[ach1lles]

Hi! Great job with the Beat. A few questions:

Where are you getting the motor and the batteries from?
Are the batteries modular, can the packs be shaped to integrate/fit anywhere?
Are you coding the electronics yourselves? What about the info-screen tablet and its interface?

Thanks. This is truly inspirational.

[stuntfreak]

Originally Posted by dreamliner17

That’s some very impressive work by you and your team!
The overall job looks great and nicely done.

A few questions-
1. What’s the impact of the modification on the weight of the car now?
2. You mentioned you are continuing to use the existing gearbox setup (2 speed). Wasn’t it better to go with a single gear? Maybe you could achieve more weight reduction and free up space in the engine bay? Did you have to tweak the gear ratios? Since you’ve done this modification on a beat diesel, I’m assuming that the original gearbox provided much higher low end torque compared with the petrol beat (I happen to own a beat diesel myself)

The weight of my car has remained the same +- 5%. However if you want to convert to a long range vehicle or a higher performance vehicle generally 25-30% weight can can be expected. Also depends on which batteries are being used. NMC , LFP or any other.

Gear box:
1. Regarding a single speed transmission, one needs to understand that the selected motor needs to cater to the max load conditions and max torque requirements while also achieving the needed top speed.
Given that the motor availability is limited, instead of choosing for a higher torque and rpm motor, we decided to opt for a slightly smaller one which saved cost and battery size, weight and price as well. The motor used works on the car in a single gear - 2nd throughout absolutely fine unless you make 4 ppl sit in the car and go to a heavy incline. That’s when the first gear is absolutely necessary else the car would be stuck.

Unlike an OEM, conversions have their limitations. Also utilising the existing gearbox assures me reliability for the differential, drive shafts, oil seals, and a lot of things that otherwise would be difficult but not impossible to make

It’s more of a make and buy decision for this particular application. However in theory it makes more sense to optimise the entire system for a single speed transmission.

The gear ratios for the beat diesel are quite tall. And my motor does 8500 rpm. I can use the car in second gear from 0-100 kmph without an issue. If it were a petrol car I would have probably used 3rd gear. May be.

Check out our upcoming builds on the use of DCT, AT, CVT, Single speed on EV converts 😉 stay tuned.

Originally Posted by ach1lles

Hi! Great job with the Beat. A few questions:

Where are you getting the motor and the batteries from?
Are the batteries modular, can the packs be shaped to integrate/fit anywhere?
Are you coding the electronics yourselves? What about the info-screen tablet and its interface?

Thanks. This is truly inspirational.

Unfortunately the batteries all come from China. Even if you buy them for a local integrator or trader. There’s a lot Of choice in batteries. You can choose different chemistry ones and see which works best for your application. And more importantly which you are able to control and manage efficiently and safely.

The electronics and coding is done by my team yes. All in-house.

[stuntfreak]

Originally Posted by Shreyans_Jain

This is brilliant. It was only a matter of time that someone was able to do a properly good job of EV conversion. Hats off, my friend.

Please share the approximate cost of converting your Beat. What make of batteries are you using? How did you source them? Do you have regenerative braking? How does your car fare in flooded roads during rains?

The range you are claiming is almost 50% of what people are getting with Nexon EV. Considering your battery is also half the size, that is simply fantastic. In your opinion, is it feasible/practical to do a build with a 40kw battery for a 250km assured range?

What is the legality of this conversion? Have you endorsed it on your RC and insurance?

Regenerative braking for you.
😉

Enjoy. Cheers.

https://youtu.be/EfkcWLbwLSo

[Alterlife]

Soo cool! I'm a fan of everything except coming down to personal taste, those wheels .

Great pics, phenomenal job!

[r_nairtvm]

Originally Posted by stuntfreak

The motor was mounted using a custom made adapter plate and a coupling to the input shaft. The coupling was also custom made to adapt the two together. The spline data from the clutch was reverse engineered to make the internal splines for the coupling.

Fantastic !

The machining is almost top level and looks like a factory install. Keep it up and keep posting

Best Regards & Drive Safe

[Flying_machines]

This is amazing!! Hats off to you for pulling this. Please keep posting the project details of Maruti 800, I am sure to follow the post.

