Date:         Sat, 13 Oct 2001 18:19:37 -0700
Reply-To:     Tom Moritz <tmoritz@BMI.NET>
Sender:       Vanagon Mailing List <vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com>
From:         Tom Moritz <tmoritz@BMI.NET>
Subject:      HEV conversion
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"

I'm sure those of us who haven't converted our Vanagon's over to a Subaru
or other engine often wish we had a touch more power.  The other day I was
browsing through some literature about the Honda Insight, Honda's hybrid
electric vehicle.  The internal combustion engine alone makes the HP/weight
ratio of the Vanagon look good but throw in an in-line electric motor and
suddenly you have a car that doesn't get eaten alive trying to enter an LA
freeway.  The electric motor is used to provide extra torque when necessary
such as when accelerating or climbing hills.  When there is extra energy
available such as when slowing down the motor is used as a generator and
the spare electrons are stored in a battery bank.

Well, I began to think that the Vanagon might be a good platform for such a
conversion.  At first I wondered if it would be possible to move the engine
back and insert a pancake motor between the engine and transmission.  The
fact is this would require a custom designed motor and would be well beyond
my abilities and I almost gave up on the idea.

Then I thought, why does the motor have to be incorporated into the rear
drive train.  Could I replace my 2WD front suspension and steering
components with those from a Syncro sans axle shafts?  Then install a pair
of electric motors, one for each side, capable of directly driving a front
wheel.  Connect each motor to the corresponding wheel with a custome axle
shaft and CV joints.  Each motor would have a dedicated motor controller
but shared battery bank.  The motor controller would utilize inputs of
throttle position and brake line pressure to determine how much forward or
reverse torque to generate at the front wheels.  If the battery bank
started to run down a bit then it could be recharged as you drive down the
highway by stealing a little bit of torque from the front wheels.

Just an idea that I thought I would put out there.

Tom Moritz
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