Today, Tom, Rich, Brian and I worked on battery boxes for Tom’s Dodge Neon EV conversion.
Tom had spent the week working on designing and building the battery boxes, complete with welding jigs. The boxes are hefty, galvanized sheet metal, bent into a U-shape, with dividers, and threaded rod welded on.
There are six boxes for the back of the car, each holding 3 to 5 batteries. We laid out the boxes and designed supports to hold the boxes and attach them to the frame of the car.
This was one of those things that really made it feel like there was big advancement on the car. I know the same feeling as when the gasoline engine came out of my Metro.
Tom already has the electric motor and transmission back in the car, so it’s really looking like an electric now. Once the batteries are in, it’s a simple matter of hooking up the AC motor controller, as it’s already pre-wired and bench-tested.
There’s still a matter of battery chargers, instrumentation, monitoring equipment and more, but somehow, I have a feeling that an un-official test drive can’t be too far away…
