can get away with low speeds around here on my ebike, but my son who used to ride a 50cc bike which struggled to maintain 30mph up the hills was often troubled by impatient drivers.

Also, so no hard information on battery life.

Realistically you cannot expect mass-production prices until mainstream car producers deliver vehicles - still a couple of years away.

Grumpy-b
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Postby Grumpy-b » Wed Aug 06, 2008 12:51 pm

If you do a bit of calculation 18.5kwh of stored power at 72 volts = a significant 256 AH of storage.
Thats a serious battery cell (s) .
Judging by various cell capacities I have seen commented upon, that equates to a serious number of cells in parallel to get that Amperage capacity.
Still you wouldnt notice the failure of an individual cell unless some warning was given. if each cell is 2v (not sure if they are) and 10aH thats over 900 cells. More if the capacity is less.
Reliability in such a dissipated system has to become an issue, especially at he bottom end of the market. Imaging trying to find that elusive duff cell.

The current draw from my 160+v berlingo at the sort of motor capacity
shown is large with less than half the voltage each motor is still going to be working hard to deliver the quoted performance.

Still at the price offered they look to be a good deal.

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dargles
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Location: Southampton

Postby dargles » Wed Aug 06, 2008 10:56 pm

microman wrote:...Paradoxically, because it looks like an ordinary car, other road users will expect it to behave as one.

Good point, I hadn't thought of that. In my area, that wouldn't be a problem for local trips; it's 30mph max in town and 50mph max in the forest (40mph in many places).

microman wrote:Also, so no hard information on battery life.

I gossiped about battery life to the QC guys and dropped the idea that the batteries might need replacing every 5 years. They didn't argue, but they reckoned that theirs should last 10 years.

Grumpy-b wrote:...if each cell is 2v (not sure if they are)...

Again, the QC guys were adamant that they hadn't gone down the 2V cell route. But I don't know what the power pack is actually like.

Regards, David


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