My Insight Conversion
In September, 2002, I purchased a used Honda Insight expressly for the purpose of converting it to an electric vehicle. With a lot of help from many people, I began driving it in April, 2003. Of course, it is not yet "done", and probably won't be until the air conditioning works. For now, I'm using spare 9 year-old Hawker batteries from my truck, but I have LiIon batteries to replace them as soon as I feel confident that my (yet to be developed) battery management system will work safely and reliably. However, I do commute to work each day with it, so it is serving its purpose even with the short range of temporary batteries.
For now, I'll just put some pictures of the conversion here. Later, I plan to post the details of the conversion to assist others that may want to do a similar conversion.
First, we must remove the propulsion, fuel, and exhaust systems.
The insight motor controller and NIMH battery.
The insight gasoline engine and AC motor.
Front after removing engine and transmission.
Gas tank, fuel lines, and fuel pump.
After measuring the transmission shaft to centering pins distances, an adaptor plate and coupler are designed.
Motor, adapter plate, coupler.
Since the electric motor is a bit lower, the third motor mount needs to have a hanger to hold the other end of the motor. I made sure the shaft was level, and then built a hanger, but needed to adjust the bolt holes for the motor rotation.
Aligning plastic motor mount template.
Template marked for motor rotation per adaptor plate.
Adjusting motor hanger thickness!
Top view, left transmission motor mount.
Front view of motor controller.
Right side view of motor controller.
Now we have to connect the accelerator pedal cable to a variable resistor, or pot.
Pot housing with with cable connected.
View of cable connection to mounted pot box.
Battery box installation.
To be continued...