[avi_swift]

First let me congratulate you for an excellent as well as a very intriguing conversion. I just have a few noob questions .

From what I understood, you retained gearbox because of the low power of the motor. But, in doing this, is some efficiency being sacrificed (additional weight and moving parts)? To the best of my knowledge, EVs are very efficient because of their minuscule number of moving parts compared to an ICE car. Also, I believe only the Porsche Taycan is the only stock EV that comes with a two speed gearbox. You have mentioned that your future conversions include CVT, dual clutch gearboxes etc. But wouldn't it be simpler and more efficient if you had just gone for a higher powered motor?

You mentioned that you have done away with the 3rd, 4th and 5th gears. If you had kept the first(for fully loaded starts), and then used the fifth gear(removing 2nd, 3rd and 4th), would it have resulted in higher speed and more efficient cruising?

Your batteries are placed inside the car, under the seat and in place of the spare. Would it be a hazard in places like Delhi, where it's almost touching 45 degrees for several days now? Also, since the interiors is guaranteed to be several degrees hotter than the outside, will it make the batteries wear out sooner?

Eagerly waiting for your Maruti 800 conversion.

[stuntfreak]

Originally Posted by avi_swift

First let me congratulate you for an excellent as well as a very intriguing conversion. I just have a few noob questions .

From what I understood, you retained gearbox because of the low power of the motor. But, in doing this, is some efficiency being sacrificed (additional weight and moving parts)? To the best of my knowledge, EVs are very efficient because of their minuscule number of moving parts compared to an ICE car. Also, I believe only the Porsche Taycan is the only stock EV that comes with a two speed gearbox. You have mentioned that your future conversions include CVT, dual clutch gearboxes etc. But wouldn't it be simpler and more efficient if you had just gone for a higher powered motor?

You mentioned that you have done away with the 3rd, 4th and 5th gears. If you had kept the first(for fully loaded starts), and then used the fifth gear(removing 2nd, 3rd and 4th), would it have resulted in higher speed and more efficient cruising?

Your batteries are placed inside the car, under the seat and in place of the spare. Would it be a hazard in places like Delhi, where it's almost touching 45 degrees for several days now? Also, since the interiors is guaranteed to be several degrees hotter than the outside, will it make the batteries wear out sooner?

Eagerly waiting for your Maruti 800 conversion.

To begin with. Lovely questions. Let’s hope this thread keeps on getting nice interactive and knowledgeable so that many can learn, Including me. 😃

1. Motor used is slightly undersized - yes. That’s why I need first gear for extreme conditions - yes. Else I can do with 2nd throughout - yes. Causing additional losses - no not really.

So when EVs are compared to ICE the whole talks about less moving parts are on the engine side. All EVs, be it a Tesla , a Mahindra e-verito, a forklift or even a golf Kart, all have a reduction gearbox after the motor followed by a differential.

By single speed reduction they mean a fixed ratio. But everything inside remains the same as of my setup except I have one more gear pair which is freely rolling unless engaged. The additional loss of that is not considerable.

So efficiency wise the drop between using a single speed transmission vs what we are using is about 98% same.

2. Porsche has learnt now 😜

3. We have had multiple theory and practical trials and even road trials on higher gears. The truth of the matter is, higher gears can provide higher speed at reduced power / torque IF the motor can support it. In case of my beat, even 3rd gear ratio will not be supported by my motor. Let alone 4th and 5th. Not enough torque. Plus contrary to ICE, EV motors prefer being run at high revs. Say I’m at 80 kmph with my motor spinning at 7500 rpm in 2nd gear. And say I engage third, and then at the same speed 80kmph I am say at 6000 rpm,->
My system efficiency will be higher in second at 7500 rpm with lower load on motor and other electronics. So cruising is ideal at higher revs. To increase my speed I need to reprogram the controller to go to Say 9000 rpm and not shift to third gear and add load on the motor and power electronics. Hope this point is clear.

4. I’m not a battery expert, but I prefer LFP chemistry as it’s more reliable and can take the torture. We have 45 deg in Pune and it’s fine. And on the contrary, LFP cells run very efficient between 30-45 deg C. It’s the low temp conditions that damage them.

