Leaf Powered Smart Roadster

[PoloLbricolo]

Hi,
After much anticipation and testing on the junk leaf, i finally started my convertion.

The car : Smart roadster cabrio
Leaf gen 2 motor and inverter with johannes Leaf Board
Batterie from Mitsubishi outlander PHEV
BMS from Tom91 (Simp BMS)
Chager i haven't diceded yet, but probably a TC 6.6 KW or 3.3KW depending on the finances.

This week-end was very productive, i took the leaf drivetrain apart and isolated the motor/inverter stack.
Removed the rear craddle from the smart and put the leaf motor/inverter inside.

The rear craddle from the smart is very very convinient, 4 bolts, 3 cooling tubes, a few wires (Main ECU connector, ABS sensors and main 12V from the batery) and the brake lines.

I haven't figured out how to pu images on the forum, so the pictures are here https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/ ... sp=sharing.

Paul

[Kevin Sharpe]

great project

[stelph82]

As an owner of a Raodster Brabus Coupe this is exactly what I would love to do to mine as well. Any more updates with the build?

[PoloLbricolo]

Yes,the car drove 300km with johannes Board, i'm in the process of switching to Damian VCU, it's proven to be challenging.

[purplespark]

Why the switch ?

[PoloLbricolo]

For the time being the VCU is a more reliable solution that can give me the 10k rpm that the motor can spin up to.
Johannes board is limited to 6K for the moment. in the roadster that equates to arround 90 kph wich is a lite lower than what i would like.

But i've had problems with the original nissan leaf inverter control board, ie it's dead because it was stored in very bad conditions and it had the connector removed the wrong way.
So anyway, the car is back on the road with johannes replacement board and waiting for software updates to improve the behaviour of the motor.
i had to take the car apart 3 times in 3 days, what a task

[stelph82]

Yes,the car drove 300km with johannes Board, i'm in the process of switching to Damian VCU, it's proven to be challenging.

Amazing, the leaf motor is an easy fit then? What range are you seeing and is the performance a good step up from the old motor?

[PoloLbricolo]

So, i've been far from the car for almost 8 weeks now, i got it to drive very nicely with johannes board ( new and improved sofware) got up to 120kph
the leaf motor is a perfect fit for the smart, the motor has about the same ground clearence as factory and on the top i have 10-15mm to spare.
The range should be arround 60-70km ( with 8kwh with 8/10 modules from the outlander pack) i'm limited by the weight of the whole car (870kg without driver and passenger.
The performance is super super nice, compared with the old 3 cylinder 700cc turbo charged. The torque response is insane, (0-100kph under 8 seconds) and it's tuned down to be about the same power as original ( to be road legal) so about 60 kw but with the torque of a big diesel car, it's super nice to drive.

[paaa]

I bought a smart roadster with a leaf motor installed , It was a rough install by previous owner but might give you an idea of size.If you want pics yet me know.

[PoloLbricolo]

Thanks for the offer, but as i wrote on previous posts the car is running, but i'm heading an other direction with my project.
My roadster will be tesla powered with lg chem batteries.