openinverter forum

Hello All,

I am in early stages of creating a conversion for a 2002 Suzuki XL7 SUV and I want to use leaf motors.

I have a 2011 Nissan leaf in working order except the replacement battery is now at 10/12 bars. My plan is to source at least one more gen 1 and set up the two motors one for fwd and one for rwd, combine the battery packs and put it all on a test bench jig mirroring the frame of the Suzuki.

I am also enamored with the idea of a quad motor setup for tank turns and related tomfoolery. Is there something that can control 2 and 4 motors to be flexible as to what I do. It always depends on how far the money stretches.

My weak sauce alternative is to make the Suzuki rwd only with the Gen 1 leaf and setup the original engine and fwd bits as a range extender. In that case I should have all I need.

Your ideas and wisdom are in need. What do you think?

Well, if you go electric AWD, you’ll need to figure out how to control both motors. Maybe one pedal signal split to two controllers? The alternative is one controller that is capable of controlling two motors. I’m not sure if anything supports that.

The rest of the low voltage, high voltage and signal circuits should be no more complex than a single motor setup.

If you go electric/ICE hybrid, you will end up with a much more complex machine. A lot of the value proposition of converting to EV is reducing complexity. You’ll need to retain the clutch, gearbox, fuel pipes, muffler etc. Fuel tanks take a lot of space, Petrol cars smell, oil leaks need tracking down. The thermal capacity of your cooling system needs to stay huge to deal with the combustion engine. In short, you will for ever after have the headaches associated with two separate cars, all in one car.

Then you’ll have the problem of controlling both ends. I guess you could only run one end at a time, but, even then, you’ll need to convert your petrol engine to drive by wire to use the same pedal. If you want to run both at a time you’ll need to figure out how to coordinate the power delivery from both ends.

The middle way of converting one end first, keeping the petrol motor, and then eventually chucking the petrol motor, seems attractive because you can convert incrementally, minimising time off the road. But then you’ll have the problem of how to size the battery. An electric/petrol hybrid can’t have too large a battery, because you’re just adding weight, not subtracting any. So realistically you’re limited to, say, 150kg of battery, which is only 15kwh or so. But if you go dual electric, you’ll want a really big battery. So, going incrementally will mean you’ll need to rework your battery solution midway, which will be quite a lot of rework.

The only reason I can think of for going electric/petrol is range and off grid capability. Like, I need to regularly travel multiple 400km stretches with no recharge points in between. Some people do need that, but I’m not sure you’re one of them.

FWIW I’m not trying to put down the electric/petrol idea. I am converting an off road campervan and, try as I might, it looks like I might end up with just that setup. But if I can figure out how to ditch the petrol motor and just carry a generator of some sort I’d go for that for sure.