Very good questions. Thanks once again. Stay tuned and you’ll love the 800.

Cheers

[adityadeva]

[quote=stuntfreak;4810614]

Originally Posted by KMT

Registration formalities include TYPE certification from ARAI post then you need re passing and RC change from RTO. Currently only 2 - 3 companies provide insurance for EVs

Don't know whether I am jumping the gun, but if you go on a commercial basis, please evaluate the possibility of opening a desk to help the newly converts for these formalities (on a later stage of operation).

[stuntfreak]

[quote=adityadeva;4810865]

Originally Posted by stuntfreak

Don't know whether I am jumping the gun, but if you go on a commercial basis, please evaluate the possibility of opening a desk to help the newly converts for these formalities (on a later stage of operation).

Haha. Thanks for your input. Will think over your suggestion. Thanks buddy

[theautoman]

Very Impressive work Stuntfreak. this is turning out to be a very informative and entertaining thread.

Do you have any certification or License/ Recognition of any sort to be making such conversions if it is needed at the RTOs or for the Insurance Purposes.

and this build has Batteries under the rear seats and in the Boot/dickey of the car, and that will make the CG of the car more towards the rear axle than the front, have you notices any loss of traction in the front wheels going uphill? or does the weight of the Gearbox and the Motor makes for acceptable weight distribution?

[norhog]

Dear Stunt freak.
Amazing build and explaination.

I have some questions which I would be grateful if you replied.
In one of the videos you mentioned the motor matches the ratio of the output shaft and the shift will be smoothly made. So you have sensors that gives the data of speed and then the ECU controls the speed of motor during those few seconds of the gear lever being moved from 1st to 2nd. Very curious for this one a bit of detail on this.
Can you down shift, like from 2nd gear to 1st whilst on the move.?

Thank you in advance, great build and please keep up the good work. We desperately need a Elon Musk equivalent here.

[sreeharipv]

Originally Posted by stuntfreak

I’m not really focusing on fleets and stuff right now. I’m more of an R&D guy and love doing this for the fun of it. Anyways thanks for your inputs. Will think over it.

What I meant is as long as you are making videos, you are encouraging and educating others to do the same. An auto-rikshaw conversion will have more of an impact on everyone's life (better earnings for the driver and less noise and air pollution for everyone else) than a private car. Just friendly suggestion.

Originally Posted by stuntfreak

Hope you return back to your home land and do something for the country soon. Take care buddy. Good day.

Oh no.. I'm not stuck here because of corona or anything. I work here (in Oil and Gas ironically ). Can't do much of these things in a foreign country unless you have plans to settle there.

[rosaf]

WOWCouldnt help starting with an applause!

What you have achieved and with the plans you have , more than government initiatives and subsidies , you can make Electric Vehicles more accessible and economical than most OEMs could even think of.

Really appreciate you thanking God and your Father for having the setup for you as I too am thankful to both as my business too is a Legacy of my father and I am into automobile engineering.

Wont get into technical details as most have already asked all the right kind of questions, but here is a take away- how about converting a Tata Safari to fully electric? You can have mine . The best thing is "APAN PUNEKAR"! Would love to come and meet you soon. Till then looking forward to all the posts on this thread.

Cheers!

[SS80]

Sir, I am simply stunned at the EV Beat. Probably the first fully usable, reliable and daily drive EV conversion that I have seen.

Few points:
Brilliant job in retaining gearbox, this has saved weeks or months otherwise required to make parts that will hold drive shafts and other parts.

Is that tablet held firmly by something in the background? Does it have any remote features etc

For your next project, my suggestion would be to use a NANO instead of M800. Nano has more space, may be a little lighter too. Battery pack would easily fit in the front Stepney area and also the rear small boot.

I have an old activa and always wanted to switch to EV, as I mainly use it for short and frequent rides within city limits. What could be the cost for EV CONVERSION for the same?

Is there any readily available kit that you can suggest me? I am a metal fabricator by hobby and should be able to do this as a diy for an activa, with ample guidance from pro's like you.

Once again, overall a brilliant job, please have a custom made website soon, you will need it on the long run.

All the best.