openinverter forum

New to the forum. Have done a couple of conversions but using mostly "stock" components or proven methods. What I am thinking of doing is trying to use a Prius inverter to control the front drive motor from a Tesla model 3. I have a Model 3 with a broken gear box and want to remove the motor and use it for another project. It appears it is a "slave" unit to the rear motor from my understanding and no one to my knowledge makes a controller for it in a stand alone application. These motors are pretty cheap and widely available so if a solution could be worked out I think it would be great for the conversion world. I have plenty of fabrication skills so building an adapter of some sort is not an issue just need to control the motor.

I have seen someone make one turn with a prius controller but that was all they did, make it turn, no load, no real rpm they were just testing to see if the motor was good.

Thanks!!!! I look forward to hearing what some of you have to say and learning more from this forum!!

Should be possible. Gen 2 and Gen 3 have been decently reverse-engineered.

https://openinverter.org/wiki/Toyota_Pr ... 2_Inverter

https://openinverter.org/wiki/Toyota_Prius_Gen3_Board

And there's tutorials for how to use OpenInverter to power any motor.

I'm planning to use the Prius inverter but would have reservations about getting more than 100kW out of it (dependant on battery voltage). I think the Tesla Model 3 front motor is rated for nearer 160kW and so it's unlikely that you would get the full potential out of it using the Prius inverter.

Does the Model 3 front motor still have the inverter built into it like the SDU and LDU do?

Pete9008 From what I understand the front motor is a "slave" motor to the rear. I assume it must still have some sort of inverter built into it as there is DC power running into it and the motor is AC but I think some of the "control" aspects in it are missing and provided by the rear motor.

Thanks for the info, I will keep researching to see what I can find. Prius inverter just seemed the least expensive and most available route to go. Maybe I can look into a Leaf inverter...

The Prius should be able to drive it, it just depends on what power levels you would like.

The Leaf inverter is worth a look, also arber333 has previously mentioned the Volt inverter as being a possibility, see viewtopic.php?p=47397#p47397

If there is DC running to it then it's very likely that it has a built in inverter and given time someone will reverse engineer it, depends what your timescales are...

Hm... joining the fray...
Can you tell what kind of rating does that motor have?

Chevy Volt inverter single side can give 115KW official power. I can attest Leaf motor can pull 140kW from it.
If you would parallel both inverter sides i am sure it would give more than 200kW.

You could even drive 2 motors if you excercised some restraint to power. I mean each igbt bridge can provide 600A which should be enough for start.

I think Leaf inverter has 800A igbt bridge though...